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“Just tell me,” she said, expectation laced her tone. She knew he wasn’t about to tell her something she wanted to hear.
Clay cleared his throat. “Ryan’s family is taking him. We are planning with the family now, but I wanted to let you know.”
“He’s been vanished?” Her voice was soft and almost a whisper.
“The family wanted to do it in private.” Clay confirmed, sternly.
“I asked you not to,” she said. Tears fell hard from her eyes as she walked away from me and collapsed onto the sofa.
I gave the mobile to Jack and rushed to her side. Gently placing her head on my chest as her body shook.
“I don’t need to bind with anyone,” she said, her voice almost a whisper. She tried to hold up her shoulders, but they wilted, as did her lips.
Tears fell from her eyes at an alarming rate. Her shoulders shook wildly, and I’d never seen such a flood of sadness coming from a person’s face this hard before.
Finally, she stopped shaking, staring at Jack as he disconnected the call. Her eyes gradually closed, and she looked like she had fallen asleep. It was only the sobbing that told us she was awake.
“Lacey,” I said.
“He’s gone.” Lacey’s face was in deep pain. It was the vacant eyes, eyes that normally had so much life, and now they looked like they had died with Ryan. I took hold of her limp body and lifted her into my arms.
“It’ll be okay, Lacey. Everything will be fine. I promise.”
“He has gone though, my sweet Ryan,” she said and burst into tears again. “I need him back. He holds me like nobody else holds me. We understand each other. Please help me.” Her sobs got harder and harder. “I need him.”
That made me angry because I knew Ryan wasn’t who he claimed to be, and I had already told her. She’d either forgotten or conveniently choose to put it to one side. “You don’t need him, you’re upset,” I said, firmly.
“You don’t know what I need!” she yelled as she rose from her seat and ran into the spare bedroom, and tried to slam shut the door in my face. I pushed at the door, stopping it with my hand.
Lacey could be a diva and use her magic to get the door shut, but she didn’t. She didn’t want to shut me out.
I edged the door open, and her shoulders sagged as she stared at me. She was too tired and flung herself onto the bed.
“Ryan isn’t who you think he is,” I said. “I saw him.”
She spun her head over her shoulder and glared at me.
“He isn’t. You need to think about it, because you’re trying to do something that would harm you.”
“Ryan wouldn’t harm me,” she whispered.
“Lacey, Seb told me what he saw. He also said you were badly bruised and had scratches on your hips from the bind, and worse than that, he tried to bite you.”
She closed her eyes and sighed.
“He wasn’t magical, Lacey, at least not fully, and I don’t know how he got inside your home. But...”
“You think he’s the dark king?” she asked.
I had my suspicions about who Ryan really was and I would make it my mission to find out the truth. But right now wasn’t the time to tell Lacey my thoughts.
“I can only tell you he wasn’t honest,” I said.
It was as though she knew all along and her body dropped onto the bed. And a sob left her lips, followed by another.
Tears of frustration leaked from the corners of my eyes. Or was it annoyance that I’d let Ryan get so close to her? “You’re my everything. You know I don’t want any harm done to you.”
She sighed as I pushed myself behind her, stroked her hair from her face and let her weep as I held her in my arms. I don’t know how long we were there, but I drifted off when she fell asleep in my arms.
