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I turn to him. “Not in the mood right now.”
I pile up my plate and sit at the table. “Anyway, this isn’t pauper food.”
“It’s from the staff fridge.”
It is?
“You steal their food, though. Poor things.”
He must be bullshitting me. Why would the staff keep food here?
My skin feels too tight under his gaze. He’s watching me like he wants to see me lose it. I won’t give him the satisfaction.
“Sweetheart, there you are.” Mom walks into the room looking beautiful as ever. She could have been a movie star or a model if she’d wanted, but she married dad instead and her life took a different path.
He loved her, but their life wasn’t easy, and when he died, he left us in terrible danger.
“Glass of wine?” she asks Dom.
“Sure.”
She pours them both a glass, and he takes the offered wine and sips at it. It pisses me off the way she offers him some and not me. I get it. I’m underage, and it’s not the best thing for me, but he’s treated like an adult, and I’m only a year younger and treated like a kid.
“We will be eating in around an hour, Mackenzie,” Mom says. “You’re welcome to join us.”
I don’t want to join them. Meals between the four of us are excruciating—and even worse if Dom decides to bring one of his friends along.
She pours another glass of the red wine, leaving the bottle on the table, and heads out of the room. “I’ll just take this to Nataniele.”
I reach for the bottle and defiantly fill my now empty water glass.
“Ah, look at the Duchess drinking wine with the grownups.”
I ignore Dom entirely this time. I rummage in my bag for my tablet and, propping it up on the table, put on a YouTube video about Dickens. We have an essay on him due next week, and I figure some background information won’t hurt. Then I eat, watch, and sip at my wine, all the while studiously paying no attention to Dom.
I feel him, though. His presence is like some evil spirit lurking in the room. You’re aware of it even when you’re not looking at it. Once I’ve finished eating, I down the rest of my wine and head out of the room. As I pass Dom, I give him the finger, and go back into the communal corridor leading to the dorm rooms. I get to mine and storm inside, closing my door firmly. To be sure of no unwelcome visitors, I lock the door.
God, I feel rough. I’m so tired. The stress of the past few days has not been good, and I shouldn’t have downed that wine just now. Dom winds me up so much I lose my control around him. My hearing has gone strange—like my ears are plugged—and the floor is no longer steady beneath my feet.
Shit.
I need some fresh air.
Walking to the window, I reach for the clasp to open it when it hits me, the aura, and the drop I get in my stomach right before a seizure hits.
Oh, fuck, no.
Everything goes black.
Chapter 18
Mackenzie
“Mackenzie? Baby? Can you hear me? You’ve had a seizure, but you’re okay. I came to talk to you and heard you as you fell and knocked the chair over.”
Mom’s voice is far away, and my limbs are so heavy.
“There’s a pillow under your head, and I’m just going to put you in the recovery position, okay?”
