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I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but it terrified me. I didn’t want to believe I’d be powerless against him, but if I was the betting sort, I’d put my money on Sig being absolutely right.
My iPod switched over to Seger’s “Turn the Page”, but the sound was coming from farther away since my headphones were draped over my shoulders.
“Walk with me,” he instructed.
The stubborn part of me that wanted to show him how independent I was insisted I stay rooted to the spot. But this wasn’t a time for playing games with an old and very scary master vampire. Sig had never done anything to me to warrant my constant fear of him, but a vampire didn’t live for twenty centuries without being a little cutthroat. Sig’s greatest power was in convincing people he meant them no harm.
In his presence, that gift poured over me, and I relaxed against my better judgment.
Of course he won’t hurt you, the voice in my head told me.
I knew better, but I also believed if he meant to harm me tonight, I wouldn’t have gotten his initial warning sound. He would have just come to me in the darkness and ended it all. That I was certain he could kill me so easily should have been reason alone to not follow him.
Instead I jogged to catch up to where he’d gotten on the path.
“How is your task coming along?” he inquired, as though he was any normal boss and I was working on any old project.
I shrugged. “Working on it. ”
“Do you think, perhaps, it might have been wise to do something about it when he was in your apartment last night?”
I stopped walking, and Sig took another step or two before he stopped as well. Flabbergasted, I couldn’t understand how he knew or how he could be so calm about it. He tilted his head to the side, an invitation to continue walking. I looked back up to the rock face and tried to see if there was a trap waiting for me.
“You’re quite safe. For tonight. ” He extended an arm, inviting me to move closer.
I did, and he put his arm around me, pulling me tight against his side and holding me close enough I knew it wasn’t a purely friendly gesture. We walked in silence because all the noises of the woods had quieted in his presence. Everything hidden in the dark was withdrawing, and I wished I could do the same.
“He didn’t do it,” I insisted.
“Mmm. ” His hand squeezed my shoulder and it hurt. “Did young Mr. Chancery tell you that?”
“He didn’t have to. ”
“So you no longer want to know what he’s done, because you are so certain he is innocent?”
It wasn’t what I said, but I didn’t feel up to correcting him. “Something like that. ”
“You’ve been to see the Oracle tonight. ” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes,” I confirmed anyway.
“And did she tell you anything about Holden?” For the briefest flicker his voice sounded hopeful, and it all became clear. I halted again, and this time he was forced to stop along with me or risk knocking me over.
Sig couldn’t ask Calliope about Holden’s guilt or innocence, because he was banned from Calliope’s realm. Some time during the Renaissance they had been an item, and he’d broken her heart. The thing they say about hell having no fury like a woman scorned? You can amplify it a thousandfold for an immortal. Calliope was still mad, and to my knowledge the only time he’d been permitted in her reality, she had forced him to stay outside and had only let him get that far because he’d come to see me.
My eyes searched his, hoping for some further evidence of the hope I’d heard in his voice. Something in his face had to tell me I wasn’t jumping to insane conclusions. He looked curious but little else.
It only then dawned on me. “You think he’s innocent too. ”
“What did the Oracle tell you?” He wasn’t denying it, and that was close enough to an admission to satisfy me.
“Calliope couldn’t tell me anything. ” I could tell he didn’t believe me because disappointment knit his brows together. I explained why Calliope hadn’t been able to read anything off me that night. “I was too far gone for her to see my path. She had to feed me. ”
I wished I’d thought to visit Calliope as soon as I got home. Had I known how linked Holden’s path was to my own, I might have realized she could give me some of the answers I craved.
“Stupid girl,” he seethed.
Sig and I stared at each other, a breeze rustling the charged air between us. He grabbed my other arm so suddenly I didn’t see his hand move. I knew vampires were fast, but this was unlike anything I’d experienced before. There was no blur of motion, nothing to indicate he’d moved at all. It was as though his hand had always been on my arm.
