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So far, so good.
Thorn left you alone when you weren’t well. He shouldn’t have left you.
This insidious whisper ran a field track in my head, over and over, gaining in volume and I tried to shut it out by putting my hands over my ears.
But it doesn’t help. The words are coming from inside of me—from the stones I took in.
He’s lying to you. He’s never around when you need him.
“That’s not true!” I screamed.
He sent you to pack territory by yourself to get the finger. He wasn’t at the church when you needed him. You don’t know him. Don’t know anything about him. He’s playing you.
Something snapped in my head and words running laps around my sanity finally made sense. He was always there to puppeteer me into the next move. Locating the stones. Retrieving them. Urging me to use their power.
I’m twice marked, full of power from gods know where, and I’m being played. I cast about for my boots, but they’re gone, too.
He marked you like you a prized cow to maintain his claim on you.
This last thought infuriated me, and I decided it was time that he and I had it out.
I will not be controlled.
But after searching the bedroom and then the rest of the house, I can not find my boots.
That motherfucker left you here with no shoes so you couldn’t follow him.
I had to get that last stone back from Moira. In my fevered brain that made sense. Get the stone. Let it merge with the others in me and make Thorn tell me the goddamn truth about how he manipulated me the entire time.
I raced out the front door and down the street, numb to the slapping of my bare feet on the pavement, chasing the bus. People are getting off work, and the bus was crowded. Their irritations, frustration and melancholy prickled me until I couldn't stand it. I jumped off to jog instead.
The streets aren’t much better, and I find myself in the alleys, broken glass biting into my heels as I wind my way to La Sorcière’s back door. I’ll get that finger back from Moira and I’ll give that bitch a piece of my mind.
Except, it's no longer there. The building isn't where it should be, and my stomach clamped in my middle.
I jogged to the street to get my bearings. Maybe, I walked a block too far? I'm not used to traveling behind the storefronts. I paced up and down the road, but La Sorcière was nowhere to be found. It's like the building's been—shortened, as if a giant hand came down and simply picked up the magic shop, and no one's the wiser.
Nobody but me.
Back in the alley, I yank a chunk of beer bottle out of my foot with a curse and think. I can't feel Thorn at all, cut off from him the way I'm cut off from the existence of Moira's shop.
But there’s one person who will still help me.
I limped for a moment until the pain in my foot ebbed, and then I ran. A few blocks over, the evening crowd thins out to a few people just getting home from work, and no one notices me. Seeing my apartment building still there makes my throat tight and my eyes blur.
Even better, the lights are on in my apartment, and the stairs are easy enough to climb even with heels filled with glass. Chastity will help me. She’s been right all along, and I’ll have to eat a meal’s worth of crow, but she won’t turn me away.
I pushed in the window, and sitting at the counter in my kitchen was Thorn, with a glass of wine in hand. Stunned, I gape at him unnoticed until there's movement from Chastity's bedroom. She emerges in little more than a nightgown.
“Oh. Len. Did you come up the fire escape?”
Her voice is hollow in my ears. She could be shouting. I wouldn't know. I'm underwater, and nothing makes sense.
“Don't want anything to do with the Syndicate, huh? Thorn's just a monster mob boss, right?” My voice felt like knives in my throat. “You couldn't possibly sit down with both of us. But having him over for drinks while I’m—” I stopped short, the demon runes whispering loudly enough to confuse me. “Have you fucked him yet, or should I come back?“
Thorny laughter bubbled in my throat, coming out in a wild cackle. I taste blood and spit it on the floor.
“Elena.“ Thorn's standing so close it makes me jump. “Why are you here?“
