“If not,” Callum continued, “you wouldn’t be here making sure I eat.”
There was a beat of silence, and then the soft slide of the sole of Millicent’s boot against stone. “Don’t mistake basic decency for caring. You of all people should know better.”
“And you shouldn’t forget that I know you, Millicent.”
“You don’t know shit about me.” Her tone was flat, and the hard clack of her heels followed as she moved.
“I know you’re a liar.”
The sound of her moving ceased as a spike of hot, acidic anger radiated off Malik, while my interest sparked.
“You’re a good one. I’ll give you that. One of the best,” Callum went on. “Then again, you did learn from the best.”
Millicent huffed. “If you’re trying to get under my skin by insulting my mother, you truly don’t know me. I know what she was.”
I was relieved to hear that.
“Your mother loved you.”
“And?” she replied.
“That right there,” Callum responded. “It’s a facade. Everything about you is an act. You wear a mask that cannot be washed away.”
Millicent didn’t respond for several moments. “As if you don’t wear one yourself.”
Callum laughed again, the sound faintly indulgent, like my…father when he humored Malik or me when we behaved as if we understood the world. “I am who I am. I wear no mask.”
“Whatever,” she said. “You’re boring me.”
There was just the sound of her footsteps, then the heavy clang of bars sliding closed.
“Millicent?” Callum called out.
She let out a heavy sigh that could’ve been heard in Atlantia. “What, Callie?”
“Because I have no ill will toward you,” he said, “I’m going to give you a piece of advice.”
“Can’t wait to hear this.”
“You should let me go.” His words came slower, quieter. “If not, he will come for me. You do not want that.”
“He?” she exclaimed, her voice pitched unnaturally high. “As in the Big Bad Daddy of Death?”
I frowned.
“The big bad…?” He cleared his throat. “Yes, Kolis.”
“Oh. Him!” I heard hands clapping, and based on the staccato rap of her heels, I thought she might also be jumping. “That’s the plan, shit for brains.”
My brows lifted at the insult.
“Makes finding him easier if he comes to us,” she said.
“He will kill you, Millie.”
Malik’s anger nearly choked me, so I wasn’t surprised when I heard his footsteps move farther away from me and closer to them. He stopped, though.
And so did I. But for entirely different reasons.
