Ruthless 🗡️/ Fourth Wing

Chapter~27

The air in my room is thick with unease, the kind of heaviness that sinks into your chest and weighs down your thoughts. I'm pacing, and every step feels like it's dragging me deeper into something I can't escape. The fire coursing through my veins is sharp, hot, almost unbearable. It makes my skin itch, and I can feel the sweat trickling down my spine. But what really stops me from losing myself to the heat of it all is the knock on my door—the kind of knock that doesn't relent.

I don't even bother to respond, my hand already gripping the door handle. When I swing it open, the last person I want to see is standing right in front of me.

Xaden.

He doesn't ask for permission. Doesn't wait for an invitation. He steps past me, his presence filling the space like a storm cloud just before the lightning strikes. I watch as he moves to my bed and sits down without a word, holding the very letter I handed him hours ago. The same letter I had hoped would give me some time, some distance from all the chaos that's suddenly clawing at my insides.

"You're not going," he says, his voice steady, but there's an edge to it. Something underneath that makes my heart race with a mix of frustration and something else.

I don't stop pacing. I can't. Not now. "Yeah, you're right. I'm not going. We are going."

His eyes narrow, the heat between us intensifying with every word. "No way in hell, Nora? Are you crazy?" He's up now, moving towards me with that familiar confidence, his hands grabbing my shoulders and stopping me from pacing, pulling me into his orbit.

His touch burns.

It's not the heat of the fire inside me, but something else entirely. It's the way his hands make my blood sing, the way my skin prickles beneath his touch. Frustration, yes. But more than that.

I step closer, forcing the space between us even smaller. "What are you going to do to make me stay then, huh?" I look up at him, the defiance in my voice belying the storm inside me. "Don't you want to know what they want?"

For a moment, his grip tightens, and I can feel the tension in his jaw as he tries to keep his composure. But then his expression shifts, that protective anger flaring up. "I'll get the head of the Codex, the laws, the rules, and bind you here." He spits the words out like they're an ultimatum. "You are not going anywhere."

I laugh, the sound bitter and sharp. "Do you look at all those binding rules when you leave in the middle of the night with Garrick?" I smirk, but there's a sharpness to it. "Or is that different?"

He stares at me for a long beat, confusion flickering across his face. "What the hell are you talking about?"

I step even closer, closing the distance until we're toe-to-toe. "Xaden, our dragons are mates," I say quietly, the weight of the words making my stomach flip. "Don't you think I heard about it from Arrax?" The truth spills from me like it's something I've been holding onto for far too long. I watch the way his eyes widen, the shift in his expression as he processes it.

His mouth opens, but no words come out for a second. I can feel the tension coiling tighter, almost unbearable.

"Is this because I didn't tell you?" The words are like venom in my mind, rising up before I can stop them. "So now you're throwing me under the bus?" Arrax says

He doesn't flinch, doesn't back down. Instead, he takes a step closer, backing me into the wall behind me until my body collides with the cold stone. My breath catches in my throat, but I don't look away from him. "And with that information," he growls, his voice low and dangerous, "what are you going to do about that, Nora?"

I don't know how I'm supposed to respond to that. His body is inches from mine, his breath warm on my skin. The heat between us is suffocating, my heart pounding, the fire inside me threatening to erupt.