“We’re both in love with her, Reed. You can call me by my first name,” he muttered, glancing back at the door. “She’s been through more than you know. She needs Nebula right now, and we need to trust her to come to us when she needs us.”
“But what if she doesn’t know when to come to us?” My voice broke.
He didn’t answer, and in the hallway, I could feel her pain as if it were my own. I knew she would turn to Nebula for comfort, but I desperately wanted to comfort her myself. Maybe it was selfish thinking, but I wanted to see her smile.
46
DEXTER
Islithered through the fucking shadows for an hour before finding a couple of noble demons in their rooms, talking about what Annie Dreadful had orchestrated on Pandora Gravesend tonight during the storm. Their theories were split: Dreadful was going to get her soul sucked out, or Gravesend was weak and deserved it.
Either way, Dreadful planned the entire fucking thing, and I left the ones talking with bleeding wrists in their room.
Stepping out of the shadows and back into Bram’s room, I found both Skel and him passed the fuck out on his bed. Empty bottles littered around Bram, and Skel’s pipe was on his chest.
My shadows whipped out and smacked their faces with a loudwhop.
Skel jolted up, rubbing the red mark forming on his cheek. “Dex, what the fuck?”
Bram groaned loudly, running his hand down his face. “What the hell was that for, Dex?”
“You’re passed out high and drunk when I found out what happened to our favorite little noble.” I crossed my arms and glared at them.
Bram sat up, eyes wide and bleary. “You found out?” He summoned his wolf, and Chaos materialized in front of him, his eyes glowing red. “You found out, too?”
“Who was it?” Skel ran both hands through his black and white streaked hair with a yawn.
“Annie Dreadful orchestrated the whole fucking thing, apparently,” I told them. “Did Chaos come to the same conclusion?”
Bram nodded, calling his wolf back into him. “Chaos caught the nobles’ scent at Odyssey Bluff in the sand. There was a lot of blood by the water, but most had been washed away. He said Dreadful’s scent was the one he noticed the most.”
“Well, then.” I tilted my head, shadows enshrouding the three of us. “Let’s go teach that bitch a lesson.”
They got to their feet, and I shadow-traveled us through the halls until we saw Dreadful outside of her dorm room with movers moving Pandora’s stuff out—thank fuck—but what I hadn’t expectedto see was Pandora in Darkmore’s arms with Reed next to them.
“She…she’s a liar!” Dreadful sputtered the words.
Her usually kept blonde hair with pink streaks throughout it was oily and matted. There was blood splatter on her arms and on the fancy clothes she still wore, blood I knew was Pandora’s.
Rage poisoned my veins as the desire to make her fucking bleed swelled in me again. And the bitch had the fucking audacity to accuse Pandora of lying after she beat the hell out of her with her little noble friends?
Darkmore growled viciously, and his tail flicked back and forth. He was in full demon form, as was Nyx. They were past the point of being pissed off. “You don’t even know why she’s moving out. What exactly is she lying about, Dreadful?”
Her blue eyes widened, and her bottom lip wobbled as tears filled her eyes—but they were fake. “Um, I—well…” She turned toward Pandora.
“It’s still black,” Pandora mumbled against Darkmore’s chest, and I tilted my head.
“It’s her ring,” Skel murmured.
“My ring,” Pandora said. “It’s black, which means you still want to hurtme, Dreadful.”
“How the fuck did you know that?” Bram nudged Skel roughly.
“Hurt you?” Dreadful forced a giggle that mademyears want to bleed. “Oh,Pandora, that was our, um, initiation, if you will…so you can officially be part of our group! We all went through it, and now, we’re totally on a first-name basis!”
Wow. Only a fucking moron would believe that shit.
“When we got high together, she showed me her ring,” Skel whispered softly. “I even met Nebs—Nebula—her kitten skull. It talked to me.”
