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“What is? When did you—”
I couldn’t say another word as he pulled me up into his arms, holding me tightly.
“Theseus, what is it? What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” He hissed and then took another breath, releasing me so he could look into my eyes. “Druella, where have you been?”
“What do you mean? I’ve been here. When did you wake up?”
He looked relieved, annoyed, and also so confused, which made me even more confused. “Druella, I woke up an hour ago, and you were not here.”
“I have been right here. I couldn’t sleep, and you just dozed off a few minutes ago…” My voice trailed off as, finally, I saw the time on the bedside table. It wasn’t the time I thought it would be—that it should have been. I expected it to be twenty minutes past noon or something. But instead, it was 8:37 p.m. I spun around, out of his hands, and rushed to the window, and sure enough, the sky was dark.
“What in the hell?” I muttered. “That’s impossible. I’ve been right here.”
“Druella.”
Turning, I looked back to see him standing ridged, his jaw set. “Do you know what I was about to do?”
I shook my head.
“Had you come even a second later, it would have been too late to stop me as I would have been at your coven’s door, ready to tear them all apart until they brought you back to me.” The look in his eyes was not one of amusement, and it was not sweet. It was murderous rage. “I could not hear, smell, or sense you.”
Slowly, I walked back to him and placed my hands on his arm. “Theseus, I was here—”
“You were not. You may have thought you were, but you were not!” Theseus said, his jaw clenched and his body still while eyeing every move I made.
“I do not know what is happening…” I whispered.
“Then tell me what you do know because I am trying my best to calm down. I do not wish you to see me when I am upset. It is not appealing. But I am truly upset. You need to explain.” Again, he inhaled and swallowed—why, I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do. “If you need help to start, these are my most pressing questions. Why did you expose us to your coven? Why did you run from them? What is it that you were doing after I slept?”
I didn’t believe or know how to explain all the things that had happened to me, either. How could I even start to explain?
“Do you not trust me?”
“It’s not that!” I replied quickly. “It’s just…it’s so much at once even for me.”
“You trust me?” he questioned.
I nodded.
“Truly?”
“Yes.”
“Then allow me to see it if you cannot say it.”
“What?”
“Blood has memories,” he replied, lifting my wrist. “May I?”
I didn’t have the words to say yes. I wasn’t scared, but I was…curious? Was that the right word? What was it like to be bitten? What exactly would he see? I wanted to ask, but the expression on his face showed how clearly he was still trying to be patient and calm with me, which was more important.
“You may,” I replied, and with his gaze fixed on me, he lifted my wrist to his mouth. I watched as he opened his mouth and his teeth clamped so hard into my flesh that it felt as if something broke. It stung, ached for six seconds before everything in me relaxed, my shoulders slowly dropping, my body feeling strange, almost dreamy. I saw the blood rise from my brown skin into his lips, and he did not waste a single drop.
It was only when he let go, licking my wrist, that I remembered the pain in it.
“You’re finished?” I whispered, feeling a little light-headed. “That was fast.”
