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“Grace,” I plead, trying again. I can’t leave her like this. I can’t let her go. I need her to understand.
“Get out!” She screams.
I walk to the door, watching her as she fumbles for her things.
“I’m getting the hell out of here and none of you are going to stop me!”
“Grace, I love you,” I tell her, dejectedly. I stand there, a broken man.
“You don’t love anyone! You’re a psycho! You made me think we had this relationship. I let you kiss me and share my bed! You’re freaking sick!”
“Go, Seven,” Oracle says again.
“You all three need to leave!”
My frown deepens. “Maybe you are sick. Maybe it’s from the accident. You’re seeing people that aren’t there.”
“I’m seeing a monster! You need to leave! All of you!”
“Seven,” Oracle says again in warning.
It takes every ounce of me to get my body to turn, and with one last glance, I go.
26
GRACE
I’m throwing things on the bed without rhyme or reason. I stomp to the closet to find my suitcase. I’ve zoned out, so much so that it’s a shock to look up and see Oracle and Lucy still standing there, staring at me.
“Ugh,” I sigh, pulling the bag out and rolling it to the bed, resisting the urge to snap at them. “You two need to leave too. I’m getting out of here and you’re not stopping me.”
Lucy walks over to the chair beside the bed, crossing her long legs gracefully. Everything she does is fluid motion and I’m over here looking like a feral cat that just got trapped. I smooth my ponytail self-consciously before turning back to shoving clothes in the bag.
“You don’t want to do that, Grace,” Lucy says calmly. We might as well be talking about the weather as calm as she is.
“Don’t bother trying to talk me out of it. Seven is lucky I don’t have him charged for kidnapping and holding me prisoner.”
Lucy looks at Oracle with a small smile on her lips. “Captain, do you see?” I turn around to look at them to find Oracle staring at me so intently I’m unsettled by it.
“I see, Butterfly. I see.” Oracle says, softly. It’s weird. He looks so intimidating but his obvious love for Lucy drips from each word.
Shaking my head, I refuse to acknowledge the pain that I will never have that with Seven—the man who has lied to me from the beginning and is probably some kind of evil monster. “You need to leave,” I tell them again.
“Why? I mean, you’re the one packing. You’ll be gone soon.” Lucy asks, tilting her head slightly.
“I’d prefer to be alone until I am gone,” I huff.
“I prefer to stay,” she counters.
“Fine,” I tell her as I send a glare her way.
“I’m interested in why you want to leave so quickly when just yesterday you were in love with your fiancé.”
“I never said I was in love,” I say, insistently.
“Hmm. You’re right. You were just taking clothes to the man you let in your bed because you didn’t want him to sleep on the couch.” A smile tugs at the corner of her lips as I narrow my eyes at her.
“Did Seven tell you that?” I ask, dryly.
“He didn’t have to.”
I release a heavy sigh. She must have been in the hall and overheard mine and Seven’s conversation last night.
“It’s not nice to eavesdrop, Lucy,” I chastise.
“It’s not like I can do much else around here,” Lucy says with a shrug. “No one can see me, except you and my mate, anyway.”
“There you go using that word like Seven. I think you’re all crazy and you’re crazier than the rest of them if you expect me to believe no one can see you.”
“Call Ettie in here,” Lucy says. Oracle is unnerving me. He’s hanging on every word Lucy and I are saying, but he’s not speaking himself.
I frown at him. “Did you miss the part where I wanted people out of my room?” With that Oracle turns and leaves.
One down one to go. I’d like to think he’s giving me what I wanted, by leaving but I know better. I can’t be that lucky.
“Why do you refer to Oracle as your mate? Does everyone here believe in soulmates or something?” I ask.
Lucy giggles. “Soulmates are a silly human tradition. Humans will brag all the time about how they met their soulmates. They even broadcast it far and wide on social media. Then a week or two later, they’ve broken up and moved onto a new lover,” Lucy says, shaking her head. “Our kind aren’t as fickle as humans.”
“What do you mean by humans and our kind?” I ask, my frown deepening.
“My dear, Grace, I can’t believe you haven’t figured it out yet. I’d almost call you dense at this point. No offense.”
I straighten up as annoyance washes over me. “I’m not sure there’s a way I can’t take that offensively.”
