But Oscar carried on. “Seriously. I mean, if you want a list; you’re funny, you’re strong, oh, and you’re pretty.” He chuckled to himself. “God's sake, even when you cry, you’re gorgeous.”
The autopilot in my head flashed red then, switching off and putting my mind back in control.
I peered up at Oscar, my body still. “When I cry?” The laugh that left me was pure confusion. “How would you…”
My ears muffled as the question faded on my tongue.
It didn’t hit me all at once. It crept in—like a drop of ink bleeding through water—his words sinking into me before my brain could catch up. And then, suddenly, I knew. The air snapped cold in my lungs as the pieces locked into place.
Him.
It had always beenhim.
While the whole world around us slowed, Oscar was watching me the whole time, waiting. His expression didn’t shift, not yet, but his eyes did—like he could see the exact second the light switched on inside my head. The spark I’d mistaken for charm dimmed, collapsing into something sharper, hungrier. He let me see it. Let me watch him shed the mask, like it was his reward for my figuring it out.
Like a silent siren had sounded, his eyes lightened, only a little, but it was then that I saw just how dark they’d gotten. His smirk peeked, but all it did now was scare me.
“Did I say too much?” He asked, wicked smile freezing me in place.
My stomach hollowed, my pulse spiked in my throat, and in that silence between us, I realised too late: I’d solved the mystery, but in doing so, I’d stepped straight into the monster’s hands.
I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. But my eyes lifted, finding Marcus at the bar, and just as he turned round, pain cuffed my wrists. I gasped, my eyes swallowed by his.
“He won’t be far behind, trust me.” He tugged my wrist, spinning me until my back met his chest, when something cold hit my open back.
It didn’t take long for me to picture the barrel, pressing deep into my skin. Oscar dipped his mouth to my ear, my eyes squeezed shut. “Precaution. Can’t have you ruining the big reveal now, can we?”
Just thinking of what waited beyond those ballroom doors shattered me.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, panic like I’d never known welling in my throat.
His hot breath hit my ear, and I don’t know why, but I started to cry. “All in good time, Holland.”
Defeat hugged my heart, my cheeks hot with tears. But I lifted my head, just enough to find his eyes. “He’ll hate you forever for this.”
What looked like guilt flicked in his eyes for the briefest of moments, before they were back to what I imagined the dark side of the moon looked like. There was no relenting. No faltering. Just pure, undiluted evil, staring back down at me.
“I’ve hated him for just as long.”
chapterforty two
lost angel
“Thank you.” I smiled at the bartender, grabbing Cora’s champagne flute and Oscar’s Jack and Coke.
I didn’t need to ask him what he wanted. This had been his drink since the second he turned twenty-one.
I was driving, so I held off.
I got a good grip on the drinks and headed back, manoeuvring through the dance floor, whispering ‘sorry’ if I got too close and keeping my eyes alert for Cora and Oscar. I couldn’t see them through the crowd, so I carried on, my height serving me well as I scanned over everyone’s heads, looking for any trace of purple and red. But all there were were navies and blacks and the occasional grey.
I didn’t panic. Not yet. I hadn’t panicked at all tonight, trying to find her. My eyes instantly settled on her, all the way across the room. No mask, no dress, no defiant look she could wear would ever stop me from seeing her. Like we were tied to a frequency only we could hear.
I tried to feel out those signals now, but they were dead—like taking the batteries out of a radio and getting nothing but static in return.
Squeezing through the growing crowds, I reached the spot where I’d left them. I knew it was here because just to the left of me was one of the paintings that, honestly, didn’t hold a candle to Cora’s. I looked around, the drinks still clutched in my grip, trying to find any sign of them.
But they’d vanished.
