“What made you think she chose James?” Zach asked with a frown.
“You saw what just happened. She wanted me to go.”
“Is that what she said or what James said?”
Ethan thought back. He had been so shocked by how awful Kay looked, so pale, her hands shaking. He had been determined to do whatever she needed—however difficult it was, and however much he might hate it—and she’d seemed to need him to go.
But now that he had a bit of distance from that devastating guilt and remorse, it was occurring to him that Kay would never meekly follow someone’s orders. Or go to bed for a nap like a toddler. No amount of exhaustion or sadness would make her behave like that.
Ethan wiped his hands down his face and cricked his neck. Somehow the entire fucked up day had messed up his mind. “I should’ve insisted. Tried harder to convince her.”
He pushed off the car and started to go back, but Zach blocked him. “Wait, we need a plan.”
Ethan groaned his reluctant agreement and leaned back against the car as they discussed options. What to say to Kay. What to do about James. How to even get back in the door.
He looked up at the dark sky, searching for answers among the faint stars, only half listening as Zach speculated about what James might do next.
“When did Kay get that tattoo?” Zach asked, breaking into his thoughts.
“What tattoo?”
“The black one on the back of her neck. Tribal looking. It was mostly hidden by her hair, but James nudged her collar aside when he held her, and I could see the edges.”
Ethan’s body stilled, his Shadows sinking around him as if filled with black ice. “Kay doesn’t have a tattoo,” he blurted.
Zach turned to look at him. “It’s no big deal. I just haven’t seen it before.”
“No. Fuck. Do you think I wouldn’t have noticed a tattoo on the back of her neck? I swear she didn’t have one last night.”
Zach raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth, then shut it again, like he didn’t want to know.
Ethan quickly told Zach about the dark Shadows in Oxford Street and at the school. “Fuck. Oracleisinvolved. And so is James. What if he’s done the same thing to Kay? I’m going back. I can’t leave her with him. Not for one more minute.”
Zach nodded and they stepped forward together just as the front entrance to the building opened.
They pushed themselves back against a dark wall and watched as James came out the door pulling Kay with him. Her shoulders were slumped as she rubbed her wrists, and she didn’t even look at James.
Ethan tensed, ready to spring out, but Zach pulled him back. “If he sees you now, he’ll have them back inside before you get anywhere close. Give it a moment and then we’ll follow.”
James and Kay walked down the stairs and climbed into a nearby VW Golf.
Zach shook his head. “A secret place to stay, a car no one knows about….”
Ethan grunted. “Sometimes, you think you know a person. They’re important to you and you want to believe their bullshit, so you do.”
God. He knew it was true. But he should also have known that sometimes people were telling the truth. That sometimes, you had to take the risk and believe them… before it was too late.
ChapterTwenty-Four
Kay sankinto the passenger seat and stared out the window as James drove them through London.
It was nearing midnight, but the roads were still busy with weekend traffic and the lines of headlights formed blurred streaks of ever-moving light. Londoners continued with their lives as if everything was just the same while hers was imploding around her.
She pressed her forehead against the window, savoring the cool glass against her skin, and tried to forget about the Shadow twisting acidly around her neck.
James wasn’t exerting much pressure on her mind, just enough to prevent her from pulling off the Shadow, but Kay wasn’t fighting him anyway. There was no point in tiring herself out in a battle she couldn’t win.
She had moved so rapidly through so many emotions—grief, loss, shock, rage, helplessness—that now she just felt numb. Too numb to bother speaking as she kept her eyes locked on the dark streets and bright lights passing by outside her window.
