He grinned broadly, and dimples flashed in his cheeks. His handshake was solid and firm, and he held mine a beat too long, just as his gaze did.
Who the hells am I to him?
My focus narrowed to my hand.
It reminded me of the first time I met Nelle as a kid. A ghostly whisper across the distance had drawn my gaze to hers. The faintest trace of power hummed and skated over my flesh, tickling my fingers.Other.But what kind ofother, I wasn’t sure. I squinted at the other man. “Have we met before?”
He shook his head as he disengaged his hand from mine, tucking it into the back pocket of his jeans. “I don’t think so.”
I couldn’t taste a lie or a truth from him. He could be, much like Nelle, hiding the lie behind a truth. Yet, he looked too young to have known my mother. He would have been maybe eight years of age at the time of her disappearance, judging by how young he looked. Maybe we’d met when we were children when I’d come down here with Mom.
“It was good to meet you,” he said, his voice strangely thick.
Right as his name stroked the back of my mind, Nelle’s despair free-fell into black desolation. I needed to get the fuck home now, fast.
“Yeah, likewise,” I returned, distracted. I hooked my thumb over my shoulder. “I’ve got to go.” I’d already stayed longer than I should have. “Enjoy your time here,” I said before turning away and heading back to the convoy.
The small, flat stones rattled in my pocket as I strode quickly to the parking lot, the bodyguards falling in behind me. The driver opened the door to the limousine, and I slid inside, arranging myself on the backseat, noting that Wyatt was heading to a bike parked nearby. He gave our convoy a curious glance before putting on a helmet and swinging a leg over his motorcycle. A rare Vincent Black Shadow.
Who the hells was he?
The privacy screen slid down. “Home?” the driver asked.
My mind swiftly shifted gears back to Nelle.
“As fast as you can go.”
I watched my driver’s reflection in the rearview mirror as he nodded and replied, “Will do.”
The limousine rolled back, and we headed forward, traveling behind the SUVs, turning back onto the road, picking up speed. I tapped my fingers on my tense thigh, trying to appear calm, which was fucking impossible. I’d known there would be two reactions to what Nelle might encounter today, and I’d hoped for that fiery rage that could tear the world apart to burn beneath my skin. But this wasn’t it. She’d shattered completely. Wretched emptiness hollowed out my chest, the chilling sensation much like the coldest part of night—a bleak winter’s snap of dawn. This time I feared Nelle had truly broken.
45
Nelle
Idrifted nowhere and everywhere.
My thoughts were a constant stream of darkness slipping through my mind.
All of it reminding me I was no one and nothing.
There was no point in fighting to free myself. No reason for me to pick myself back up and trudge back to the tower. I may as well lie here suffocating beneath the weight of eternal darkness. I’d stay until my birthday had passed and a new terror strangled my will. Graysen’s command would rouse me from this crypt below the Keep, and I’d be the one stepping up upon the auction block at the Witches Ball.
Andthen…
Then I’d enter the void where Hazus would collect my soul, make my final walk through the gates of Nine Hells, and be at rest.
Something sticky and wet dragged up my cheek.
A huff of breath warmed the chilled skin at my neck.
The strange sensation awoke me from my bleak thoughts.
My weary gaze slid sideways. The flashlight that had rolled free when I’d collapsed shone toward the wall blocking my escape, its dying beam a feeble push against the crushing darkness.
Its faint glow caught a shimmer, something wavering like smoke.
An otherworldly apparition. A ghostly trick of the mind.
