Page 74 of Reverie
“The feeling is mutual, mudak,” he hisses back.
“Stop! Both of you!” Amelia says, pulling at my arm, which wields the dagger.
Misha releases a deep growl when her strong jerk causes me to inadvertently slice at his cheek.
“All right, enough of this,” Luna says with a sigh. The sound of her racking the chamber causes me to pause long enough that Misha gets his arms unpinned and wraps them around my neck.
“Let me handle this, moya lyubov,” Misha rasps, but Luna presses the barrel of her gun to the back of my head.
Static edges into my field of vision as Misha squeezes harder. But even still, I’m not quite sure he’s trying to kill me.
“No! There’s no time for this shit. Get it together, both of y’all!” Luna yells, and Misha delivers a sucker punch to my left eye that causes my head to snap back and for me to fall off him.
Luna helps Misha stand, putting her tiny hand on his cheek beneath the cut. He squeezes her wrist affectionately.
“Yeah,” I say, my throat dry. I get up, cracking my jaw from side to side to assess the damage. “Fuckallof you.”
“Even me?” Max pipes up. I ignore him.
The muscle above my right cheek twitches, and I’m so, so close to vomiting up the Margherita pizza Leo and I consumed earlier this evening.
“Hunter,” Amelia grates out.
“You can go fuck yourself, Amelia. It’s not like you gave a fuck about me or Ella, so don’t pretend you do now,” I bellow.
“Hunter, I tried to get back to you. I tried.” Amelia’s voice is like a knife in my skull. The sound of it causes a searing sort of agony to spiral in my brain.
“But I was terrified of your father. I knew if I ever came back, he’d make sure you all?—”
“Terrified?Youwere terrified?” My voice is so low—so, so low—and I feel rather than see Leo move closer to me.
“Hunter, I know he terrorized you, but I was trying to keep you alive,” she adds, openly weeping.
“You don’t know fucking shit!” I stalk toward her, but she doesn’t cower. She faces my rage, willing to accept all my hatred.
I try to breathe, but it feels like I’m drowning.
“Why should I ever trust a liar?” I say, the words and my voice raw. “What kind of mother abandons her children? But it wasn’t everyone—it looks like you and Hroshko are okay, right?”
Misha clicks his tongue. “You’re one to talk, Brigham. Didn’t you leave your kid behind?”
The room tilts and Leo’s face comes into focus in front of me.
“H, let’s walk it off,” he says. When he puts his hand on my shoulder, I shrug it off.
“Fuck off, Leonardo.” I get in his face, our chests bumping against each other.
He inhales, visibly trying to calm himself. “I’m not your enemy, nor am I the one you’re mad at.” His face hardens, and I step away from him to stand by the window. A cardinal jumps from branch to branch in the pine tree.
“Hunter, I never wanted to hurt you. I just needed a plan—an army—to get you and Ella out. Everything was so unclear. I didn’t know what the right move was, so I wanted to be sure. There’s so much….”
Control. Control. Control, control, contr?—
“You think he merely terrorized me? Let me tell you what happened while you were gone, Mother.” I spit the title at her, turning to face the room again with the window to my back.
“Do you want to know all the depraved things he made me do? All the sick shit he allowed people to do to me?”
Amelia closes her eyes against my truths.