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My body twisted to the left, but I already knew it was Carter. I smiled lightly.
“Oh, okay,” she huffed. “Later.”
I watched as she plodded to the exit doors.
“You didn’t have to do that. I’m actually getting good at saying no to people,” I said and laughed. “How are you?”
“Not too bad, but definitely not good,” he said, and I could see the sadness in his eyes. “You and Kane...”
I nodded. “And Seb, Ryan, Blake and Jack.” I didn’t want him making any assumptions. Maybe Jack was a lie.
“Are you binding with them all?” he asked.
“Carter, you know I can’t talk about that,” I whispered.
He nodded. “Thank you for saving my life again,” he said. There was too much sadness in his gaze. His eyes fluttered around briefly, and I sensed his anxiety.
“I told you I’d look after you if I could. It was never one way,” I said.
He nodded lightly, looking away for another slight moment. “I’m sorry. I don’t feel brave enough anymore.”
I touched his face, and he flinched from my touch and felt my chest drop as I fell apart inside.
“Sorry,” I said, moving my hand away. “I understand. I’d say take as much time as you need, but I feel I only need to say to have a good life and meet someone who you’ll love.”
Tears sprang into his eyes, which made mine fill too.
“I’ll ask Clay to remove the bind. He mentioned it to me, but I asked him not to.” Swallowing a breath. “I was being selfish. I’ll let the dark king know I’m doing it and then tell him once it’s carried out.”
Carter seemed to bounce from one foot to the other and I knew it terrified him just being around me, probably not helped by me mentioninghisname.
“I’ve got a bad feeling, Lacey,” he said as he chewed his lip and his eyes flitted over mine and I could tell he was a little scared to say too much. The dark king had already spared his life twice, and I expected the third would be final. I knew Carter felt the same. “I think the one person who you think is on your side is the one person you should be afraid of.”
“Who, Kane, Seb, Ryan,” I said each name slowly. Carter’s eyes raised when I got to Ryan. I shook my head. “No, I’d know,” I said.
He nodded. “He isn’t who he says he is. I saw it when you were dancing with Gray Trent at the ceremony. He looked... dangerous, but that’s as much as I want to say,” he said.
Ryan… no, not Ryan. He wasn’t dangerous; he was sweet. But as I thought more about that. I thought Ryan was missing Carter. Was it more than that? "Do you think he is the Dark King?"
Carter shrugged his shoulders. "He knows all about veiling, talks all the time about how protected your home is. He knew we were binding when it was a secret to everyone else. And he touched me at the ceremony before I collapsed."
"Oh," I said and swallowed. “Okay, I’ll keep my guard.” I wasn't convinced. Though the Dark King said he might be Ryan, too.
"Please do that," he said, looking sad, and his eyes lost their sparkle.
I tried to hold back the tears forming like pools in my eyes. “I'll go and I’ll let you do what you need to do about reducing the bind pull.” I sighed. “Maybe you should speak to Clay too. I mean, to ask about whatever holds the bind.”
He nodded, and I rushed away from him just as the tears streamed down my cheeks. Running out of the law building as quickly as my legs would take me and into the building that housed the library and ran upstairs and lunged at the library door, finally dropping my work on the nearest table.
“Lift the spell from Carter,”I begged the dark king.
I rummaged through my bag and wiped my eyes on a tissue I found in there. Taking a few shaky breaths as I waited, but today was a day he was deciding not to talk to me.
I sighed.“Are you there?”
“Yes, I’ve been thinking about it, and you know why I can’t do that,”the dark king said.
“Please, I promise not to go through the ritual with him. I could try to have the bind removed. He is so sad.”
