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“I know that,” I replied softly. “It’s obvious he’s conflicted.”
Zac let out a breath of relief. “Good. I—I don’t want you to get scared off. That’s all.”
This entire situation was strange. He came all the way here just to make sure I wasn’t afraid of Alek?
“Why do you care so much?” I asked, furrowing my brows.
He stopped tapping his foot and looked at me from across the couch. “Because,” he started, “Alek cares about you, Lyra. He’s going to try to push you away, and it’s stupid and reckless of him to do anything other than that, but he cares. He’s had a hard life. He deserves someone like you in his life.”
I caught myself falling for his words before I remembered the harsh truth. “This is all temporary,” I said, more to myself than to Zac. “If he’s thinking anything other than that, he’s a fool.”
“It doesn't have to be temporary,” Zac argued.
How cruel those words were.
“It does. I’m risking my entire life by even playing my part in Alek’s little game. I almost died the other night at the lake house.”
“And Alek’s making sure that won’t happen again.”
I shook my head. Of course this was happening. Our simple deal was never so simple, was it? There were always going to be these dirty, tangled strings attached to it.
Had I gotten in way over my head?
“I still don’t understand why any of this matters,” I thought out loud. “I know Alek told you about our deal. This is for the approval of his father, is it not? Nothing more. Nothing less.”
“It’s not that simple, Lyra. And you know it.”
“Why? What changed?”
“You were pulled into our world, into these traditions and rules. You have enemies now. And because Alek marked you, your enemies are our enemies.”
I laughed. “I’m not sure how true that is.”
Zac surprised me by sliding himself closer to me on the white couch. “Hear me when I tell you this, Lyra,” he started. “Alek will do anything for you. Don’t let him push you away. He’s had a tough life, and a really tough year. He doesn’t know what’s good for him, even when she’s standing right in front of his face. Does that make any sense?”
Unable to form coherent words, I nodded.
Zac stood from the couch and headed back to the window. He gripped the window frame with both hands before turning to face me. “There’s more that you don’t know, Lyra. More that we can’t tell you yet. There’s a carnival not far from here tomorrow night. We’ll be there. You should come talk to him.”
I didn’t have time to ask what he was talking about. He lifted himself out of the window and vanished into the night.
ChapterTwenty-Four
“Someone’s going to see us leaving this window one day,” Natalie said as she crawled outside.
I followed her, pulling the window down and leaving just a few inches to crawl back inside. “Let’s not jinx it,” I replied. I pulled my black cropped sweatshirt down to cover the skin on my torso. “We’ve somehow been lucky this far.”
“You’re right about that one. We’ve been on a lucky streak lately. Aside from you almost drowning in the lake and everything.”
I gently shoved her shoulder as we walked toward her car. She laughed and brushed me off.
Natalie’s car was surprisingly messy for the daughter of a goddess. Similar to Salem’s car, she had soda cans and half-eaten candy bars on the floorboard. She quickly leaned over and brushed off the passenger seat before I sat down.
“You should really consider keeping this cleaner,” I said to her. “I don’t even want to know what your room looks like these days.”
Natalie laughed and pulled away from my apartment building, driving us into the city. “You haven’t been to my house in years,” she stated. “I could be a totally different person!”
“By the looks of your car, I doubt it.” I snorted.
