“Hey! No! That is not cool!” Cordie snarls.
Seagulls pour in.
I let out an involuntary gasp as several hiss at me.
“Oh, my god, the seagulls hate you,” Cordie giggles.
I stumble back, panicking as several flap too close, snapping beaks and hissing. The sound is atrocious.
“What is wrong with these birds?” I howl.
Cordelia leans against me, laughing. “Oh, you poor baby. It will be all right.”
I shove a hand up, frightening off a seagull that was about to land on her back.
“Don’t panic. They just want food.”
“I’m not worried. I’m scared. They are aggressive. Look at the way they eat. They are like aliens. What is wrong with them? Oh, my god, it ate that whole, did you see that? Where is it even going?”
“I thought you liked animals,” she teases.
“I do. These aren’t animals; they are demons summoned from a distant dimension. Look at them.”
She laughs harder, and the guilt, the fear that I would lose her, eases away. We can figure it out. I’ve never met anyone more perfect for us than them.
She pulls back as the birds leave. The silence is deafening.
“Hey, Bas, how about we go get some food? I’m not eating any of your revolting pineapple and pepperoni pizza.”
I whip my head around, hearing the words loud and clear. They ring in my head. I know them intimately. That’s what Bastion Sun’s girlfriend says to him in book one, right before he unleashes his ultimate betrayal.
I can’t move, but then Katsu is there, nudging me forward, giving me a look that tells me to pull myself together.
It still takes me until dawn to accept what I think I know.
I don’t understand why she’d do this. Why she wouldn’t just tell us. The thought is inconceivable. I turn away from the window, watching her sleep. She’s lying with her head on Katsu’s chest. She looks so peaceful, so beautiful with her hair fanned out around her.
Why is she lying? Nothing makes sense. I want to wake her up and shake the truth from her, but then I realise Sebastian knows as well. The betrayal cuts deep. Are we a joke to them?
Is this a game?
No, they aren’t like that.
Perhaps she just read it. But, no, it was too casual, without thought. This is an intimate conversation she put in the book because Sebastian and Bastian Sun are the same person.
Why would she lie?
Lynn Marino is my Cordelia? I never, ever would have guessed. Not in a million years. It changes everything.
I get dressed and walk.
I walk for hours and hours, and when I come back, I’ve decided only two things. I’m not prepared to walk away until I know the truth.
And whatever the reason is, it must be a good one, because Cordelia Lake isn’t the kind of person who goes around hurting people.
I’m confused.
So confused.
