My hands trembled as I dialed Sofia’s number.
Gone. Ursuline was gone.
They told me to get to their apartment, but I’d never even been there. I didn’t have their address. Fuck, they weregone. Agony ripped through my chest as the pale sunlight beat down on me, too alien and foreign to process in the wake of what had occurred. I stumbled back a step and sagged against the brick building behind me, my knees barely keeping me upright.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’tbreathe.
Ursuline’s presence, the calm, enduring one that had given me so much strength, was gone, and I didn’t know what I’d do. This entire time, I’d been following their cues, following their plans, their way out. My arms trembled.
A sense of uselessness washed over me like a tidal wave, reinforced by the constant comments from my parents. I wasn’t able to do anything. I should’ve fought for the person I loved. I should’ve thrown myself into the fight, tried to kick one of those men off, but instead I’d stood there frozen, watching as they’d been hauled away.
My chest tangled in knots.
I managed to press call, and the phone began to ring.
“Hello?” Sofia’s voice came across crisp and concerned.
“They took Ursuline,” I choked out, those trembles radiating through my body. “Just snatched them away.”
“Who did?” Sofia’s tone grew dark and dangerous, and I was grateful it wasn’t aimed at me.
“Alpha Blue,” I said. “I…I don’t even know where they live.” Heat burned in my eyes, and the first few tears slipped down my cheeks. “We were heading to their apartment. They told me to get the file… They were here, we were going there, and now…”
“Fuck,” Sofia spat. “Cillian will have to handle Alpha Blue. He’s got a few connections he can strong-arm. But if they told you to get a file from their apartment, that’s what we should do.”
“We?” My heart thudded a little faster.
“You didn’t think I’d leave you to handle this by your lonesome, did you? I’ll text you their address, and we’ll meet there.”
Words wouldn’t emerge now either, even though the gratefulness washed through me so fast and fierce it was dizzying.
Except shame followed on its heels. Yet again, I wasn’t doing anything on my own. I wasn’t taking action, just waiting to be told what to do. My guts twisted to pieces.
There isn’t a competent bone in your body.
My father’s voice echoed over and over again. I clutched the phone a little tighter.
“Stay safe, and stay alert,” Sofia said, then hung up.
I gripped the phone still, staring blankly at the street ahead. My phone buzzed a moment later, and I glanced at the screen. The address was there waiting for me, so I punched it into the GPS.
A ten-minute walk, as promised.
Except I didn’t have Ursuline by my side. My brain screamed in panic, the sound growing louder and louder inside me by the second. Ursuline should’ve been here with me. They should’ve been by my side.
We should’ve been together.
My body numbed, even as I forced myself forward.
I didn’t question why Alpha Blue had targeted them and not me. Alpha Blue went after monsterkind.
And now that Ursuline was on the run from the Triton family, they’d been easier pickings. Bile churned in my gut. I continued onward, even though I could barely feel the ground beneath me as if my limbs were detached from my body. Nothing connected, not while my heart was being carried away by those specters who’d swarmed in from the shadows and stole Ursuline.
I needed to get to the apartment, though. For them. So I scanned the streets as I went, slowing before any alleyway that emerged, in case others were lying in wait for me. My jaw clenched so hard I was surprised my teeth didn’t chip, yet I continued to stride forward, down one block and then another.
Ursuline was with Alpha Blue. The bile rose in my throat as I passed by building after building, house after house. The hum of traffic to my right was ever-present, and even though I floated through like a husk, I didn’t stop the scan of my surroundings.
Maybe this was how Ursuline would have kept going forward too. One step after another despite the agony that coursed through me. If something happened to them… Bile rose in my throat. All too fast, my mind spiraled down dark paths. If they were tossed in a threadbare cell. Beaten, battered, worse…
