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Caz walks up to me. “After we find out what’s going on with the Tether, I’ll tell you about my mother. Deal?”
“Okay.” I look into his eyes. “Deal.”
“Now take this.” He raises the bag of panties Della gave him. “Go and change, then meet me downstairs.”
I take the bag from him, and he leaves the room, closing the door behind him.
When he’s gone, I look around once more, but I can’t help going back to the picture of him and his mom. He looked so happy then, so carefree and full of life. Who ruined that little boy and turned him into the hardened man he is now? There is hardly any softness left in him. Who robbed him of that?
The question lingers as I go to the bathroom to wash up, slide into a new set of panties, and then leave the bathroom. I start to leave the bedroom, but something outside the balcony catches my eye.
Outside the window is a floating black figure. It hovers above the water, red eyes pointed in my direction, its black talons revealed. It’s cape billows in the wind, and my heart beats hard in my chest as I stare at it, waiting to see what it will do, but it does nothing. Just floats there, looking at me.
“Did I not tell you that if you go to him, he’ll die?”
The voice rings in my head, coming out like a painful croak. I try to move, but I’m frozen solid.
“The closer you are to the answers, the quicker your death. Accept your fate.”
“You’re full of shit. Tell me, if you’re so powerful, why haven’t you already killed us?”
“It was never that simple,”it says.
“Yeah, because it’s all a lie.”
“There are no lies.”It moves closer to the balcony. I’m still paralyzed, nothing moving but my eyes and my mouth.“I will keep coming for you. If you do not accept your fate right now, both of you will die a painful death once I obtain your Tether.”
“We’ll never accept it. Not when there’s a choice.”
“What a stupid, stupid girl.”
“Fuck you,” I seethe.
Mournwrath makes a throaty, croaking noise, like nails on a chalkboard, and I wince. Finally able to move, I cover my ears and crouch to the ground. The walls begin to shake, and the balcony doors rattle relentlessly.
In a matter of seconds, the glass shatters and shards fly across the room. A gust of wind sweeps in, so powerful it knocks me backward against the edge of the bed. I grunt, tumbling onto the floor, and when the wind stops, I look toward the balcony again.
Mournwrath is gone. Nothing is left but a broken window, open air, and sea.
Breathing raggedly, I push to a stand, and glass scatters off my clothes. The bedroom door swings open, and Caz comes charging in with Juniper and Rowan behind him.
“What the hell happened?” he asks, rushing toward me.
“Mournwrath was here,” I tell him.
“Shit. Did it hurt you? Let me see.” He reaches for my face and rubs my jawbone. I wince from the sting. The glass must’ve cut me there.
“I’m fine,” I tell him.
Maeve, Killian, and Della barge into the room next, and when they see the shattered glass and one side of the room now destroyed as if hit by a hurricane, their jaws go slack.
“What happened here?” Maeve asks.
“Mournwrath,” Caz grumbles, finally pulling away from me. He then hisses through his teeth and tugs the sleeve of his shirtup, revealing his forearm. The black veins are spreading there, and I feel my heart drop as I watch them slither up his arm.
“We need to move out.Now. There isn’t much more time. Maeve, Juniper, Rowan, get Willow out of here and head to Vanora. The sooner you can get there, the better. Killian,” he sighs, looking into his eyes. “I need you, brother. Stick with me.” Killian tips his chin, looks Caz over, then nods. The disagreement from earlier is no longer an issue. He’s dropping it, if only for now.
It’s all a frenzy after we leave Caz’s bedroom. Everyone hustles down the spiral staircase, and from there, Juniper, Maeve, and Rowan strap up to the teeth with weapons. Caz helps me put on the weapons he selected for me, then makes sure to cover them with my cloak.
