“I’m just adapting,” I murmur under my breath.
“What?” Kane asks from across the room.
“Nothing.”
He watches me for a second longer than necessary.
And there it is again. That quiet steadiness.
I feel safest when he’s near.
The realization is like stepping on glass, and I don’t even know if it’s true.
But you do know. You canfeelit. You’re drawn to him. And deep down, you believe him.
A sigh escapes my lungs. God, this is all so confusing.
But when I glance up and catch Kane watching me again, something inside me softens despite everything. He doesn’t look victorious or possessive. He looks present, and those green eyes may as well be warmth personified.
He smiles, and I…smile back. And for one long second, I wonder what it would feel like to stop fighting whatever it is I feel whenever I’m around him.
God, I just need clarity.
I need to understand what is real and what isn’t real.
I just need…answers.
Kane
Blair’s first full day of not being locked in my bedroom has gone smooth for the most part. She ate breakfast, helped Kylie make soup, and even ate said soup for dinner with Kylie.
Now, night is upon us, and the clouds rumble with a thunderstorm that’s been threatening for the past hour.
Blair stands at the edge of the clearing with her arms folded tight across her chest. The wind lifts her hair and drops it again. The cabin light spills behind us in a soft rectangle, warm against the dark forest.
She hasn’t looked at me once since we stepped outside, but after a long moment of silence, she turns to face me. Her expression isn’t angry, but it’s not exactly neutral either.
“Why did you kidnap me?” she asks. “I want to know the truth, Kane.”
She is hanging by an emotional thread at the moment, and I know I have to choose my words carefully. I know that the truth of the situation—our reality—contradicts everything she’s everbeen told. If I have to keep answering the same questions over and over to help her believe, I’ll do it.
“I have been telling you the truth. They were going to take you,” I say finally. “New York wasn’t what you thought it was.”
“How in the hell could they take me if I was going willingly?” she retorts. “I packed my own bags, for fuck’s sake.”
“No,” I say calmly. “You thought you were going willingly, but nothing can be willing, Blair, if all you’re being told are lies. Damien Snow isn’t who you think he is. None of the elites are. And what he invited you to is expressly forbidden by the Elite Council. If he touched you, used you, you’d have been ineligible for the auction altogether. And if he hadn’t? You’d have been sold to the next vampire who would have treated you the exact same.”
The wind shifts, carrying the scent of rain.
“I was raised around the elites,” she snaps. “Pretty sure I know them better than you.”
“You only know what they wanted you to know. You only saw what they wanted you to see.”
She laughs, but it’s brittle. “Well, I know I saw you kill two men in my driveway.”
“Yeah. I did. Because their plans for you were worse,” I answer without hesitation. “They’d have used and abused you before discarding you entirely. So, I preempted. Did to them before they could do to you. And I’d do it again.”
Her breath stutters slightly at how easily I admit it. “You say that like it doesn’t matter.”
