I smiled weakly. He’d looked frightened by Maddy’s threat. Hopefully it was enough.
Maddy shook her head. “I can’t believe you willingly gave yourself up for Nora.”
I’d told her about the note and that it had felt like the right thing to do.
“It’s just a year,” I muttered.
I might not even live a year. If I took the curse off Lena and into myself, then I might die on my twentieth birthday come January.
Maddy leaned forward and lowered her voice. “We’re going to get through this together. The next fight is a centennial, when the Fae Lords remove the protective curse from Silas and Brayden has the chance to kill him.”
That was exciting, assuming Brayden could do it. Maybe he could with Leah at full power. He’d probably have her skip her monthly dose from Morgana, or have her see Artemis and do it. But it was a thrilling thought. Silas dead was something I could hold on to and look forward to.
“New York?” I whispered. “Why?”
Maddy frowned, speaking barely above a whisper. “Silas thinks you’re Lena. He wants to inflict the most pain possible. Make it so you absolutely can’t see Brayden.”
My mom. What the hell would I tell my mom? She would call the cops if I just moved to New York.
I just felt numb to everything, I didn’t care about any of that right now. I was still grieving the loss of the man I’d stupidly fallen in love with.
The toilet flushed and then Silas opened the door, barking orders as we packed his things and carried them to the car without breakfast.
This next year was going to be hell. There was no doubt about it.
* * *
Eight months later…
My birthday was today.Today was the day I might die and I didn’t even care. The last eight monthshadbeen hell on Earth. The night after Silas moved us to New York City, he’d made me tell my mother I was following a new boyfriend across the country, something I would never do, and I had to quit the bar with zero notice. Ronan was at the fight, so he knew that I’d gone away with Silas but I wasn’t allowed to say where. At least Ronan had promised to look after my mom before Silas hung up on him.
Silas was so hellbent on us not having contact with Brayden, it drove me insane. He wanted to torture Brayden and I the most, keeping the beloved soulmates apart in their final months together.
Little did he know, I wasn’t Lena.
I tried not to think about Leah and Brayden and their happy life together, but it was hard. Were they married? Surely. Was he bringing her breakfast in bed? Probably. Did Leah worry about and miss me? Sure. Did Brayden ever think of me? Maybe not anymore.
“I’m hungry,” Silas snapped, jarring me from my thoughts.
“I’ll start dinner,” I mumbled, shuffling into the small kitchen of our two bedroom apartment like a zombie. I was a shell of my former self, kept under lock and key by this psychotic lunatic.
The sound of Maddy showering filtered down the hallway. It was such a comfort to me to know that I wasn’t alone with him. I wasn’t sure I would have survived this time if it were just me and Satan—I mean Silas.
I grasped the knife in my hand, clutching a tomato, and a thought struck me.
I was unable to kill him because of the protection curse, but what if I had taken the spell from Lena and I really was going to die today anyway? Or what if Leah and I were both going to die? They said I had been injured when I’d done the spell removal on Lena, which was why my memories were such crap. I’d get a few here and there, always of Brayden or his brothers or my sisters, but none that told me anything useful.
If today was possibly my last day on Earth, I should just shove this knife into Silas’ black shriveled heart and twist, right?
I glanced at the light hitting the blade and fantasized about stabbing Silas a billion times.
“Dinner,” Silas said again, and I snapped from my murderous thoughts. Maybe I’d wait until he was asleep, wake him up with a knife to the chest.
Yeah.
Forty-five minutes later, I’d cooked the chicken penne just the way Silas liked it. Al dente noodles, chicken not too dry, and extra sauce. It wasmybirthday, so of course the selfish bastard wantedhisfavorite meal.
He made Maddy and I watch endless hours of cooking and organizing shows in order to turn us into the perfect housewives. We weren’t allowed to work, we only went outside one time a day for a run in the park with him, and when he left he spelled the windows and doors so that if we touched them we were electrocuted and passed out.
