“Best we do this back at the house,” Aba said, breaking through the tension thickening between them as the patrons stopped to watch this shitshow. He put a gentle hand on Ely’s back. She dematerialized, following him, Nate’s frustrated curse echoing behind her.
Back at the manor, she reformed at the front and found both Aba and Nate already there.
“I have things to attend to,” Aba said and strode into the building.
Unable to look at Nate, she bit the insides of her lip, she glanced around her. At the eerie pinkish light filtering over the scorched land, she looked up as an enormous, pink-tinged moon rose above the cliff peaks, casting a pretty glow over everything.
“It’s the blood moon rising,” Nate said, and her foolish, foolish heart leaped at his calmer tone. When she didn’t respond, he asked, “Why did you come here, Ely?”
“I…”came for you.The hole in her belly expanded, and the unsaid words died, recalling what she’d witnessed at the bar. She straightened her spine and brought her attention back to him. “To talk…” she said instead.
His shadowy gaze met hers, probably seeing her for what she was—a horrible person who’d left a child to his terrible fate. Her stomach heaved at the thought, hating herself for what she was responsible for, and just as fast, getting mad at him for straying.
She wiped her damp brow with the back of her hand again.
“The fever still troubles you?”
“I’m fine.” She lowered her hand.
“You’re not.” He came closer and gently touched her cheek. “You’re burning up—”
“Don’t.” She jerked back, unable to bear him touching her after seeing him with another.
His hands fisted. His expression hardened. “You didn’t say that not too long ago when I was so deep inside—”
“And I wasn’t the one who had another’s hand on my crotch hours later, seeking relief,” she bit out, regretting just as fast that she’d shown him her pain. “It doesn’t matter. I was the one who left you alone all those years ago and changed your destiny—” she choked out, knowing she’d probably sealed her fate, cutting him out forever. “And gave you this life.”
He cut her a flat look.
Goddess!Did he hate her that much? Tears burned her eyes, but she blinked them back and pushed on. “There’s one other thing before I leave. You cannot fight in your match. Aba is beside himself with worry.”
A tic worked his jaw. “But not you?”
“Why should how I feel matter to you?”
“Because it does! When you think—fuck!” He wheeled away and paced to one of the bleached trees with tangled knots for leaves, slamming a palm on the gray trunk. Then his shoulders slumped. He seemed…so weary. And so alone. It tugged at her.
Unable to stop herself, Ely followed.
“I admit I was furious at first…” His low voice drifted to her as she approached him. “It was my only defense while growing up, using anger to cope through the years, but now…”
She stopped a foot behind him and couldn’t see his face, but his tone and the way he hunched by the tree betrayed his torment. Tears clouded her eyes, hiking her own despair, aware she was responsible for this.
Then he was speaking again. “No, I can’t change the past. I know that, and it’s not because of whatyoudid…” His shoulder lifted and fell. “But to be abandoned by my family without a second thought hurts like a deeply embedded splinter, one I can never dig out.” He faced her, raw pain darkening his beautiful eyes and bleeding into every facet of his handsome face. “Knowing my family didn’t even care enough to look for me is a sobering thought.”
“Nate, no,” she whispered, unable to endure his suffering. And hoped she could give him the closure he needed. “That is not true…”
* * *
Hell, just talking about his past, and the crater in his chest eroded deeper. Nate glanced out into the vast, gloomy barrenness, where nothing existed, just like his entire life…empty.
But meeting Ely and being with her had soothed some of the wounds, filling the void and chasing away the darkness, showing him a ray of happiness before it all went to hell—
“There is something you should know…” Ely’s soft voice tugged him out of his anguish, and he turned. “When I first found you—well, just before you ran into me—I heard a woman cry out with so much terror, she said, ‘Hide, baby.’ It drove me out of my hiding place, wanting to help…”
Nate stared at her, his chest compressing.
“After I hid with you,” she continued. “I heard running footsteps, then a male snapping,“Find the brat and kill him, too.”
