I run my thumb over the inside of her elbow.It’s not that I want to wake her, but I need to tell her what I’ve done before Ignatius discovers we’re back.And then pray that she understands the choice I made.But more than anything, that it’s not permanent.That Iwillfind a way out of this.
She yawns and squirms at the soft touch, nuzzling her backside closer into me.
“I could stay here for the rest of my life,” I whisper into her neck.
“Then do.”
But I can’t.
She doesn’t know that yet, but I do.Ignatius didn’t give me a choice, not really.If I’d refused him, I’d be dead by now and she would have been lost to me.At least this way, I have a chance and the time to find a way out of this.
Because that’s the truth, isn’t it?The thing I can’t say out loud is that I was furious.Lucy had broken me and he offered me a way out and I took it.I told myself I’d find a way to undo this, but the truth is that in the moment, I didn’t really care what happened to her.
The bedroom door slams against the wall and I about shit my pants.
“Fucksake, Lex, I nearly pissed myself,” I whine, pulling the cover higher over my head.
“Oh, do stop moaning.I brought you two love birds tea up from our apartment.”
She drops two mugs on the bedside table but makes no move to leave.
“Can I help you?”I ask as she sits on the end of the bed and makes herself comfortable.
She shrugs.“I was just wondering whether we should make a plan.”
Lucy stirs and reaches for her mug of tea.“Architecti said she’s going to help me control my magic.But aside from that, I’m assuming I need to leave campus.Not least because of Interitus, but then there’s my father, who will eventually find out I’m here and I’m not sure I’m ready to deal with that.”
Lex freezes, her eyes slide from Lucy to me.I have to suppress the urge to scream.I give her the subtlest shake of my head.
Not now.
The front door bangs three times and I leap out of my skin, my blood turning to ice.I know it’s him.
Lucy’s expression falls, a slow frown drifting across her features.
I’m going to be sick.I haven’t told her.I was about to tell her.
“I’ll go,” Lex says and I hear her muffled warnings to Bastien.
“Fuck,” I hiss, panic dripping into my fingers, making my extremities tingle like pins and needles.
“Do you trust me?”I ask.
“Of course,” she says.
“That trust is going to be pushed to the extreme.But I promise you, it’s not what it seems.”
There’s no time to explain what I did.Nor the fact I have no intention of leaving her to her father.Lex must unlock the door on her way out, because it swings open, clatters against the wall with a thud and reverberates through my entire body.
“What’s going on?”Lucy says, her eyes wide as she gathers her clothes.
“I can explain,” I say, my fists opening and clamping at my sides.I yank my boxers and a tee on to cover my modesty.Her expression narrows as she pulls on her last item of clothing.
The bedroom door slams open, knocking a bottle of perfume perched on a chest of drawers onto the floor.
She glances from the cracked bottle spilling potent liquid into the air to the towering figure in the doorway.
“Father,” she says and visibly recoils, shuffling away from him.
