Grace had stopped serving, she was staring, unblinking, at me. I was too drunk, too angry to care if she’d seen what I’d done.
Somehow, Ethan had the ring out of my pocket and back on my finger without me noticing.
“Fuck, Amy,” he growled into my ear. “You know better than to use your magic.”
Karson’s lips thinned. His jaw clenched. His face became a picture of fury.
Fire roared through my heart. I couldn’t stand seeing him for one second longer I whirled toward the door.
“Don’t even,” I snapped, holding my hand up to stop Ethan following. “Stay here, I can take care of myself.” I launched out through the door.
He followed out behind.
“I said stay inside, Ethan,” I yelled. I swung left toward home, the wind blustered around, twirling leaves. An aluminium can skipped across the pavement.
“I’m not letting you walk home, Amy. You’re behaving like a child.”
A tall slender girl walked past and smiled. Ethan nodded at her. I took little notice. It was probably one of his many acquisitions.
“You’re a fine one to talk about age—how old are you, and yet you still act like a twenty-year old boy.”
“Just get in the car, Amy,” he sighed, opening the door.
I strode straight past.
“Seriously, what are you going to do—walk all the way home?”
I didn’t answer. I kept walking. That was exactly what I’d do. The wind whipped my hair back and it sailed behind me. The clouds were thick and heavy as if my fury was reflected above. A few splinter-like droplets landed on my face. It would pour soon. In the distance, beyond the streetlights, trees mazed in a world of black, a graveyard of darkness expanding an eternity, filled with shadows waiting to reach out and drag me screaming into the depths of nothingness. Right now though, I didn’t care, I kept walking.
The car rolled beside me. The V8 engine hummed down the street. Ethan had the window down, his elbow resting on the seal. “It’s going to take a while if you walk. You might make it home by daybreak. It’s going to rain and once you hit those trees it’ll be pitch-black in there.”
It sounded like a threat. “Stop reading my fucking mind, Ethan,” I shouted. The wind seemed to grow with my breath and bucket against the side of his car.
He frowned. “Amy, get in the car. Or I swear to God I will get out and put you in here myself.”
It was a threat, and a serious one if the look on his face was any indication.
“Fine,” I snapped, “take me home and then go back for Darcy.” I went around and got in the car, slamming the door shut behind me.
“Karson will keep an eye on him and make sure he gets home safe. There’s no need to worry about him.”
“Karson is busy, if you hadn’t noticed.”
He didn’t answer. He pulled out from the curb. He drove fast.
I stared out the window, seeing nothing, broiling with anger, the hurt climbing back through my veins. After some time I said, “You have no right to read my mind, we made that deal when we decided to live together.”
“Honestly, I hardly get to see inside your mind, but when I do, I don’t like what I see. You’re reckless, and emotive, and you act before you think. You’re going to get yourself killed. You don’t know that boy, and yet you were going leave with him. You don’t know what he would’ve done.”
“I can tell you what we would have done,” I said with a condescending arch of my left eyebrow.
He shook his head and clenched his jaw. “You think sleeping with him would hurt Karson? You’re right, it would have pissed him off. And for what? So you can get some temporary upper hand by opening your legs to some random boy. Did you ever think what might happen to the kid, what Karson was about to do to him?”
“What?” I stared at him. “What?” My alcohol affected brain struggled to grasp what he was saying, “I don’t understand.”
“Don’t play dumb, you understand.” He made a wide gesture of frustration with his hand. “You know vampires are jealous creatures by nature, and especially Karson. Once you commit to them . . .” He rubbed his face vigorously and didn’t finish.
“He left me, Ethan, he doesn’t care about what I do.” A lump moved to my throat. “You think I don’t wish he hadn’t? I don’t wish he would come back and say it’s all been a big mistake and he’s sorry?” I turned to look out the window, the trees blurred past.
