“When?”
“That’s the tricky bit. We need to make sure Hunter doesn’t find out. Can you be on standby and as soon as I know he’s busy, I’ll come to you and we can make our way here?”
“That sounds like a lot of risk,” I pointed out, uncomfortable with how many holes this plan had.
“I can’t think of a better way of doing this.”
“Fine.”
“Erik?”
My little brother nodded slowly. “We’ve got one shot at this. We can’t mess it up.”
Too many uncertainties. Too many variables out of my control. But if I had my powers, there was a good chance that I could tip all the maybes into yeses.
Looking at Erik and Dionne, I felt the weight of the next few hours settle heavily on my shoulders. “That means we have to get me out of here and start a war.”
Before getting into bed, I contemplated pushing the dresser in front of the door for an added layer of protection before realising just how stupid that idea was. It wouldn’t matter what I did, Hunter would always have the upper hand. Healing me wasn’t out of kindness, it was because Archer had made a valid point. You couldn’t sell a love story when your fiancée had a shiny bruise on her face. How clumsy could Elysia believe me to be?
I laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. The oleander clearly wasn’t at Hunter’s home. There were only a few other places that it might be. Archer’s home or the gardens. The labs back on Earth were bound to have a supply, but I had less of a chance of getting there than wandering around Elysia. The wheels were coming off this plan quickly. If I couldn’t find the plant, I would need to find the key for my cuff, but Hunter wasn’t going to leave that lying around.
Forcing my eyes shut, I let the darkness consume me and steadied my breathing. Tomorrow would be a new day. I needed to tread more carefully. As my mind turned over all thepossibilities of how to take the next day, it eventually tired until I could no longer make sense of the thoughts.
I stood in my bedroom,littered with papers and stacks of books. The fairy lights around my bed were on and the lamp on the desk bathed the room in a soft yellow glow. The bed was unmade, duvet hanging off the mattress and pillows askew. A deep ache pulsed through me, knowing that this wasn’t my reality. I circled the space slowly, fingers brushing over my belongings. Headphones, some enamel pins. There was even a selection of old coffee mugs that I hadn’t taken down to the sink yet. What I wouldn’t give to sleep in my bed and invite Cass and Sophie over for dinner.
“You should have told me he raised a hand to you.” Archer’s voice broke through my nostalgia.
I jumped, but didn’t bother to face him. My fingers kept pushing the papers on my desk. In the margins were my notes in looping cursive and dotted around those were Gray’s silly little sketches that he drew in a bid to make me smile.
“What difference would it have made?” I asked him eventually. “It only matters to you if he throws me down the stairs? I needed your help before that happened and you said no. What do you want now? You have all the blackmail material you need.”
His steps were heavy until they came to a stop behind me.
“Touch me,” I told him, my body stiffening at his proximity. “And I swear, I will?—”
“I’m not going to touch you, but I would appreciate if we can have this conversation face to face.”
Gritting my teeth together, I turned around slowly. Archer had left a small space between us, which I was grateful for.
“What do you want?” I asked.
His gaze bore down on me as if he were searching for something. I squared my shoulders, ready for a fight. I was always prepared for the worst these days.
“I was wrong,” he said eventually. Even those three words seemed like a monumental effort for him.
I narrowed my eyes. “Is that an apology?”
“Clearly not. It is an admission.”
“And what am I meant to do with that?” The anger was starting to boil again. “You were wrong. Of course you were! You believed a psychopath who has double crossed everyone. What did you think, Archer? That you were special. Are you that desperate to be loved again that you’ll take the smallest crumb of validation from Hunter?”
A smirk tugged at his lips. “He really is mistaken in thinking you are meek.”
“Leave me alone.” I pushed past him. “You’re wasting my time, and I want nothing to do with you.”
Gray’s warnings were ringing in my ears. I should have listened to him and never entertained anything Archer had to say to me. He was only good at stirring the pot.
“Not even if I choose to help you?”
