The quiet that followed Maddox's thudding departure was oppressive—so thick, smothering, like a smoke that clung to my lungs from the inside out. The cracked wall still quivered from where his fist had met it, and pieces of plaster fell through the air like ash after a fire. The room stood suspended in the pause after the explosion, where everything seems as though it might still blow.
Jaxon hadn't budged. He stood amidst the room, chest panting, fists battered. But his eyes… those blazing, angry eyes were fixed on me like I was the sole survivor in the ruins. He didn't need words. The steam radiating off of him spoke volumes.
But then he did.
Why him?" he demanded, his voice rough and cracking like a whip. Not the growl of a fighter—but the catch of a man falling apart. "Why did you l
