Gilded Lies by Lin Lustig

Author:Lin Lustig
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBT Science Fiction & Fantasy, Romantic urban science fiction, Fantasy romance superhero, Bisexual fantasy sci-fi, Metaphysical paranormal romance
Publisher: Lin Lustig
Published: 2020-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 31

Emerson

Emerson's thoughts kept hitting the same notes over and over like a song on repeat. John should have told him. Licia knew everything, or close enough to it. Who even was he?

He'd shared everything with John. Told him about his family, about his brothers. How he’d taken so much from them it could have killed them. The time he’d sucked a frat party dry and three students had ended up with alcohol poisoning. The day his caravan had wrecked on the highway and in his panic, he’d leeched enough vital energy away from the injured to kill three of his squadron. John knew Emerson's darkest self, but he had bought into John's show. How much of their relationship had been based on a performance? John playing the loving activist actor. What a joke. Fuck, Emerson felt like a complete idiot. Cold that had nothing to do with the weather seeped into his belly.

But now he knew. It didn't matter if John was hiding other secrets, because Emerson knew he was an outsider to him. Emerson was just a co-worker, a sex stress ball, but not a true intimate partner. His breath hitched and he swallowed hard, pushing down the pain until a dull, simmering, self-directed anger covered the hurt. He'd been fooling himself all this time. John wasn't truly in love with him.

He kept marching onward, no direction, no destination. Just away.

He'd been wrong. John was who he was, and Emerson had built him up as his perfect man. It was his fault for not opening his eyes sooner. Now he needed to help clean up John's mess before it hurt anyone else. They still needed to work together, and that idea was like acid on his tongue. That murderous empath was a threat to them all, and no one else could see it. He could practically smell the bloodthirst on her, the itch to take deadly action against the woman that John had married—he stopped suddenly and felt the weight of that crash through him. John had been married. Fuck, he was still married. How many lies had Emerson believed?

The cold pinched at his exposed skin. He regretted the lack of layers but gave into the hollow and drank deep from anyone around him. Whomever was within his radius would be exhausted tonight, but he could be out all night and not die of hypothermia—because he couldn't die now. Not until he'd protected the world from John, his wife, and the woman he loved. Emerson spat and held back the urge to yell at the sky. It was all up to him. The other Abnormals needed him to keep them from his ex's blind stupidity. Emerson was the only one left with any sense.

Two breaths. Three. The plume of his warm exhales surrounded him like a cloud. No wonder John had always been so quick to cut him free. Emerson knew he was terrible at communicating his wants, but John was just bad at communicating period. John had said he didn't control Emerson and wanted him to make his own choices, but what bullshit.

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