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“And here I thought you’d forgotten me, doll,” Leon said, wrapping his arm around her and drawing her back, protectively, against his side. “It was a cute little show you put on grinding up between these two, but it gave me a feeling you’ve forgotten who you belong to.” He gave Zane a heavy look, and I couldn’t be certain if it was anger or begrudging thankfulness. Regardless, it made Zane chuckle and shake his head.
“Maybe if you’d paid a little bit closer attention, it wouldn’t have been necessary,” I snapped. Zane claimed Leon was “obsessed” with this girl, that he’d defied his master for her — but he’d let her waltz right into the Hadleighs’ clutches.
Leon’s gaze centered on me. His eyes were the same color as Zane’s, but they were different in a way I couldn’t put into words. They carried a coldness, a deadly suspicious hatred. “Juniper Kynes...so grown up now.”
I never thought I’d stand there facing him without a gun in my hands. I’d also never thought I’d look at him and feel anything but hatred and fear. But the monster that had chased me through the dark had a name and a story now. He had pain, he had fear, he had...he had whatever it was that made him hold Raelynn like that.
But the memories were intruding, unbidden, forcing themselves to the forefront of my mind.The forest. The ache in my lungs. My feet stinging with cuts from running barefoot through the dark. Those eyes tracking me, watching me, hunting me…
“I’m not a scared little girl anymore,” I said. “I’m a lot better armed than I was at fifteen.”
Leon glanced cautiously down the hall, his eyes narrowing slightly. Zane nudged a little closer to me, his touch a small reassurance in my whirlpool of anxiety. When Leon looked back, he was smirking. “So glad you remember me. Hold on to that anger. It keeps you strong.”
Rage blanketed my vision. It was half anger, half panic, and I barely knew what I was doing. I whipped out the knife from beneath my jacket and pressed it up against Leon’s smartass mouth, fisting his jacket with my free hand. Zane muttered something, but I didn’t care what the hell he had to say.
I wanted to use that blade to carve up Leon’s face. I wanted to gouge out those awful, bright eyes. Rae was glaring at me as if she was about to start swinging, but I’d gladly take her down too.
But as soon as I’d done it, I knew I was wrong. These two weren’t my enemies. Not even Leon, despite all the hate I had for him.
“You’re lucky Zane has any affection for you.” I tightened my grip on his jacket, the blade pressed hard against his lips. “Because you were first on my list.”
My logical mind was telling me to stop. But the scared part of me, the dark part, was pounding my heart, squeezing my lungs, twisting my stomach.
Leon was standing there as if I’d offered to take him out for a drink, cool as a fucking cucumber, a spark in his eyes that was goddamn unnerving. “Easy girl,” he drawled. “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
He parted his lips and ran his forked tongue along my blade. His blood welled up, dripped over his lips and stained his teeth. He stepped back, smiling widely with Rae still tucked under his arm.
“Enjoy the party,” he said. He winked as he turned, leading Rae back into the quiet parts of the house. I watched them go, shaking as the adrenaline left my system.
Zane slipped his arm around my waist. He led me without a word, and I allowed him. There was a glass door he slid open, that led out into a garden tucked against the house. Paths of gravel meandered amongst the trimmed hedges, rose bushes, and arches of flowering vines, all planted around a tall, sprawling cherry tree.
There was no one else out there. The sounds of the party were muted, replaced instead with the trickle of a nearby fountain and the wind moving through the pines.
“I hate feeling out of control,” I muttered. “I hate it. That feeling takes over and nothing makes sense. It’s like everything goes dark and alarms are going off and —”
I went still, my breath sitting cold and heavy in my lungs. There, behind Zane, crouched amongst the hedges, was that awful blood-red, wide-eyed face.
I swallowed hard. The creature’s eyes were locked on me, its long fingers tapping on its boney knees as it squatted in the shadows. Its body was red because it wasflayed— the thing had no skin, just a reddish-pink network of webbed veins.
The panic in me was about to burst. My head was light, my muscles so tense they ached. I couldn’t let this happen now. Not here. But I couldn’t look away, and the longer I looked, the faster the darkness closed in, like a tunnel shrinking around my eyes.
“The Watcher,” I whispered. All I could see were those lidless eyes. All I could feel was cold, sickening dread. “It’s here. It’s...it’s…”
Suddenly, Zane’s arms were around me.
It was warm against his chest. I could smell him with every breath I took. His chin rested on top of my head, tucking me even closer. My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my ribs, and my arms were crossed over my chest as if to protect it. The Watcher was back there, waiting, but without its eyes locked on me, the lightness in my head began to ease.
“It wants your attention,” Zane said softly. “Don’t give it what it wants.”
I didn’t dare close my eyes, for fear I’d open them and find myself someplace else, trapped in a nightmare. But as the silence stretched on and Zane kept holding me, I was able to take one long, slow breath.
“I’m broken,” I said softly. “I’m fucked up. It’s like I’m only getting worse.”
His voice rumbled in his chest as he spoke. “I followed you for years, Juniper. I saw all your broken pieces. I saw the sharpness. It was like shattered glass every time I looked at you.” His hand moved up, tucked against my neck and his thumb pushed up my chin. “Have you ever seen shattered glass catch the light? Have you seen it reflect colors that a perfect, pristine pane never would? How it shines as bright as the sun?”
I didn’t make a sound, but tears rolled down my face before I could stop them. I was going to ruin my facepaint if I kept this up. I hated crying in front of anyone; I always had. But instead, in that moment, it felt more like a relief.
“I don’t think you need to be fixed, Juniper. I think you need to catch your light.”
