Her eyes met mine, and her mouth opened slightly. I stiffened a bit, terrified she wouldn't believe me.
“I bet it was your father, wasn’t it?” she hissed instead, and I almost started crying again in relief.
“I don’t know. But heknew. I saw it in his eyes when I told him. Then he turned around and lied to everyone, told them I’d imagined it and didn’t let anyone even check.”
“He’s such a bastard,” Jade said.
“Jule might be alive somewhere.”
Jade looked at me, pain shadowing her face as she drew back. I knew they hadn’t left things on the best terms, but she’d cared about him. And she said she cared about me.
“If there’s even a chance…” I said. “You asked why I haven’t left. I can’t, not until I know what happened to him. I’ve been spying on my father, but he never says anything. I don’t know where else to look.”
Jade’s expression was tight, but she sighed and pulled me into a hug. “Well, you got me back now, babe. I promise I’ll help you find out what happened.”
I slowly relaxed in her arms before tentatively hugging her back.
I wanted to tell her the other trouble I was in, about how I’d been dark bonded, but I’d been ordered not to. But she wasn’t dumb. Even though I couldn’t tell her about it directly, she might figure it out if we kept spending time together. She was my only chance right now.
“Okay,” I murmured into her hair.
At least one thing had gone right in my life this week.
THIRTY-TWO
5 YEARS AGO
LAUREL
“What’s up, losers?” Jade called, dropping down from a beam above me and slinging an arm around my shoulders.
I gave a shriek, wrapping my arms around her for a big hug.
“Okay, okay,” she grumbled, shoving me off with a smile. She glanced around, and I smirked as her face fell slightly when she saw I was alone.
“He still hasn’t shown up?” she said, dropping into a beat-up chair. We were in our hangout—a long-forgotten space we’d found in the ceiling over the Blood Well. It was part of the network of passages, vents, tunnels, and half-completed rooms that sprawled throughout the Crimson Palace.
This one was a tall, hollow wall that surrounded the Blood Well with support beams, providing an effortless way to climb up and down. We’d nailed down a bunch of plywood and boards to make a floor at the very top, kind of like a very dusty indoor treehouse. It was pretty easy to get to from the main floor of the casino and from the Blood Well’s VIP suite.
The fights had started for the night, and I could hearthe muffled roar of the crowd and announcer beneath us. It was dark, but we’d strung up lights and brought chairs and beanbags so we could be comfy. We’d walled off our section by nailing up curtains, and you could almost pretend we were in an innocuous attic somewhere, instead of above a fight pit.
“I have no idea where he is,” I said. “He said he was ‘sick,’ but when I broke into his room, he wasn’t there.”
Jade wrinkled her nose. “You went into his bedroom? Ew, I bet it’s super gross in there.”
“You like to spend time thinking about being in my bedroom, Jade?” Jule’s smug voice floated up to us before he climbed up between two beams.
“You wish, asshole.” Jade chucked a piece of crumpled-up paper at him, and it bounced off his shoulder as he stood up.
“I’ll let that slide,” he said, pointing a finger at Jade before sinking into a beanbag with a sigh that lacked his usual dramatic flair. “Not in the mood.”
“Where the heck have you been?” I asked him. “You were gone for like, three days! I had to get Prince to cover for you, and he would only do it if I went to the Spring Social with him.”
Prince had nice hair, but he was super gross. He’d chased me down with a booger last week, which was really immature for a fifteen-year-old.
“I wasn’t feeling great,” he said again, and I frowned at him, a little hurt.
We didn’t keep secrets from each other. But a lot had changed since he’d presented as an alpha this year. He’d been so much more distant, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was losing him.
