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It struck the metal with a soft ping, and she did it again.
“I wanted you to have what I couldn’t,” I said. “There was someone that wanted you. Not me. When they said that they found a home for you, I was happy. I would’ve killed you, and we both know it.”
She picked up another rock, and my eyes lit on the drain spout that was directly beside my foot.
“I had a good life,” she said. “They paid for my college. And are still paying for my college.”
Mattie was in school again, this time to get her masters degree. I was so fucking proud of her and everything that she accomplished.
I tapped the drain spout with my booted foot, and blinked when something that looked like a crow’s foot fell out of it.
“I know they are, because I’m forwarding the money for it to your foster parents,” I admitted. “I follow you to school sometimes just to make sure you’re happy. I went to your graduations—high school, associates, and your bachelors. I went to your prom and saw you walk down the stage with your boyfriend at the time.”
“I know that, too,” she said, picking up the crow’s foot and holding it between two pinched fingers. “I know I have more questions for you, but my brain feels fuzzy.” She bent forward to pick up the black thing that’d fallen from the downspout. “What the hell is this?”
I picked the thing up, and letters started to swirl in my mind.
Unconsciously, my hand tightened down on the little trinket, and the brittle thing snapped, cracking completely in half.
Then, without me doing a damn thing, a light pink trajectory started to filter through the air, like a trail of some sort.
And then more things started to drift through my head.
A sense of urgency.
Panic.
Pain.
Fear.
All of the bad things that one never wants to experience by themselves, coursed through me all at once.
And I exploded.Chapter 21Why is there a ‘9’ setting on the toaster? Who likes their toast to be charred?
-Text from Wink to Ian
Wink
I knew the moment he realized everything. The very second he realized that I was gone, and I’d been gone for some time.
It’d been the worst forty-eight hours of my life, and I was fairly sure that if I made it through the next hour, then I’d live.
But the next hour was likely going to kill me.
I never once doubted that Ian would realize what was going on. I never once thought he’d not be able to beat whatever Robert had done to keep him in the dark.
I’d woken up chained to a bed, luckily still fully clothed, with Robert pacing the room behind me.
“What were you doing there?” Robert asked again.
I was shaking my head in confusion. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Robert. I was where I was supposed to be.”
“This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. I was to take the healer, according to the files. He’s the weak link. Once the healer is gone, everything else goes according to plan. With nobody to heal the injuries, everyone dies. No heart equals no life. No life can only happen if the healer is gone. You were not supposed to be there,” Robert continued to pace.
He had some sort of foot in his hand.
A chicken foot or something.
I couldn’t really tell from flat on my back on the bed.
I had to pee like a race horse, and I knew any moment I was going to lose the battle with my bladder. It’d been hours.
“Robert, I have to pee,” I said. “I need you to untie me so I can go to the bathroom.”
He stared at me with annoyance. “There’s a water proof sheet on the bed.”
He looked around at the one room cabin, the same one that Ian had bought after Brooklyn had been found after her kidnapping.
“Robert, please?”
“No,” he refused.
I couldn’t believe the balls that Robert had.
He trusted his spell, or whatever the fuck he’d done, so much that it never even occurred to him that Ian would get out of whatever he was put under.
He’s stupid.
Ian’s voice back in my mind had me breathing deeply for the first time in two whole days.
Where the hell have you been?
The screech couldn’t be helped.
I literally was at the point of breaking, and the only thing making me remain calm was the fact that I had another life to think about beside mine.
A life that I could feel losing its fight with each second that passed.
My body was shutting down.
The longer I was away from Ian, the more energy that left my body.
I’m coming. Hold on, I’m coming.
The only thing that’d saved the baby at this point was the fact that we were so close to The Heart, the very thing that Ian had used to help save the others not too long ago.
