by May Dawson
Someone must have started after me, because Rafe said, “Let her go.”
That’s right.
Let me go.
Chapter Sixteen
Lex
As I headed toward the door, Rafe stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. He glanced down the hall, but Clearborn was gone. “Did something happen with Maddie?”
“No.”
His gaze was troubled. “In the hallway last night…”
“We didn’t do anything,” I said, my voice coming out sharp. “Do you have any particular accusation you want to make, Rafe?”
“She just seemed so out of control,” he said. “I thought maybe something sparked that.”
There was a question in his eyes as he looked at me.
“Not that I know of,” I said. “No matter how much it seemed like she hated me personally.”
He rubbed his hand across his jaw. “Clearborn watched us lose control of her completely. Couldn’t get her to go to class, couldn’t even get her to walk away when we told her to.”
He said we, but we both knew I was the one who had really botched things with Maddie, once again. Especially in Clearborn’s eyes.
“It’ll have to be dealt with,” Rafe muttered. “It’ll be better if you do it, Lex.”
I glanced away, at the doors that Maddie had disappeared out of.
“You can’t let that stand,” he said. “That’s exactly why Clearborn thinks you can’t take the primary position, you won’t do what it takes…”
“Because I won’t beat my ex-girlfriend? My mate?” I shook my head. “Hard pass, Rafe.”
The idea of hurting her after she hurt my feelings made me sick. It was too fucked up. I didn’t care who had seen her disrespect me in public. She and Rafe might have a future together, when the academy was over and they left what happened here behind, but they didn’t have the history that Maddie and I shared.
“She was right that everyone notices,” he said.
I ignored that, no matter how much it rankled. “I’m going to make sure she makes it back to the dorm safely.”
Rafe cursed. “Fine. I’m coming with you.”
“Don’t trust me alone with her?” My voice came out acidic, given his accusations earlier.
“I’m not sure I trust her with you,” Rafe muttered. “Girl has lost her mind.”
Rafe’s impulse was protective, that was clear. He wanted to protect me from Clearborn and even from Maddie lashing out.
But that instinct still grated on my nerves.
When the two of us got out onto the quad, there was no sign of Maddie. She must’ve run for the dorms.
But she didn’t answer when we knocked on her door. Rafe and I exchanged glances, and then I unlocked the guys’ side and shoved through their door.
“Maddie?” There was a worried edge in my voice.
Both rooms were empty.
“What the fuck is she doing?” Rafe demanded.
There wasn’t anywhere for her to go, except the library, the dojo or…
“Her car,” the two of us said at the same time.
The two of us ran at the same time down the hall, down the stairs, burst through the doors and ran for the gate. It would be easier to intercept her there then try to catch up to her at the parking lot.
“She’s not allowed off campus in the middle of the day,” Rafe said, frowning. “What the hell is she going to do?”
We were almost to the gate when a familiar cherry red Pontiac GTO raced past us. The guards were just opening the gate for a produce delivery truck coming in for the cafeteria.
“She wouldn’t,” I said, but it was wishful thinking at the moment. There wasn’t much on Maddie Northsea’s wouldn’t list.
Rafe and I shouted at her, but she couldn’t hear us, and nothing we said would matter to her anyway. She swerved around the delivery truck, clipping the edge of the gate and knocking it back, then her car bounced onto the road.
“Let her go,” Clearborn shouted as the guards raced after her. More quietly, as they turned back, he added, “Everyone knows the rules. You can go… you just can’t come back.”
He shook his head as two of the guards examined the damaged gate. “Especially if you cause property damage.”
I turned to face him. “There’s got to be something else going on. Something with her family, or...”
“Because it’s so peculiar that she would do something ill-advised?” Clearborn asked, with humor in his voice. “From what I heard, she’s not the only one who’s heard from their fellow students that they’re my pet. But that was a rather extreme reaction.”
Why was he here, now, at the gate? I frowned. Clearborn always seemed to manage to be everywhere, but his presence at the guard shack seemed prescient even by his standards.
Rafe’s face tensed at Clearborn’s words. I cocked my head at him, wondering when someone had called him Clearborn’s pet. Rafe hadn’t mentioned it, and that was unlike him. We didn’t have secrets.
“There was more than that,” I said. “She’ll come back.”
Clearborn looked at me. “I’m just curious, Lex. If there was a cost to her return, would you and she both be willing to pay it?”
I didn’t answer him. Rafe looked at me, his face irritated, but his eyes were pleading.
“That’s what I thought,” Clearborn said, and there was a snap of finality in his voice.
Chapter Seventeen
Maddie
I had to pull over a few miles from the academy. My eyes kept blurring with tears, so I stopped to wipe them away with the heel of my hand.
The way Lex had looked at me… god. I might remember the hurt on his face until my dying day.
Clearborn had warned me this mission would have a cost. I remembered Rafe’s face after the heated exchange we had after he whipped me, when I found him crying. I’d understood ever since then that my choices would take a toll on my men.
Now I’d hurt Lex too, just as badly, and Lex hadn’t done a damn thing to deserve it.
