“I am.”
“What the fuck am I supposed to do all day? Do your cooking and cleaning?”
“Couldn’t hurt,” he replies with a touch of a smile.
“Don’t!” I say sharply. “Don’t joke about this. That bakery is my whole life, and I’m not giving it up. What kind of jerk are you, to deny me this? It belongs to me, and you can’t take it away from me.”
Shane goes to say something, then pauses. I can almost see his thoughts racing behind his bright blue eyes.
“You really won’t run away?” he asks.
I shake my head. “I love my little shop. I wouldn’t abandon it.” As the words leave my lips, I realize how true they are.
“We just need to stay close to each other,” he says as if he’s trying to be reasonable. “We need this spell to work… or we need to find out for sure if it isn’t going to work. I don’t want to interrupt the process at all.”
“The way you interrupted my life?”
He sighs. “I’ve tried to apologize. I don’t know how many times I can explain. You saw the elders, spoke to the girls—you even felt the vibes in the manor.”
“Yes,” I reply. “But even if I am the right one, kidnapping me was not the way to go about it.”
“I don’t know what came over me,” he says in exasperation. “I was in a bad spot, desperate to do something. I heard the others talking and acted on instinct. I felt like I had no choice.”
“No choice but to take my rights away?” I ask softly as tears begin to trickle down my cheeks.
Shane looks up at me, his striking blue eyes almost glowing with emotion. The tangled dark web of my past rises in me again, threatening to overwhelm me. Shane opens his mouth to speak, and I know I can’t trust myself to listen or respond rationally, so I get up quickly and push back from the table. The chair crashes to the floor, but I pay no attention to it, turning and running from the room before Shane can say another word.
Chapter 9 - Shane
Hyacinth’s violent exit leaves the room ringing with tension, even after she’s long gone. Minutes tick by while I sit there, trying to figure out what I should do next.
Do I go after her? She sure as hell doesn’t want to talk to me, but if I leave her alone, will it seem like I’m ignoring her or that I don’t care?
Groaning, I put my head in my hands and close my eyes.
I always knew relationships were complicated, but this is truly mind-bending.
I rub my temples idly, trying to relieve the band of tension wrapped around my skull. Over the past few days, I’ve done a lot of things I now regret, and it seems like there is no way out of this deep, dark well I’ve slowly dug myself into.
My phone buzzes in my pocket again, and my heart sinks. The pressure in my chest increases sharply, and I wonder if this is what a panic attack feels like.
Everything I do right now just feels like a distraction from the horror of my whole pack dying while I sit here utterly helpless to stop it.
Slowly, I pull my phone out of my pocket and swipe the screen. Messages have been piling up all day—updates from the infirmary, and texts from families in the area requesting assistance.
The latest message is from Kara, one of the nurses, telling me that Liza’s burial is happening tonight. The news makes me leap to my feet. Hurrying down the hall, I almost burst straight into Hyacinth’s room, but stop myself at the last second.
It’s her room now. I have to respect her space.
I knock softly, calling out “Hello?” but getting no answer. I crack the door open a little and see her curled up on the camp bed, snoring softly.
I don’t want to leave her here alone. What if she runs?
Walking back down the hall, I think about how she said she’d never leave her bakery. I realize I do believe that.
I have to meet her halfway. Maybe then, we can work together to break this curse.
There isn’t much hope in me as I clear up the kitchen and head out the door. My heart grows heavier in my chest with every mile that passes, bringing me closer to the infirmary and all the misery it contains.
