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He turns to face me, studying me in the dark. “And so now, am I still the one you’re meant for?”
“You’re trying to scare me.” I fold my arms across my chest. “It’s not going to work. I know you have darkness in you, but guess what? I have darkness in me too.” I think back to what Atlas said, how I have black magic in my veins.
A wary look comes across his brow. “I know you do.”
Then he coughs. “We should go. I love my cigars, but inhaling bone dust is where I draw the line.”
He takes me by the elbow and leads me out of the skull room, a storage area for the things he’s accumulated in his very long and complicated life.
“I thought you should know, I’m having a party tomorrow,” he says as we climb the stairs.
“Again?”
“I always have parties,” he says smoothly. “Do you need another dress?”
I freeze mid-step. “Please tell me this isn’t an auction.”
He gives me a sharp look. “Really? Is that what you think I’d do?”
Well, I did just see the room where you keep the skulls of the hundreds of people you’ve killed.
His eyes narrow even more, glinting like ice. “Don’t even think like that. If you want to be with me, despite all the horrors I just told you, showed you, then you have to trust me. Fully. Can you do that?”
I swallow, nodding. “Yes.”
“Good,” he says, hand slipping down to hold mine as he pulls me up the steps. “And don’t worry about the party. You won’t leave my side. I just want to show you off. It’s important that they see who you are again, and that you’re with me. It’s a display of power, you understand that?”
“Not really,” I tell him. “What’s so powerful about me?”
He laughs. “Oh, my earthquake-causing witch. You don’t even know.”
Chapter Nineteen
After Solon brought me to his skull storage space, we went our separate ways. He said he had some work to do—whatever the hell that is, perhaps finding another vampire to kidnap—and I decided to spend time in the library, going through the books. It reminded me of being young and my parents plunking me at the San Francisco Public Library where I would spend hours and hours, except this time I was actively looking for books on witchcraft that might help me. Solon seems to think I have a large amount of power in me, so it only makes sense to try and figure out how to use it, even though I find it hard to believe.
It was a good distraction at first. Kept me from thinking about Elle, kept me from thinking about Solon and his past. But after a while those thoughts crept up and overwhelmed me. I cried for a bit, then moved on.
Yvonne made a dinner for me, with Amethyst and Wolf joining us in the dining room. Solon and Ezra were elsewhere. Wolf didn’t even touch his food, a chicken Caesar salad, which made me wonder why he was having dinner to begin with. Perhaps to keep an eye on me, with Solon not there—always the babysitter. Though if he were keeping an eye on anyone it would be Amethyst. I swear that vampire was staring at her every other moment, and she seemed completely oblivious. I guess you have to be impervious to a vampire’s gaze in this house, or you’d never get anything done.
After dinner, I brought a bottle of wine up to my room and drank the whole thing alone. I thought about calling my parents, but decided there was no way I could emotionally deal with them at the moment. Their emotions would be flying high, and I know I’m not stable. One thing at a time.
So I went to sleep in a drunken fit of tears and confusion, hoping that at some point I’d feel Solon’s presence in the room. But that never happened.
This morning I woke up with puffy eyes and a bit of a hangover, but thankfully a long hot shower took care of that. I slowly get dressed into my leggings and a long t-shirt, toweling off my hair, wondering what I’m going to do today before the party starts. The fact that I didn’t see Solon at all after our talk bothers me a little, makes me feel untethered. I don’t mind being in this house, and I do feel safe, but it’s starting to feel a little bit like the hotel in a way. I’m safe, as long as I’m inside. But most of the things I want to do are outside.
I slide on a pair of slippers I found in the closet and head out into the hall.
To my surprise, the roses are alive again, blooming and bleeding. It’s both beautiful and disturbing. I walk over to them, studying them closely.
