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“Where is she!” I shouted, kicking the armchair that lay on its side in her apartment so that it flew into the wall.
“A temper tantrum isn’t going to help,” Rory said.
I breathed hard, anger threatening to take over. When I’d come after Liv, I’d found her apartment a mess, and she was gone. Where the hell else could she be?
“I shouldn’t have let her go. I knew she was in danger, and I still let her walk out.”
“Why?” Rory asked.
“Why what?” I snapped.
“Why did you let her go? You knew you had to keep her close.”
I scrubbed my hands down my face.
“I was scared,” I admitted.
“Of what?”
“Everything. My dad, my stepmom…” My voice cracked. “I fucking killed that bitch. She deserved to die, and my dad should have done it, but he wasn’t strong enough to do it. If I let what I feel for Liv rule me, what does that make me?”
Rory’s face softened.
“Colter, it’s not wrong to love.”
It didn’t matter. The moment of weakness had paid off—she was gone now, and it was all my fault, no matter what my reason. If something had happened to her because of me, I would be nothing like my dad. No, I would bewayworse.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Rory said.
“Why don’t you make yourself useful and help me find her?” I snapped. I hated looking so weak, so worked up, but Liv had become everything, and now that there was a real possibility she was gone…
Rory raised her eyebrows. “I know you’re upset, and your mood swings are a part of who you are, but I’m on your side.”
I sighed and forced myself to reel in my anger. It only worked partially.
“I’m sorry,” I grumbled. “I just…”
“I get it,” Rory said when I didn’t know how to find the words. “You’re in love with her. She’s your mate. Your fated mate.”
I glanced at Rory. Her face was serious—she wasn’t laughing at me. She knew exactly what I felt, and that this was real.
“I don’t do love, Rory,” I said. “And this is fucking why. Women can’t be trusted. All they do is destroy everything you’ve built and leave you with nothing.”
“Liv isn’t your stepmom, and you’re not your dad. At some point, you have to let that shit go, or it’s going to affect every choice you make in your life. Killing her was all for nothing if it means she still rules you.”
“She doesn’t!” I snapped, but Rory was right.
My stepmother had been a bitch of a woman, cunning and disgusting, taking my dad for everything he had. She deserved to die, but that didn’t mean that I’d killed her in my mind. She still ruled everything I did, influencing every decision I made. Especially when it came to the women in my life.
Mykel appeared in the doorway. His hair stuck up in all directions, and his beard was scruffier than usual. He’d been out running the streets of the city, looking for Liv.
“Okay, I spoke to the neighbors. They’ve all been terrified into secrecy or hexed, so they don’t remember what happened, but one of them wasn’t human.”
“Oh?”
“She’s trying to pass for human, she says it’s safer that way, but she’s fae. She says Liv came home with a friend, a guy with long hair, who ended up taking her.”
For a moment, fury took over, and I saw red.
