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The hungry beast inside of me was finally asleep, was finally not screaming at me to rip the entire world apart and take everyone along with me. Breathing a small inhale of relief, my lips curled into a smile.
Narcissa was wrong. There was no darkness attached to me. I was the darkness. And I wasn’t a fucking problem for someone to fix.
I lowered my chin again as I made my way back down the dark alley, merging with the crowded streets and turning toward my house.
Wrath had likely taken Lyra home, probably trying to calm her down. Who knows? Maybe they were even at Night Raven looking for me.
They had no idea I had been surviving down here, drinking the blood of monsters like a fucking leech.
I had never liked the taste of blood before. Not until I tasted Lyra’s, anyway. But now? It was all I thought about. It was all-consuming, impossible to ignore.
What would Lyra think if she knew? Would she blame the veil? Blame Marcus? Would she blame herself that she had offered her blood to begin with?
I shook my head. No, Lyra didn’t have to know this. She loved me, yes, but would she love this?
Besides, like I said, I was totally fucking fine.
CHAPTER 14
Lyra
Even the hot cup of tea warming my palms and the crackling fire on the other side of the room weren’t enough to abate the cold chill that radiated through my body like shards of ice piercing my skin from the inside.
Alek had been struggling right in front of me, and I didn’t see it.
Sure, I noticed a few things here and there. But the man had died. Not just any death, either. His own father killed him so he might be able to get his oldest son back from the veil.
If that wasn’t dark, I wasn’t sure what was.
Alek had been living in this darkness alone.
It all made sense now. I mean, damn. The way he snuck around, the way he was out late and never in bed when I woke up.
The way he wanted me to give in to my own darkness.
“Whatever you’re thinking, stop,” Wrath said. He sat in an opposing armchair. Both of us faced the fire and neither of us talked for the last hour since we had arrived at home.
“I wasn’t thinking anything,” I defended.
“Sure you weren’t,” he pushed. “You were thinking about how you should have noticed the signs. That there was no way someone so close to you could have been struggling for so long without you realizing it.”
Well, shit.
I kept my mouth shut.
“I know the feeling,” Wrath muttered under his breath. I watched from the corner of my eye as he took one sip from his whiskey glass, downing the rest of the liquid in one gulp.
“I don’t understand,” I breathed. “You were on the other side of that veil much, much longer than he was. If anyone was going to be a beacon for the darkness, wouldn’t it be you?”
Wrath shrugged. His eyes glazed over as he stared into the fire. “I’m not the one drinking your blood, Lyra. The witch said your blood is bringing him the darkness.”
His hair slipped from the perfectly placed position. Stray pieces now hung lazily down his forehead. Sticks and leaves from our trek back through the woods remained on his clothing, but he didn’t seem to care.
Both of us were losing our minds over what just happened in that forest.
“The good news is that it’s over now,” I whispered, taking a small sip of my steaming-hot tea. “The veil is closed. We can fix whatever the hell is wrong with Alek and move on with our lives.”
Wrath finally tore his eyes away from the crackling fire and looked at me. “Do you really believe it will be that easy?” he asked.
