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10

Bianaca

Somehow, I found myself on the ground beside Kace, the rest of our party in various positions across the parking lot. I didn’t believe anyone but Heath was actually sleeping, all of us too terrified to shut our eyes, but it was nice to pretend. I could dimly hear Tanner, Aiden, and Beau talking a short distance away, keeping watch over us while we rested.

I twisted and turned, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get comfortable on the hard asphalt. The terror electrifying my veins morphed into panic when, in the unrelenting darkness, a monster cawed.

As I shifted on the ground once more, I found myself trapped by bright hazel orbs.

I blinked wearily at Kace, sleep clinging to my body, and offered a tired smile.

“Hey.” My voice was groggy, a yawn threatening to crack my jaw apart.

A tiny smirk pulled up Kace’s lips—the first smile I’d seen since this whole shit storm began.

“Hey.” His voice was just as soft as mine, though instead of being laced with sleep, he sounded wide awake. A strand of auburn hair laced with streaks of darker red and gold fell into his eyes. There was something about Kace that embodied a childlike innocence with something far more…damaged. I didn’t want to say broken, because I truly didn’t believe Kace was beyond repair, but something that spoke of horrors I couldn’t even begin to comprehend. When his eyes locked on mine, there was a strange cocktail of pain, horror, and amusement all dancing in their green and brown depths. I wanted to unmask the man lying beside me and see his true face.

Kace’s smile faltered as suddenly as it appeared. “How are you doing, B? I know we keep asking you that—”

“No,” I interrupted, sensing an apology coming on. “I like hearing it, believe it or not.”

At that, his brows shot upwards. “You do?”

I smiled softly. “I actually do. It gives me a second to check in on myself, see how I’m doing, but it also reminds me that there are people in this world who still give a damn about me.”

“There are,” he interjected immediately, clearing his throat. “I mean, I do. Errr, we all do. I just…” He blew out a breath and shifted so he was lying on his back, staring up at the canvas of darkness above us. “I can’t say I know what you’ve been through, because I don’t. And I don’t believe in comparing traumas and deciding which one is more severe. But I just wanted to say…I’m sorry.” For a brief moment, unbridled rage marred his handsome face, his eyes turning darker than the sky above us. He squeezed his eyelids shut, and when he reopened them, he’d gained some semblance of control, though I could tell it was tenuous. “I want to kill that Dylan fuck for what he did to you.”

I snorted before I could stop myself. “Apparently, someone already did.”

Brief memories assaulted me—snot and tears running down my face as I threw myself into Beau’s arm, his livid blue eyes, Dylan’s smug smile…

What the hell?

Did Beau attack Dylan? Was that why they were both here?

Oh god.

Vomit churned in my stomach, crawling up my throat, but I forced it down with steely determination. Until I knew for sure what had happened, I couldn’t jump to conclusions, despite my brain desperate to piece it together. I had the distinct feeling, however, that the final image would shake the foundations of my very existence.

The silence that followed my ominous words felt pregnant, filling the air like a cloying smoke. Kace didn’t speak immediately, and I didn’t either, content to listen to his breathing saw in and out as he stared up into the darkness.

When a roar reverberated in the distance, sending goosebumps radiating up and down my arms, I turned onto my side and rested my head on my palm. “How are you doing?”

Surprise colored his features. “Me? I’m not the one who—”

“Kace, don’t bullshit me,” I interrupted, leveling him with a no-nonsense glare. “I care about you too.”

The slightest hint of color entered his cheeks as he twisted his head to stare at me. He hadn’t used his backpack or jacket for a pillow, so a few loose pebbles got caught in his red locks. Before I could consider my actions too deeply, I reached forward and brushed one of them out of his hair.

His eyes followed the movement of my hand, something indecipherable manifesting in his hazel gaze. He shuddered when the back of my fingers accidentally grazed his cheek.

“I’m…I’m surviving,” he answered at last. Before I could drop my hand back to my side, he caught it in his own, and I froze, feeling his warmth blaze through me. “I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting late—”

“Don’t apologize,” I said, rushing to reassure him. “You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about.”

“I know that my…” he paused, seeming to consider his words, before gritting out, “mood swingscan be too much for some people to handle.” His entire face twisted and distorted, his lopsided smile transforming into a grimace. “But I promise you, I’m fine now.”

“You know you don’t have to hide with me, right?” Our eyes met, and a bolt of ice slashed through my chest. He really was beautiful, though I couldn’t pretend even for a second that this man was an angel. He was too wicked, too hard, too jaded to ever be misconstrued as an angelic entity. Right then, he was staring intently into my eyes as if they held the answers to all of his problems. Only a few days earlier, he’d destroyed the clothes in my room on impulse. I couldn’t forget for a second that his soft smile belied a much darker side to him.

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