His mouth opened like he was about to say something, then closed again, lips pressed into a tight line. A muscle ticked in his jaw. He dragged a hand through his hair, hard enough to hurt. His eyes stayed on her as if she were what kept him together, regardless. Then he gave her a stiff nod, stood. Turned around and walked out. Fast, like if he slowed down, grief would catch up and finish what she started.
The front door opened, closed.
Daphne walked to the bathroom. Showered.
Got in bed.
And as she lay there, she wondered how she could feel so empty. How, by sending him away, she’d cut off a vital part of herself.
Amelia’s words,when it comes to him, trust your heart, screamed in her mind, and when she surrendered to exhaustion, she wished for nightmares.
Chapter 8
Hunter thanked the heavens for the cold and breathed out a soft cloud of vapor.
As he’d expected, Dorian was waiting close to Amelia’s car in a corner of the parking lot, and he made his way to them. Amelia offered him a hand, and he took it with gratitude and squeezed. Exhausted, he leaned against the car. Dorian straightened the lapels of his black coat. They were already perfect.
Hunter sighed, dragging the words out. “What’s up, boss?”
“Once again, I detected oneiric contamination in a civilian zone.”
“And you dispatched the Devils I heard.”
“Grumpy, aren’t we? We’ll get to that in a minute.” He hooked Amelia’s hand in the bend of his elbow. “Would you like to guess where the contaminated area was?”
“Daphne’s library?”
“You are my best Devil and smart on top of it, but,” Dorian tilted his head, looking at him, “that was an aggressively precise guess.”
Hunter scrubbed his face with his hands. “A mirror cracked close to her. Shadows are weird. And a lady was out for a good moment, telling her creepy nonsense. I figured shit was up. And before you say anything,” he added, “I was going to come to you and talk about all this.”
“And just what, pray tell, doesall thisactually mean?”
With another sigh, Hunter started recounting all that had happened from the moment she’d heard the damn song that broke her memory open. “I’ve never felt anything like that,”Hunter finished, hiding his fists in his pockets. “It was part of the nightmare and not at the same time. It came from her, but it wasn’t her anymore. And it was fast; it slithered away before I even had the time to think about what to do. And what in the actual fuck was I doing in her memory? In her dreams, when I’m not there to control them?” Frustration built up and was out before he could do anything to contain it. A flare of power blazed from him and blew up a garbage can nearby. He looked at it, wishing he could destroy something way bigger. A stadium would probably do, but Lachlan would be a nightmare to deal with, and he didn’t need that extra stress right now. “I’m sorry,” he also said, turning to Amelia.
Used to flares of temper and power, she simply nodded. “Don’t worry. I understand.”
“Can you explain it to me, then? Because I’m all out of explanations. I’ve been a Devil for millennia, and I’m all out of crap.”
Just to add to his general sense of frustrated rage and self-deprecation, Dorian and Amelia shared a look, possibly while having a full conversation in their heads. “Go ahead, darling. You’re better than me at this,” Dorian said after a moment.
Amelia prepared in the same way, he figured, she would do before grilling a witness. She straightened and started pacing slowly around. “I need you to concentrate,” she started. “And tell me what she’s feeling right now.”
Odd. He looked at Dorian, who just lifted a shoulder, clearly deferring to the woman running the room, or parking lot, now. “Ah. She’s pissed, obviously.”
“Noted. Now take me beyond the obvious.”
“I can’t get into her head.”
“Then don’t.”
He shook his head, but tapped into that sixth sense he’d seemed to develop after being with her for not that long. “She’s hurtbecause I lied to her. She’s confused. She wants to trust me, and that makes her even madder.” Damn it, this was making him feel even shittier than he already was. Because he wasn’t just guessing. He was feeling her pain. “I don’t see how any of this helps.”
Like the shrewd lawyer she was, she ignored him and carried on. “How do you know?”
“I guess after all this time with her, I just feel her?”
Amelia raised a brown eyebrow. “You said youfeelher pain. Not guess. Not infer. Feel.”
