it echoes through

three; two out of three

You took in a deep breath. Sam laughed and rolled his eyes, wanting to say something, anything, to the contrary. But realisation mixed on your face with shock–and he knew it was true.

"That's ridiculous, Ris, you can't just stop feeling your soulmate," Sam explained, settling his bouncy knee by crossing his legs together.

You opened your mouth to speak, to get any sliver of information out of the ginger in front of you, but then the door burst open and the two fighters in the room stood up in a rush.

"It's okay," Tom said as he entered the room, spitting blood. "We got our message across."

Clarissa let out a breath of relief, walking over to Harrison and planting a small kiss on his cheek. She checked if he was okay, receiving a nod and an unspoken conversation through eyes alone, before settling back on the bed and you almost wanted to do the same for Tom–but now it was different. Now, you weren't quite sure how to act.

"What was the message?" You dared. Tom scanned the room, as if to spot intruders or perhaps to decide if it was worth sharing, and then he sat on the bed, shoulders touching Ris'. There it was again, an unjustified sense of jealousy tapping against your ribs.

"The plan was to wait until Skyla sent her men to find us, then we kick their asses and they tell her we're a viable threat," as he spoke he cleaned the blood from his face.

"That's an awful plan," you dictated. "Why did you send Sam and I upstairs?"

"Someone had to take Clarissa up here, the last thing we need is for The Burns' to take her where she can't defend herself," Harrison said, eagerly. You noticed how on edge he seemed, having the love of his life in the middle of all of this. You knew, you just knew, that it killed Harrison to have her here. All he wanted was for her to stay safely in the mansion, but for reasons no one cared to share with you–Tom didn't allow for that.

"And they know Sam, we didn't want to ruin his connection to Skyla," Tom added.

"So once again I'm here for the muscle," you inferred.

"You do know how to fight," Sam sent a wink your way, and you almost cursed yourself for smiling at him. You were glad he was here, you were glad to have your best friend next to you in what felt like a completely strange land–but it should've been Tom making you smile. It should've been your soulmate–feeling your insecurity–and calming you down.

The smile on your face, prompted by his brother, caused something to move in Tom, and now for once aware of his secrets, you could see them on him. You could tell he was hiding it this whole time–not that you fully understood how anything Clarissa said made sense–but you saw it in the way he moved. He coughed slightly, ran a finger over his messy brow before he said, "I'm sorry it came out that way, but we're one man down and it's throwing us off."

You tried nodding at him, but you could tell it came out half-hearted. If your connection was still there, Tom could tell you didn't mean any malice in it–it was just your insecurity talking–but according to the most trust-worthy person you've ever met, he didn't feel you anymore.

The silence in the room only had a minute to play its part before a ting came from Sam's lap, and he took out his phone–gold case and all.

"It's Skyla," he said, shifting his weight forward in earnest. "She wants to see me." Tom exchanged a look with Harrison before Sam added, "alone."

"And you're sure you'll be safe there alone?" Tom asked him, brows frowned and worried. You knew it was worry, the tingle was still there.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he said casually, "you guys wouldn't want to be there anyway," he said with a wink. That caused everyone in the room to groan and a strong tingle of disgust to settle in your stomach. You caught the look on Tom's face–mirrored to Harrison–almost like they were trying to keep their food down. Then Sam got up from the armchair. "If you could all leave while I get ready to charm the knickers off of her," he said, as he walked over to his suitcase.