I would make it up to them later. I would fix things. I promised myself that I could, even if I didn’t see how now.
I sobbed, knowing I was lying to myself. Just for a few minutes. I’d just break down for a few minutes, in the quiet of my car.
How did they feel right now? Were they trying to be angry so they wouldn’t feel anything else? Without me, would Jensen find that mean, manipulative edge again, would Penn sneak out to the woods to smoke? I bit my lip, hoping they’d look out for each other.
I scrubbed my hand over my eyes, wiping away the tears. No more feeling sorry for myself. I had work to do.
I put the car back into drive and headed for packless territory.
The drive felt long and empty. How long had it been since I was this alone? I’d grown up trying to stay out of the way of my sister and her men, knowing they wanted me there and yet knowing I was intruding, too. But there had always been people around me, people who loved me.
I let myself hollow out. I had a job to do. Feelings didn’t matter. My men would understand later.
Or they wouldn’t.
At least they’d be safe.
I reached the cemetery just as dusk was falling. I parked in the empty gravel lot and got out. I took my keys, shoving them into the pocket of my blazer, and left my book bag.
I should’ve planned my big dramatic runaway better. How long was I going to be stuck in this damn short skirt and my oxfords? It might’ve revealed my plan if anyone realized I was packing jeans in my book bag, but jeez. A woman shouldn’t have to save the world dressed in a plaid miniskirt.
When my father didn’t come to meet me, I sat on the hood of the car and watched as the sun sank low behind the trees. Evening shadowed the ground around me and a chill swept through the air. Some plan, Dad. Would sure be nice to have a phone number. If he kept me waiting, I’d cut myself and do the spell again, but come on. Just let me text.
“You look miserable,” someone said from behind me. “Even by
sitting-in-a-cemetery standards.”
I whirled to find a young man in a black quilted jacket. His jet black hair was brushed back from his coldly beautiful face, and a black cat clung to his shoulders.
“Who the hell are you?” I demanded.
“Winter sent me to meet you.”
His gaze seemed to drift over me slowly, in a way that made me sit up from the windshield. I let my legs dangle off the side of the hood, tugging the hem of my skirt down to cover my thighs. Usually, a gaze like that would have felt creepy, but he seemed to study me with appreciation from head to toe, just as fascinated by the faint freckles on my cheeks as he was by the shape of my breasts or my long, slender legs. A smile played over his lips as his gaze returned to my face.
“That’s not an answer,” I told him.
“My name is Echo.”
“What’s your familiar’s name?” I’d never seen a witch who had a familiar—and a cat, at that. Echo seemed like a walking cliché.
A small smile played over his lips. “She’s just a cat. She doesn’t have a name.”
The cat mewed, sounding a bit angry.
I frowned. I’d never seen Echo before in my life—I would have remembered him—but there was something strange about him, something…familiar.
“Do you know who I am?”
He pulled his cat off his shoulder, slowly unhooking her claws, and nestled her onto his chest instead. The cat butted her head under his chin, and he petted the cat absently as it nestled in under his jaw. “I do, Madeline Northsea.”
“How’d you recognize me?” I asked. “You weren’t worried that you were approaching some poor random girl you’d terrify?”
“You’ve got the look of a girl who makes a lot of bad decisions,” he said. “You don’t look like the kind of girl to be terrified, even if you should be.”
I snorted. “You don’t know how right you are.”
“Coming here was one of them,” he said, and there was something dark in his voice that made me turn to look at him.
His eyes were a mesmerizing shade of deep gray, as dark as his voice, but touched with faint flecks of silver around the iris.
“Where’s my father?” I demanded. “I have questions for him.”
“I’ll take you to him.” He stepped in toward me, caging me against the side of the car as he leaned one hand on the car behind me.
“You don’t want to trap me,” I warned him, my voice suddenly very soft.
“You trapped yourself,” he told me. He skated the back of his fingers up across my jaw, over my cheek.
“If you don’t take two steps back,” I told him, my voice even softer, “I’m going to rip your throat out.”
“You wolves are all the same,” he said. “You think problems can be resolved by violence.”
“Sometimes they can,” I promised him. “You’re about to become a problem, by the way.”
He nodded. “Sure.”
Intuition sent a prickle up my spine that he was about to attack. Just as I lashed out at him, the hand that had just stroked my cheek suddenly slapped over my nose and mouth. He muttered a word in Latin.
I couldn’t breathe. I staggered forward, grabbing his shoulder with one hand. I slammed my fist into his side as hard as I could.
I couldn’t breathe in. No matter how I gasped, there was no air entering my lungs.
As my vision faded black around the edges, I could still see his face. His gaze was fixed on mine, his face worried, as if he took no joy in stealing the very air from my lungs. I fell to my knees, clawing at my throat.
When he bent down, I thought he was going to help me. Instead, he grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder. He carried me toward the trunk of my own car.
The darkness in my vision grew until it swallowed me completely.
Chapter Eighteen
I came to consciousness slowly, in a pitch black room. My chest and throat still ached, and my head throbbed when I sat up, rubbing my throat.
Everything was fine. I was fine. I was supposed to be here.
