“Ready for what? It’s simple, a child could break the circle. You could have done it.” I lift my finger and point at him. My hurt and anger are looking for a place to land.
“I know, and we didn’t, so what does that tell you?” He raises his voice a little.
“That the spell influenced you not to,” I retort. What other reason would they have not to break it other than that? I reach the wall and find the doorknob.
“You’re not leaving, not like this. I let you run last time thinking you would come back to us, but I’m not making that mistake again.” Magic tingles over my skin, and the entire house locks down again. I feel it through my palm as it passes through the door I’m touching. He’s not going to let me out of this room.
Chapter 22
I need a cocktail.
Hold the tail.
We’re locked in a stare off when I hear pounding on the other side of the door. “Felix, what’s going on?” It’s Grayson. Anger unfurls in my stomach, even though he’s the one who has every right to be mad at me.
“I’m not assaulting him, if that’s what you’re worried about!” I shout.
“It feels like you might want to hurt someone,” he says quietly, but I don’t have any problem hearing him.
“Don’t pretend you can read my emotions,Grayson. I’m shielded.” I twist the ring on my finger to prove a point, though he is half right—I do want to do something with the hurt living in me, and anger is way easier to deal with.
It’s probably just a good guess on his end. Empathic magic runs in Grayson’s family. Some people think that’s how his father came into such power, because empathy can be a two-way street. Not only can he feel others’ emotions, but he can also push emotions onto people. Grayson was always against using the latter of his talents, but not all empathic magic users have such a strict code of conduct. That’s part of why he wanted to be a veterinarian. His natural abilities are so strong, he can even read some animals, and he seemed to like them more than most people anyway.
I hear one solid thump against the door. “Not against me, you’re not.”
I cut my eyes to Felix. His expression is guarded, not giving anything away, but I have a feeling Grayson is telling the truth. Great, as if I wasn’t mortified enough.“Well, stop it right now!” I holler.
“I can’t. Not with you so close. I’ve tried,” he admits, sounding rather unhappy.
“I can fix that for you right now if you let me out of this damn room.” I turn and jiggle the handle.
“Don’t open that fucking door,” Felix warns. I glance over my shoulder. He rarely curses—or rarely used to, anyway. “You wanted to know what your dad was talking about?”
I toss my hands in the air. “It’s a little late for that, isn’t it? The cat’s already out of the bag,” I state, referring to the fact that our bonding ritual had an effect on them.
“That’s not what he was talking about.” Felix crosses his arms over his chest. It makes his biceps look even better.
“Keep it up, whatever you’re doing. She’s not so…so…” Grayson lets his sentence hang.
I ignore the fact that Grayson can’t put what I’m feeling into words—neither can I, to be honest—and urge Felix on. “Okay, I’ll bite. What was he talking about?”
“This involves all of us. I’m coming in,” Remy announces. I didn’t know he was out there. Maybe I should invite Percival in too, he might want to remind me how desperate I am for attention.
The door opens, and Remy is the first to enter. He looks around as if to assess the damage. Grayson is right behind him, but I didn’t look too closely at him. Knowing he felt every strong emotion I experienced over the last two days—and let’s be honest, there were a lot of them—is tough, especially considering he was the cause of quite a few.
“Dinner is almost ready. Do you want to eat?” Remy offers, changing the topic as if he’s trying to avoid the subject.
I couldn’t force myself to eat if I wanted to. “No, thank you.” I shake my head.
“I need to go shut everything off so the kitchen doesn’t burn down.” He winces.
“Fine, we can finish this there.” I lift my hands in a shooing gesture to get everyone moving. Remy heads out first at a jog, while the rest of us walk in awkward silence.
I smell the food much sooner than we reach the kitchen. Fortunately, it doesn’t smell burnt. Remy’s back is to me as we enter the kitchen, and his arm is moving as he stirs a pan on the stove. Instead of going over to the booth, I climb onto one of the stools near the island counter.
“Let me just turn all this off,” Remy mutters, moving around the kitchen. Grayson joins him and puts a bowl of chopped tomatoes and lettuce in the fridge.
“You can eat, you know,” I tell them. Even though I’ve lost my appetite, that doesn’t mean their dinners should be spoiled.
