AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When I imagined him facing off against Stone, Nathan seemed like nothing.
“It’s all right,” Aiden told me quietly as we moved away from the nurse. “Look, I want you to drive on, get some distance between us and you, all right? Find a hotel, with interior doors. Maybe she’s just sick with something, but maybe someone got to her… maybe this is a way to slow you down.”
“A safe hotel with interior doors isn’t going to take cash,” I reminded him. “We’ll figure it out. We’ll be fine.”
We couldn’t leave Rose alone in the hospital. Aiden needed to stay. I glanced over at Dylan, who was studying the vending machine with a deep sense of optimism.
Aiden’s jaw flexed. “Are we just always fucked? What the hell did we do in a past life?”
“It’s going to be alright,” I repeated, as if wishing could make it so.
“We’re going to have to go back,” he said quietly. “If she gets any worse… I can’t keep her from Mom.”
A chill shuddered through my stomach. There it was. Mom had never been so awful to my siblings as she was to me, and it made sense that if Rose were dying, she’d want her mother at her side.
But it still felt terrible. It always hurt that my siblings’ relationship with my mother was closer to what I wanted. I’d worked so hard to win her love before surrendering that dream. I could imagine how worried my mother would be over Rose, how she’d sweep her hair back from her feverish forehead and be tender for once. Even though I despised my mother, longing still unfurled in my soul. For a split second, I imagined my own face, and my mother bent over me in concern.
I would never trust her, and I would never stop wishing that I could.
“You have to go.” Aiden gripped my shoulders, his fingers curling into my skin. “You know you’re in danger, Amelia. Keep going until you hit the west coast.”
“I don’t want to leave you and Rose.”
“If…” His lips pressed together. He didn’t want to discuss theifs.If Nathan was alive. If the pack found us. But there were other ifs, too. If my sister died. “There’s nothing you can do, Amelia. You’ve got to go on without us.”
That meant leaving my sister whenshewas in danger. My feelings were a wild tangle and I tried to think of what the most logical steps were.
But the logical path felt wrong. Like a betrayal of my own.
“What if thisisa trap?” I asked. “What if someone poisoned her?”
“Then the hospital will figure out what it is.”
“What if it’s nothing they’ve seen before? What if it’s an enchantment?” Louisa and her mixing bowl of nightmares rose in my mind, and the second after, I saw her glazed-over eyes that seemed to stare right through me.
“If it’s a trap, you know it’s a trap for you,” Aiden said. “The best thing you can do is move.”
Frustration shuddered through me. He was right, but I also hated the idea of abandoning Rose.
“What if she hates me? For leaving?”
Aiden had looked as frustrated as I did, but his face softened. “She won’t. She’ll understand.”
I shook my head. I loved my little sister, but she saw the world in shades of black and white.
“You’ve forgiven her for a lot worse,” Aiden reminded me.
Before I could answer, Dylan ran over. “Can I have quarters?”
“I don’t have quarters,” I told him. “I’m talking to Uncle Aiden. Please wait.”
His lower lip pudged out. Aiden was already digging in his pocket, and I raised my eyebrows at him.
“What?” he asked as he held out his palm with change for Dylan. “He’s been through a lot.”
“And he’ll have to go through a lot more if he ends up spoiled and self-centered.” I watched Dylan run back to the vending machines. I could never stand to take my eyes off him.
“I barely got to see him before.” Aiden raked his fingers through his hair, revealing the scar on his forehead.
