Page 127 of Glutton for Punishment

His expression is taut with something like respect. And something like hunger. It makes my cheeks heat. I’m still grinning, adrenaline singing in my blood, when Gale—humiliated and fuming—lunges at me from behind. I sense him too late. His arm hooks around my neck, and the next thing I know, I’m face-down on the mat, teeth rattling in my skull.

The wind whooshes out of me. Gale’s hiss is right in my ear: “Not so hot now, are you? You don’t even belong in Wrath anymore.”

Brady’s whistle blows, “Gale! My office. Now.”

I pop up, sucking in air, and catch the flicker of movement from the other side of the gym. Atticus moves forward, crossing half the distance to our mat in a blink. His eyes are wild, jaw clenched so hard I can see the pulse in his neck from here. He looks like he might murder Gale.

Every Pride upperclassman on his mat stops to watch, which means every other faction’s eyes follow.

His tunnel vision breaks as he notices all the eyes on him and he catches himself. If it’s self-control, it’s the teeth-grinding, soul-eating kind. His hands curl into fists, then flatten. He pivots away from Gale and stalks toward the water cooler. Everyone goes back to what they were doing, and the moment passes.

By the time the hour is up, my shirt clings to every rib. I’m one of the last to linger in the gym, packing up my things slowly, letting the bruise on my shins and the ringing in my jaw settle. The sound of a single pair of footsteps moves deliberately behind me.

I don’t react, just keep zipping up my backpack, but every muscle in me tunes to the sound. He doesn’t speak right away, just stops behind my bench, close enough I can tell it’s him by the static charge of attention on the back of my neck. The faint, expensive tang of his cologne…

Cologne, who even wears that to combat?

It gives him away, and my heart melts a little.

“You dropped your wrist wrap,” Atticus says, pitching his voice soft enough to keep from echoing. His fingers brush lightly against mine and linger as he hands the ruined wraps over to me. It sends bolts of electricity shooting through my hands.

A voice from the doorway cuts through the air like a scalpel. “Atticus.” He freezes and the wall slams back up so fast I almost feel the force of it. He takes a half-step away, eyes shuttering behind ice.

“Be careful, Arwen.” He says as he pivots on his heel and walks off. The faintest echo of his touch still tingles on my skin.

Chapter 37

Maddox

My knuckles go white against the map’s edge. Another red pin joins the cluster devouring Lower Gluttony. “They hit the refinery last night. Took six more.”

Valentine doesn’t look up from her datapad. “You’re pacing again.”

“They’re taking citizens now. Not just supplies. People.” My thumb traces the ragged border where our territory bleeds into his. Arwen’s voice ghosts through my mind, dry and resigned: “Guess I really am one of you after all.”

“You need to stop responding to every provocation personally; stop playing their game,” Valentine says, tone flat. “Every time you rush in, you hand them another victory.”

The map blurs. I can still smell the fuel and ash from yesterday’s bombing. “Easy to preach strategy when it’s not your streets burning.”

“They want you angry.”

“They succeeded.” I throw my glass of whiskey against the wall and it shatters into pieces.

No one speaks for a bit.

“What’s going on, Maddox? This isn’t like you. You’ve always had a temper like the rest of us, but your steely resolve rivaled my own. We need to be strategic, not emotional.”

Valentine’s right. I am barely keeping it together. My control has been slipping since Arwen came into my life. Just the thought of if they got their hands on her…

It’s been over a week since she went back to the academy, and my entire life feels off-center without her in it. The room feels colder when I sleep. Food tastes bland. Every time my phone vibrates, my chest tightens before I even realize what I’m doing.

Pathetic.

Valentine watches me carefully when I don’t respond. “You also look terrible,” she says.

“Thanks, Val.”

“You should sleep.”