Suddenly, the walls around her seemed to shrink. Lora could hardly breathe and her hands quivered. She thought she might have heard Eyden speak, but she couldn’t make out the words. Couldn’t focus on anything.
Lora forced her eyes shut as she felt her skin burn with paralyzing fear, the cold water she felt earlier evaporating into steam that locked her into a state of panic.
She needed to move. Though the fumes in her mind overwhelmed her, Lora managed to stand up, barely feeling the movement as if she wasn’t even touching the ground.
Eyden and Sahalie were mere shadows as she passed them silently. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Eyden reach for her.
But Lora headed for the door and didn’t look back.
* * *
She stormed towards the alley next to Sahalie’s place, her pace as fast as the panic racing through her body. The cool night air enabled her to catch her breath, but the crushing feeling shattering her hope didn’t let up. She had put in days to get everything for Sahalie and it was an utter failure. How did this happen? Had she been naïve in having any hope at all?
She knew her mission wouldn’t be easy, but the fae had magic at their disposal. Therehadto be a way. She had believed this was it. So much so that she’d followed Eyden’s way, giving in to his plan. Should she have been looking for alternatives? Did she let herself get so sucked into this world that she didn’t pay enough attention to all the possible outcomes?
Lora made it to the side of the building when Eyden finally caught up with her.
“Lora, wait!” Eyden shouted as he followed her into the alley.
She whirled around, catching his eyes. “Did you know this wasn’t going to work?” The question left her lips before she had even fully formed it.
Eyden looked hurt and guilty at the same time. “I thought it would most likely work.”
It wasn’t good enough of a response to calm the feeling of betrayal settling in her heart. “But you made me think it was definitely going to work.” And here she’d been feeling miserable about her own dishonesty less than an hour ago. She should’ve focused on Eyden’s instead. What excuse did he have to mislead her, give her false hope?
“I said itshouldwork because I thought it probably would,” Eyden said.
“Semantics.” Lora could hear the hypocrisy in her words but she didn’t care. All she saw was her mother’s sickly face and a ticking clock next to her grave.
“Listen, I said I’d help you get a cure and I’ll keep trying. Nothing has changed.”
“Nothing has changed?” she asked, humourless. Lora turned to the darkened sky. “You gave me hope, Eyden. And now it’s drowning me.”
She heard Eyden take a few steps closer. “It’s not all over. There’s more than enough time—”
Her head snapped back to meet his gaze. “Are you really going to tell me how muchtimethere is again? Can you really not see the urgency?” Lora let out a dry laugh. “I was right about you the first time.” Eyden didn’t have the same motivation that she had. She was doing this to save her mum, who would be so disappointed in her. He was doing it forbusiness.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re just like how I imagined fae to be. Cold—heartless—when it comes to humans.”
Eyden took a step back as if she’d lashed out with more than words. “Right, because you can put us all in one box. We’re all monsters just because I have no easy solution for you.”
“That’s not the only reason,” she whispered.
“Why else?”
“I—” She didn’t know how to explain it. She didn’t want to elaborate on her complicated feelings towards fae. “Admit it, you don’t give a damn about humans. You told me from the start that this is just about business,” she argued loudly. She heard her anger increasing with each word. Fiery fury had filled her up and now it needed an escape. “Why did you even tell me anything?” Sudden realisation dawned on her. Could he have been leading her on a fool’s errand? She didn’t wait to let him answer for himself. “You went along with my questions to get me to trust you for your own benefit, didn’t you?”
“What?” Eyden's face was the picture of perfect disbelief. Or of perfect pretence.
She was suddenly unsure if Eyden hadn’t had an ulterior motive this whole time. Had she been stupid enough to put any amount of trust in afae?“That’s not a no,” Lora replied.
Eyden shook his head. “You’re not thinking clearly.”
She only half heard him in her spiral into rage. It all came spilling out, raging fire swallowing her hopelessness. “Brilliant, take advantage of the human girl who’s trying to save her family. Were you hoping I’d look into your dazzling eyes and spill all my secrets? Well, too bad, I still held onto my best ones.”
Eyden looked taken aback, both furious and intrigued. “You were the one who started asking questions! Not me. I was perfectly fine keeping our distance.”
