I couldn’t look away. It was endless, its beauty so mesmerizing that I barely noticed the jolt that shot through me at his touch.
Blake led me to an observation area with cushioned seating, adorned with a plush rug and pillows.
He sat down and lay back, gazing above at the celestial heavens.
As the shock of the tower’s private observation room waned, I studied Blake. He was relaxed; unlike that night in the Aurkai Wing when he’d found me with Ezreal Kalmont.
“Why did you bring me here?” I asked.
Blake’s gaze flicked to mine, curious and observant.
“I wanted to speak with you alone.”
My body braced for what might come next.
He sat up, gesturing to the seat beside him. I lowered myself into the corner of the cushions, angling my body toward him.
His expression hardened, becoming unreadable. “I looked into the student you mentioned—Annabelle.”
Dread threaded through my mind. “And?”
“She didn’t die as a recruit or Initiate,” Blake said, his voice low. “She went missing as an Adept—about twenty years ago.”
The words hit me harder than I expected. “What?” I whispered.
He shook his head. “That is all I found. There is no record of what happened to her. No reports. No body. They never found her.”
A wave of nausea hit me and broke our connection.
I looked to the endless stars above, but they felt colder. Distant.
The silence between us stretched as the aurora danced, its eerie glow casting shifting patterns across the polished stone. This unsettled me at my core. After figuring out how dangerous it was to enter and the sickness one might face after, it made sense to think that was what had happened to Annabelle.
My mom must’ve been so scared, losing a close friend like that. I’d not been particularly close to Cody or Skylar, but that feeling of not knowing—it must’ve been hell.
My eyes stung as I quickly wiped at them. Guilt bore down on me, memories of how poorly I’d treated her flashing through my mind. I never once considered how she felt or what might’ve happened to cause her pain.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered, wiping the tears. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
Blake was watching the sky, giving me my space. “Grief is not something to feel shame for. It is a gift we must all bear proudly.”
Blake’s words struck me at my core. A man who was accepting of vulnerability. Derrick was practically the opposite of this. My resolve to contain my emotions cracked. Blake looked at me, startled by the sob I couldn’t hold back, before his expression broke into a soft look of understanding.
“She was my mom’s best friend here,” I said. “My mom was murdered a few years ago. That’s why I’m here. I want to know what happened to her.”
Blake glanced at me, his face somber. He reached out and touched my cheek, wiping tears from my skin.
“My mother once told me that grief is not meant to be shut away,” he said. “It is how we go on.”
Fresh tears sprang to my eyes as I watched him.Go on?The idea of moving on sounded ridiculous. How do you go on with what I had?
His hand on my back startled me, but his other hand pressing my cheek against his chest is what made me stop breathing.
It was possible my heart might have stopped, and those would have been the last few moments of my life.
Not a bad way to go.
Though I’m sure dead Anna would be pretty pissed off about it.
