PAIGE
It had been two days since Blaze had come clean about who he was, two days of us arguing back and forth. I understood why he tried to keep it a secret, and why he finally told me, but at the same time it infuriated me. Blaze had told me that it was strongly suggested that I go ahead with his plan by everyone. However, I was still skeptical which led us where we were currently. Both holed up in his room , the music blaring, having one of our stare offs.
“I don’t see why you’re still trying to fight me on this Paige,” Blaze let out a resigned sigh. By now it was clear we were at an impasse. There was a part of me that wanted to comply if only to make my stay here a little easier, but the fighter in me was telling me to stay on my path. “What is it gonna take for you to fall in line?”
Wait, what? Did I just hear him correctly? I took a second to study him. He was sitting in his desk chair, his hands folded in front of him just staring at me. Gone was the irritation he’d been wearing for the last few days, his eyes now had that pleading look as they bore into me.
“I want to hear it from my friends, the ones that are supposedly telling me to blindly follow along.” I paused for a second slowly allowing what I had just said to sink in.
I waited for the negative reaction but there wasn’t any, Blaze just sat there and waited for me to continue. He reached into his pocket and took out his phone. Dialed a number and put it up to his ear.
“I got someone that wants to talk to you,” Blaze said to the person on the other end while he stared at me. “I don’t know, I’ve been trying to get her to understand the importance of following along but she won’t, she asked to talk to her friends, so I figured I’d call you. If it helps to get her to play ball, what do I have to lose.”
After a few more heated exchanges between whoever was on the other end, he handed me the phone. Cautiously I took it and held it to my ear.
“Hello?” I knew it sounded more like a question rather than the greeting I wanted it too, but at this moment I was still having trouble believing that Blaze had actually relented and given me what I’d asked for.
“You’re in so much trouble when I finally get my hands on you Princess,” Damon’s deep voice came over the line and sent shivers down my spine. The last time I’d seen him I was sneaking out of his house after breaking in. His voice was harder than I remembered and I knew that was mainly due to me ghosting him. “Do you have any fucking idea what your leaving did to everyone, to me?”
The silence that ensued after his question seemed to last for eternity, the numbing ache that I’d managed to stuff down and ignore due to the undying need for vengeance came bubbling to the surface.
“I’m sorry,” was all I could manage to say, I tried but failed to keep my voice even, I don’t know what I’d been expecting and I was fairly aware that after this was all finished I’d have my work cut out for me. It was finally dawning on me the effects of my actions had on everyone. “You would have tried to stop me from doing this if I had told you.”
“Damn fucking right I would have stopped you,” He boomed down the phone making me jump. I’d really fucked up when I took off without saying a word. We’d been officially together for only a few weeks before I’d taken off on my little vengeance road trip without much thought about who it would impact. “Look what happened because you went out on your own Paige, you didn’t even give a fucking thought to what it would do to me. I thought we were on the same damn bloody page, that what we had was fucking mutual but I guess I was wrong.”
I could feel the burn of unshed tears forming in my eyes, I’d never heard him this angry before, and for the first time it had me second guessing the course of action I’d taken. Maybe he was right all those months ago when he’d called me impulsive and irresponsible. I just sat there, phone glued to my ear in silence, what could I even say that would make it right at this point in time.
Damon sighed, when I didn’t immediately respond. Then his voice became softer. “I need you to listen to Paige, I’ve spoken to your uncle and cousin, we’ve been able to verify Blaze is who he tells you he is. And we need you to do as he tells you to.”
“You’ve spoken to Uncle Killian?” Was all I could say, I’d heard what he’d said, but the one thing that stood out was he’d been talking to my family. They never let outsiders in to help, preferring to keep everything within the family.
“Princess, just be glad it’s me down here and not him.” You couldn’t miss the hidden message behind his words. If and when I got free, I was going to have a lot to answer for.
“Do you really want me to do what Blaze tells me to do?” I finally asked, I didn’t know how long Blaze would allow the call to go for, and I needed clarification that compliance was what Damon actually wanted.
“Princess, you need to do what you have to to ensure you get out of this, if that means listening and doing what Blaze tells you to do, than you need to do it,” Damon was straight with me, I could tell he was trying hard to hide how he really felt and for the most part he’d been able to, but I’d picked up on the slight waver in his voice. “You need to do whatever it takes to keep yourself safe.”
It was hard to hear Damon confirm this, but deep down even I knew it would be my best option, especially if there was any hope of getting out of here before the tournament started. All I could do was answer with a faint okay before handing the phone back to Blaze. Concern washed over his face, when he looked at me. I was somewhat shocked knowing that Damon wanted me to do this, whatever this was. I just had to hope that he wouldn’t look at me differently after all this was over.