“Oh, he’ll listen,” I add. “It’s impossible to ignore, believe me, and hopefully, this means he isn’t too far gone, and we can still save him.”
Silas looks at me, his jaw tightening. I know he’s reeling, thinking about when he experienced this exact situation. He felt deeply for me long before he ever knew me, the intense pull of the tether constantly tugging at him to find me. He’s horrified watching Fen go insane over someone he’s disliked for a long time. He hates this, and I know he feels her pain. I can’t blame him. Asking Fen to do this is dangerous, and there’s no way to know what she’s walking into. She’ll have to face this alone.
Silas sighs. “Then we will come up with a plan, Fen.”
“He needs me,” she whispers. “And somehow, I feel like I need him, too.”
“It’s the pull,” Silas says, understanding exactly what she means.
“It hurts,” she admits, as another tear falls down her cheek.
Silas studies her, and grief settles into his core.
“I’ll help you get stronger with this, and after that, you will help Rohhit,” he announces, understanding her pain. “I’ll help you get to him.”
She looks up with swollen eyes. “Really?”
“Yes,” Silas breathes. “I can’t imagine someone telling me to ignore what I felt for Briar. The pain I would have endured by burying that natural instinct, and the desperation I felt to protect her, would have consumed me. It would have destroyed me, and I’ll never let you experience that.”
A broad smile brightens her face as she leaps forward to hug both Silas and me. Her bright green eyes shine in the crackling fireplace, and a sense of familiarity washes over me when I see them. After letting us go, she settles back into the large chair, snuggling up to a nearby pillow.
“I’m worried about Warrick,” Fen confesses. “He’s such an amazing guy.”
Silas makes a face, and I nudge him.
“You two will figure this out, I promise.” I smile.
She tilts her head to the side, resting in the chair, and closes her eyes.
Silas takes my hand and pulls me to my feet. We’re all worn out, and nothing sounds better to me than resting my head on a pillow beside Silas. We tiptoe toward the hallway, keeping quiet to let Fen get some much-needed sleep.
“Silas?”
We hear her voice calling from the chair. We both turn around and see her sitting back up, a look of concern painted across her beautiful face.
“Yeah?” Silas asks.
She hesitates, as if the question is too painful to ask, and Silas angles his head, waiting for her to continue.
“If Malachi isn’t our father, who is?”
Even the breeze seems to freeze around us. His body goes rigid against mine as he’s asked a question he never thought he would face in his life.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
Chapter 29
“Wake up!”A hissing voice wakes me from my sleep.
I sit straight up and scan the dark room before me, trying to calm my pounding heart. Beads of sweat line my brow as I throw the covers back, seeking some air. The window is open, and for a moment, I swear I see the tail of a long black cloak moving through the window into the dark sky from the familiar dark creature that I think enjoys haunting me these days.
I rub my sleep-filled eyes and see the room mostly shrouded in darkness. The faint outline of the antique furniture fills the space, and through the crack in the heavy curtains, I can see a subtle glow indicating that dawn is near but not yet here.
Gods, this creature is going to fucking age me.
I slip out of bed and wrap a blanket around my shoulders to guard from the cool morning air. I tiptoe across the cold floor and open the door that leads to the spacious sitting area in the main part of the house. The house is silent, and I push my way through the door and into the darkness of the narrow hallway.
The hall ends, revealing the vast living room before me. The brightness of the new day is still about an hour from reaching us, so it’s dim, but my eyes adjust quickly. I walk toward the long table and pull out a chair to sit for a moment, when a figure on the balcony catches my eye. I jump in shock at the sight of someone else being awake.
