Me included.
It felt like I didn’t know him anymore. No, I actually didn’t know him. I never had. No one did. No one knew what his past entailed. Even if his pattern was different from someone who harboured ill intentions, Istilldidn’t know him.
My mind screamed questions as I neared the front gaping doorway of the house. But then I stopped. Slowly, I turned. He was a few feet back, water dripping from his hair down to his jawline, his eyes dark in the rain.
I held his gaze. Just once, I wanted to push past his walls. Just once, I needed to try. I needed to know who the messenger was, who sent those creatures, why I’d been lured out, why they’d chased me. I had to know, before curiosity consumed me from the inside out.
“What are you hiding?” My voice came out softly.
He stepped closer, just two strides. “Go inside—”
“No.” My chin lifted. “I’m not sleeping in that house knowing they can come at me again.”
“The rain’s stopping. They’re gone.”
See? He knew. He knew they only came when it rained. I bet my life he knew more than that.
“What more do I not know?” I whispered.
His eyes flicked to my feet again with a sharp twitch in his jaw, as if seeing me standing there barefoot in sodden socks made him physically uncomfortable. “A lot,” he forced out. “Now can you go in?”
I didn’t move. “No. Tell me everything first. Or at least half.”
His voice dropped, laced with frustration. “You can’t understand.”
“I know the messenger was from The Crater,” I pushed. “Are these from there too?”
He hesitated. Then sighed. “Yes.”
“Does The Crater target people like this? Did I do something wrong? Is that why they’re after me?”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But they’re after me.”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. His eyes told me everything.
They are after me.
I let in a shaky breath as I tried to contain the rush of emotions breaking loose. “Why?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it.”
“It is after me!” The words tore out of my throat, raw, scraping my chest. “And you still can’t tell me what they are? They almost killed me. Twice!”
“Yes, and I feel like shit that it’s happening to you!” His voice roared through the night, breaking and slicing through my chest. I flinched, blinking in shock, because for the first time, his iron composure cracked.
But his fury didn’t seem to be at me. It was at the creatures, at himself, at the very fact that this was happening.
Thrax stomped closer. “I don’t want you involved.” His voice ground like stone. “So drop it and come inside. I’ll handle it.”
He turned, striding towards the house.
Oh, not this time, Thrax.
I spun on my heel and walked the other way, shrugging his coat from my shoulders and letting it fall to the ground.
I had barely taken five steps when his voice, thick with frustration, rushed out. “I swear on my goddamned life, Sanora.”
