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“The castle’s been robbed. The paintings?—”
“Oh no.” I could hardly swallow. “Lily? Bambi?”
“They’re okay. My sister has them.”
The sky started to spin. I felt myself turning back into a lost, devastated teenager. Unable to push this boulder that had been set against my shoulder. Feeling myself slip backward with every step I tried to take. I had felt so hopeless back then.
Same as I did now.
I knew where his thoughts were going. I didn’t have to say it out loud to know he suspected me.
“I didn’t have anything to do with this. I swear. I know what you’re thinking, and it’s not true.”
He shook his head. His eyebrows inched together, his blue eyes full of disappointment, sharper than any dagger he could have slashed me with.
“You were one of the only two people who knew where those paintings were. Nothing else in the castle was stolen. They went directly to my horde room, forced their way in. How do you explain that?”
The anger radiated off him in waves. I wanted to ball up and cry, bang my head against the ground. How was any of this happening? How was I quickly losing the one man who had ever made me feel complete? “I can’t explain that,” I answered honestly. Each word felt like a ball of sand scratching its way out of my dry mouth. “But I can promise you I’ll help figure it out. Just believe me when I tell you it wasn’t me.”
“Then that leaves my dying best friend, who’s been stuck in a hospital bed for the last three months. Is that what you’re saying?”
The anger roared. It was like standing in front of a furnace, opening the door and immediately being blasted by heat. I shook my head, those words never having come out of my mouth. “No. No, I’m not.”
But I realized that in denying my involvement, I was implying Amelia’s.
“Maybe we were being spied on,” I supplied, looking for any kind of life raft I could cling onto. “Maybe the Crimson Ring had us bugged? That could be how they figured out where you were holding the two paintings.”
“Or maybe they had someone working me from the inside. Someone who broke through every single barrier I put up only so they could get all the information they could without tripping any alarms.”
I felt like I was watching a shark swim directly toward me. I could see the fin cutting through the water and knew the teeth would shortly follow. “That’s not what happened. Please, you’ve gotta believe me.”
I reached for him. He stepped back.
The jaws clamped around me. I was yanked down to the bottom of the sea.
“I don’t know what to believe right now.” He shook his head, looked down at the grass. “I have to go back to the castle. Stay with Claire. She can take you home.”
“But—”
“Not now. Not tonight.”
Maddox turned and left, saying nothing else. He didn’t need to use his powers to make me feel like I’d been encased in ice. It was like he had flipped a switch, all the warmth and kindness replaced by nothing but a frigid expanse. How could I ever fix this? How could I prove to him I had nothing to do with this?
Fuuuuuuck.
I sat down on the grass cross-legged, looking out to the city of angels, the lights blurring from the tears. A hand on my shoulder made me jump. Claire took a seat next to me, gently pressing her bright red dress under her knees. She turned her gaze out to the city, and we sat in silence, broken up by my sniffling and the sound of music and partying coming from inside the house.
“Maddox told me what happened,” Claire said after giving me a moment.
“I didn’t do it. I swear it.”
“I know. I believe you,” she said.
“You do?” I was shocked. If Maddox hadn’t believed me, then I figured I would be fighting an uphill battle to prove my case to the others.
“I do.” She put an arm around my shoulder, and I pulled her into a hug. The gratitude I felt for Claire in that moment was unmatched. I needed a friend, needed an anchor after I’d been tossed into the middle of an angry sea. I’d never had that kind of friendship with anyone besides my brother. But Claire and I had been growing closer and closer the more I spent time training with her, and tonight only cemented that bond between us.
“Thank you,” I said. And I meant it. With every fiber of my being. I looked back out to the city, unable to swallow down a cry that bubbled up my chest.
“It’s going to be okay. Madds has a temper—we know that about him. But we also know that his heart is unmatched. And something else we know? That he’s absolutely fucking smitten with you. Seriously, I’ve never seen that dragon so head over tail for someone.”
