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“I needed some air.”
“You mean you needed away from her, but you can’t stay too far away.”
“It’s just nature. It’s nothing deeper,” he says dismissively, playing down the way he feels… The draw he can’t deny.
“It is something deeper, Zee. You’re not an animal.”
He continues watching her, and she continues talking to herself, though neither of us can hear what she’s saying past the soundproof spell. The walls were once soundproof, but after so many beatings, they lost their effect.
“Have you talked to her?” I ask him when he grows quiet.
“It’s hard to talk to her about anything other than life or death right now. A lot of people want her dead. Including Morgana. Fucking nightmare.”
“People always want us dead, but we can’t stop living.”
I turn to walk away, but he grabs my hand. “Where are you going?”
“I need pie,” I lie, shrugging out of his hold and flashing him a convincing smile. He’s so distracted with his own problem that he buys the lie.
“Hurry back. Kane has to go back to your mother, and he’ll want to make sure you’re okay before he does.”
“I’ve been just fine for a week. Mom needs him a lot more than I do. She can’t come back until after she’s back at full strength. Not even for a little bit. It’s too risky.”
He nods in agreement, and all of his attention goes back toward his little ticking bomb of issues. I don’t envy him for that.
But I have my own issues to deal with right now.
As soon as I hit the woods, I dematerialize. My feet hit the ground hard when I drop, landing in another section of woods far away from our cabin. That’s the most distance I’ve ever covered while dematerialized.
The locator spell should work. I know he gave me his blood, and I know it’s still in my system. I could taste it the second I woke up a week ago, and it’s been lingering ever since, buzzing through my system like a drug. So has his scent and his touch…
No. That’s just sick. He’s truly a monster, and not just because of the scars. The scars actually don’t bother me at all. Perfection is all around us, so him being imperfect makes him….
Fuck! No. Not him. Anyone but him.
With absolute stealth, I head toward the barely-there sounds in the distance. Before I reach the sounds, I see soft, touchable, inky-black hair as a guy with his back turned stays propped up against a tree. He’s wearing a leather jacket that only adds to his appeal, and his hands are tucked into the pockets of his jeans.
The long lines of ink run up his neck, stretching across it. He usually keeps most of his body covered up. At least the few times I’ve seen him and remembered it.
He’s watching Kya as she fights with someone else, and I swallow down an unbidden knot of jealousy. This is twisted and wrong. I’m not here for anything but answers.
The others are far enough away and too distracted to notice me, but Slade suddenly tenses, as though he senses me when I get too close.
“Come to fight, Princess?” he drawls, keeping his body facing away from me.
“Just want answers. I’m not strong enough to fight you yet.”
He snorts derisively before turning around, and I take a step closer to him. He cocks an eyebrow, giving me an all-too-condescending look as he stares down his nose at me.
“You came alone?” He makes a tsking sound while crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against a tree. “That’s reckless, little girl. Care to tell me what you’re here for?”
“You saved me. I want to know why. Leah told me—”
“The Aquarius?” he interrupts, his cool composure faltering.
Shit. He didn’t know she was still alive. Damn it.
“I’m here to talk about you. Not her.”
