He nodded, placing a hand on my shoulder, stopping me before I could brush by him. He didn’t say anything, just held my gaze, reading whatever he could find there. Finally he squeezed my shoulder and released me. “So let’s go find her.”
As we started down the hall, a sharp cry echoed ahead of us. I locked eyes with each of my companions, and we ran toward the place where the sound came from.
Rounding a corner, we found her crumpled in a pool of blood, a jewel-encrusted dagger sticking out of her chest.
The Seer was dead.
Before anyone else could speak, Crombie’s cool voice filled the hallway. “Well... I guess she didn’t see that one coming.”
ChapterFifteen
SUNDAY
Ican hear you muttering to yourself, you stupid kidnapping bastard.I tightened my grip on the knife and sliced my apple in half with more force than necessary, smiling tightly at the sound of the blade hitting the butcher’s block.
Caleb hadn’t spoken a word to me since our little chat in the bathroom last night, and a small part of me hated the silence. The rest of me welcomed it because it was too easy to be pulled into his web. They’d all pulled me in, if I was being honest with myself.
I’d forced my thoughts away from my men as a means of self-preservation since Caleb had taken me. I’d had to. It hurt too much to let down those walls and think of the love I’d lost.
I’d been in survival mode since the second I climbed out the window at Blackthorne Manor. Focusing on each moment as it came, trying not to think too many steps ahead, because all that waited for me was an endless stretch of loneliness.
Tears pricked my eyes, which only fueled my anger. I did not want to cry over a bunch of men who had turned their backs on me. They didn’t deserve it. But my heart didn’t care. I missed them. All of them.
It was the scent of freshly cut apple that sent me over the edge. “Fuck you, Kingston. You and your damn pie-making skills. Of course you’d be the one to make me cry first.” But even as I said the words, Alek infiltrated my memories. The wide smile on his face when I’d presented his favorite dessert to him on Thanksgiving flashed in my mind. The way he’d taken my face in his hands and kissed me until I could hardly breathe right there in front of everyone.
I couldn’t stop the tidal wave of moments anymore. Noah’s arms wrapped around me, holding me through the night, kissing my shoulder and the mark on my neck. Whispers of adoration and devotion that all turned out to be lies.
Even the soft murmur of Caleb’s voice sweetly reciting our bedtime story when I’d been too anxious from my nightmares to fall back asleep.
All of them had duped me. Made me believe they truly loved me. That they’d always be there for me. That we belonged to each other.
Thunk. Another chunk of apple went flying as I cut into the ripe flesh entirely too hard. Alek would have taken over by now, his skills with a blade much better than mine. The man could peel an entire apple in one long strip, leaving a pretty curl of red skin coiled on the cutting board.
A deep ache took hold in my heart, the empty raw parts where they should still be, now finally allowed to feel the agony of losing them.
My lower lip quivered as my battle against the tears was lost. Vision blurry, I knew I should have stopped slicing the fruit, but I couldn’t make myself. There was something cathartic about the slam of the blade against the board with each painful bout of memories.
The door to the bedroom opened, startling me, and the knife bit into my thumb, the burn of a fresh wound radiating through my hand and making me hiss.
“Ow. Fuck.” I lifted my thumb to my lips, sucking hard to stop the bleeding.
Caleb stood transfixed in the doorway, his eyes laser-focused on the digit in my mouth. Hunger raged in his expression. How had I not noticed? He bore the classic signs I’d seen in Noah. Dark circles ringing his eyes, skin more ashen than usual, even his lips were pale. He looked... haggard. Starved.
And I was bleeding
A lamb at his altar.
Caleb blinked, reopening his eyes slowly. Appearing like a man lost in a dream.
“I need to hunt,” he said, his words distracted. “I’ll be back before sunrise.”
I stared at him, not sure what to say. Happy hunting seemed inappropriate. Enjoy the mindless slaughter of animals? Too rude. Before I could come up with anything to break the swelling silence between us, he was gone. Leaving me alone with my thoughts and poor mutilated apple.
I frowned down at the terribly sliced pieces of fruit that were supposed to serve as a midnight snack. One blood-stained, the others strewn across the counter. Now I wasn’t even hungry. I was heartsick.
If Moira was here, she’d witch up some of her special tea and magic us some ice cream. But she wasn’t. No one was. I was well and truly alone.
Just like I would always be.