Let’s hope the witches haven’t invented a spell for mind-reading.
I fumbled my hands through the darkness until I brushed the hard wooden side of a table. I felt my way up and found a lamp. When I turned it on, the sudden brightness made me wince.
I looked down at myself. I still wore the damn blouse and tie and plaid skirt. Someone had draped my blazer across the foot of the bed. I reached out for it, because the cold seemed to sink into my skin. There was nothing in this tiny room but the bed and the nightstand.
My legs felt unsteady underneath me as I stumbled across the room, which only took a few steps. There was almost nothing in here; there was no room for anything but the mattress on the floor. The bedroom was windowless—inconvenient, but a good choice, I wouldn’t give me a window either—and there was just one door out. No bathroom. I could really use a bathroom. A shelf ran around the room at eye-level, a bar beneath it, and that was when I realized where I was.
I stumbled across the room to the door and banged on it. “Hey!”
I knew my ‘family’ was dysfunctional, but sending someone else to kidnap your daughter and lock her in a closet was a new low.
I kept banging on the door and yelling until I finally heard footsteps on the other side.
“Yes?”
It was the asshole who’d knocked me unconscious.
“Echo, did you lock me in your bedroom closet?” I demanded. “I need to use the bathroom.”
“You have terrible manners. By any standard, but especially for someone locked in a closet,” he said.
“Echo.”
He pulled the door open, and leaned in the doorway, a smug smirk curving up his lips. “I’m not sure why you think yelling at me is going to get you anything you want.”
“Where’s my father?” I demanded.
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Gone.”
“Gone?”
“He’ll see you when he comes back.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do in the meantime?”
“You could work on your manners.” He started to close the door in my face. I stepped forward, raising my forearm to brace it against the door and to explode out into the hallway.
But I ran into a brick wall of magic. I staggered back as if it had thrown me.
“There’s a bucket in the corner,” he said, his voice cold. “You’re a bright girl. You could’ve put it together without waking me.”
“Echo!” I said.
He slammed the door shut between us.
I had my watch, but I didn’t know anymore which eleven o’clock it was—eleven in the morning or eleven at night.
I banged my fist against the door until the side of my hand went numb. Was there even anyone out there? My magic wouldn’t bring the door down.
There had to be another way out.
I was standing on the bed, feeling my hands across the ceiling, when the door opened. I hastily bounced to sit on the edge of the bed, fixing an innocent expression across my face.
When the door swung open, Echo loomed in the doorway. His cat looked at me in a way that seemed sympathetic; maybe even his cat realized Echo was an asshole.
“Morning, sunshine.” Echo studied me with cold eyes.
Morning. It was morning. That was useful information.
I licked my lips. They felt dry, but my tongue wasn’t much help. I wasn’t sure how long he’d left me in here without food or water.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
“You’re two-for-two for trying to kill me when we come face-to-face,” he said. “I don’t know why you think I’m the jerk.”
“I wasn’t trying to kill you.”
“Oh? How many witches have you killed?” He raised his eyebrows as he studied me.
I shook my head. The witches I’d killed were all terrible people. My sister and her men didn’t hunt all witches, as some packs did. They only went after the covens that hurt
people.
“But I’m supposed to feel sorry for you,” he said, his voice mocking. “You don’t even see me as being as human as you are.”
I chose my words carefully. “Has my father come back yet?”
My voice cracked—just because my throat was so dry—and he frowned.
“Your father isn’t here yet, no.” Then he asked, “Do you think you could go a day without trying to murder me?”
“Is he going to appreciate how I was left without any food or water?” I demanded.
“I don’t think he’s going to care,” he said frankly.
When he closed the door between us again, I thought he might have left me for good. Fear spiked in my chest.
Then he opened the door a few minutes later with a glass of water. When I stretched out my hand to take it from him, he shook his head.
He sat on the edge of the bed with easy grace. I frowned at him, wondering what trick he played. There were three ice cubes, clinking around in the deliciously cold looking water, and my throat ached. Was he going to ask me questions and taunt me with the water?
“Lift your chin and part your lips,” he said.
I’d expected him to use the water to bribe me for information, but he’d managed to shock me. I stared at him. “What?”
He slid his finger under my chin and tilted it up. I pulled away, glaring at him.
“Let’s try this again,” he said evenly. “Resist me again, and I’ll leave. We’ll try this again tomorrow.”
I studied him with narrowed eyes. He looked relaxed, implacable, his hand paused in mid-air, as if he played these torturous games on a regular basis. Reluctantly, I shifted back. He continued to watch me, his fingers still held in front of my face.
Finally, I fisted my hands, which threatened to shake with rage, and set my chin back in his grip.
His thumb stroked over my lips, teasing them open. Something about his touch that sent a strange thrill to my core, even though I hated him.
He lifted the glass to my lips with his other hand, then tilted it carefully.
I watched him over the top of my cup as I guzzled the water down desperately. Some of it slipped past the glass and ran down my chin, but it didn’t matter. I had to get all the water I could before he might yank the glass away. My mouth was parched, and it felt like the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted.