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Chapter 5
I stare at the agape door of my cage in shock. My heart is a flurry in my chest, sending doubt soaring through me. Is this really happening? Am I free? After all these years?
“Are you going to just sit there or actually get out?” He taps the thick, leather watch on his wrist. “The clock’s ticking.”
I inch closer to the door and stick out my arm through the opening. A smile lights up my face and I wiggle my fingers. “Freedom feels so good.”
He rolls his eyes. “That might be true if you were actually out of the cage.” He reaches in, grabs my arm, and gently pulls me out of the cage.
My heart leaps giddily at the feel of his fingers on my skin and then nearly does five hundred kickflips as my feet touch the floor outside of my cage. I wiggle my toes and take a deep breath of air, which somehow tastes fresher.
“There, now you can say it.” He starts to release my arm, but I latch onto his hand with my free hand.
“Just one more second, please.” I suck in a breath and another, letting the warmth of his contact glow across my skin. “You feel so good.”
He scowls at me, but then his eyes widen as I place my hand against his chest.
“You feel so solid.” I lightly pat his chest. “Like a rock or something.”
He gives me a condescending grin. “How did you expect me to feel? All squishy and soft?”
“Actually, yes. At least that’s how I remember humans feeling.” I tap my palm against his chest. “But you definitely aren’t smooshy.”
He bites down on his bottom lip, either out of frustration or to stop himself from grinning—it’s really hard to tell since I haven’t been around people very much. “No, I’m not. But I’m also not human either.”
I blink up at him. “What are you then? Because you never said. And you also forgot to tell me your name.”
“Who said I forgot?”
I pout. “So, you’re not going to tell me then?”
He rolls his eyes. “Would you stop doing that?”
“Doing what?”
“That pouting thing. I know you’re doing it on purpose.”
I stick my lip out further. He shakes his head. Then, with his fingertip, he pushes my lower lip back into place. Little does he know, though, that the feel of his finger against my lip makes me feel all gooey and warm inside, which only makes me want to stick out my lip again. Which is exactly what I start to do.
“Stop,” he warns, holding his finger to my lip. “And I’ll tell you my name and what I am, but that’s it. Got it?”
I bob my head up and down. He sighs again, something I’ve noticed he’s done a lot. I don’t know why, though.
He waits for a few ticks of the clock, I guess to make absolutely certain I’m going to keep my lip in place. Then he says, “My name is Caspian and like you, I’m a Maddening.”
Chapter 6
So not what I was expecting. Well, except for maybe the name part. Caspian sort of fits him, at least if you ask me. But him being like me…
“Wait a minute.” I cup my fingers around my arm where he touched me moments ago. “How is that possible if you touched me?” My gaze hurriedly drops to my arms and then my legs, searching for anything… Well, bad. But my skin is its usual pale color. “Why am I not… Well, I’m still not a hundred percent sure what my touch is supposed to do after I change into a… What did you call it? A Maddening?”
He nods. “A Maddening is what I am and what you’ll become very soon.”
“But what is a Maddening exactly? I mean, what happens to someone when you touch them? And why didn’t it happen to me?”
He wavers. “I’m not sure I want to tell you.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m afraid you’ll get upset.”
“Aw, you don’t want to upset me,” I say, feeling oddly touched. “That’s kind of sweet.”
He rakes his fingers through his hair and shakes his head with a look of disbelief. “I’m not doing it to be sweet. I’m doing it because I’m afraid you’ll cry and I don’t want to deal with that right now. No, scratch that. I don’t want to deal with that ever.” The disbelief in his eyes fades as his features harden. “I hate people who cry—they’re weak.”
I feel a sting of hurt, but then again… “But technically I’m not a person, so I guess I don’t really count, right?”
He blinks then shakes his head and mutters, “Good God, you’re going to drive me nuts. I never should’ve agreed to train you.”
“Train me for what?”
He dismisses me with a wave. “You’ll learn about that later. Right now, we need to get going before he shows up.” He starts for the door, taking long, even strides.
I clumsily trip after him, my legs struggling against the foreign movement. It’s been so long since I’ve walked someplace else besides my cage.
“Before who shows up?” I ask, bracing my hand on the doorframe as I reach it.
He glances over his shoulder at me. “When I told you I’d let you out, you promised you wouldn’t ask a lot of questions, yet that’s all you’ve been doing.”
“Sorry.” I chew on my bottom lip, trying to fight the urge to ask the question burning on the tip of my tongue. But ultimately, I lose. “Can you at least tell me what a Maddening is? Then I promise I’ll keep my lips shut.”
“You seriously are a pain in the ass.” He turns suddenly and closes the distance between us.
I nearly fall over from the suddenness, but he catches me by the waist and steers me backwards until my back is pressed against the wall. Then his hands come down against the wall, so my head is trapped between his arms. My heart thunders inside my chest, not out of fear but from startling excitement.
“Are you sure you want to know?” he asks in a low tone, his face inching toward mine. “Because once you find out, there’s no turning back.”
I wet my dry lips with my tongue and his eyes flick in the direction of my mouth. It makes me wonder how gross my lips look—how gross I look. “I-I want to know.” The uncertainty in my voice causes me to cringe. I hastily clear my throat and give it another go. “I want to—no, need to know; otherwise I’ll go crazy.”
“I’d really be careful how easily you throw the word crazy around.” He bites on his bottom lip, mulling over something. “All right, I’ll tell you. But just for the record, I tried to warn you.” He drags out a pause as if waiting for me to chic
ken out and then blows out a breath. “When a Maddening touches someone, it drives that person to the brink of insanity within a matter of seconds.”
I gulp. “And how long do they stay like that?”
His intense gaze carries mine. “Forever.”
Chapter 7
“Forever?” Shock lashes through me, powerful and potent. “But then…” Tears sting in my eyes as my future opens up in front of me. “No one will ever want to be with me—won’t be able to be with me. I’ll die alone….” My teary eyes drift to my cage, my home for nearly a decade and a half, and then my gaze returns to Caspian. “Wait? How come you can touch me and I don’t go crazy? I mean, I haven’t transitioned yet, so shouldn’t I be insane by now?”
“No, you’re cursed, so my powers don’t work on you,” he says, warily eyeballing the tears streaming down my cheeks. “You’re crying again.”
“I’m sorry.” I sniffle, but tears continue to pour out of my eyes. “But what do you mean by cursed? Cursed how exactly?”
“That will be revealed in time.” His tone is tight. “For the love of God, Heartley, would you please knock off the crying. It’s not the end of the world.”
“Yes, it is.” I gripe through a sob. “I’ll never be able to touch anyone.”
“That’s not entirely true,” he reminds me. “You’ll be able to touch anyone with Maddening blood inside their veins, like me.”
A few tears leak from my eyes, but I manage to get my sobbing under control. “Just how many of you… us are there?”
He shrugs. “Not that many.”
I frown, my eyes bubbling with tears. “So I’ll just be stuck with whoever I can find?”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” His lips threaten to turn into a smirk. “But how can it be when I’m in that category? After all, you already established that you think I’m rock solid.”
“Actually I said solid like a rock, which technically isn’t the same thing.”
