Chapter 21
Bash
Sitting straight up in bed—like rising from the dead, as Elina likes to tell me—I look around and notice my sun is missing.
“Tesoro?” I call out, but I can feel that she isn’t here.Where is she?
Climbing out of bed, I wander around the apartment, looking for a note or a clue. Tonight is Friday, we have to appear at the court tonight. Panic fills my chest.
Did you leave me?
Are you done with us?
Have you decided I’m not worth it?I feel my heart cracking.
Throwing on whatever I find nearby, a pair of shorts and a black t-shirt, I head to my bike. The first place I decide to check is the Velvet Tomb. She shouldn’t be there, we have an appointment. Maybe she needed a little longer. Maybe she needed a little air, a little space.
Walking in, I find Sarah behind the bar.
She looks at me in surprise. “Bash, what are you doinghere? Where’s Elina? I thought you guys had some princely things to do tonight?”
“Have you seen Elina today?” Panic bleeds into every word.
Sarah adopts a very serious look. “What do you mean? I haven’t heard from her since yesterday, she took the day off.”
“When you saw her, did she say anything?” My voice shakes with the effort to keep calm. “About us?”
“What? No. Yesterday, she made a decision,the decision.” She looks stricken. “She planned to tell you tonight, with Marcus.” She pales. “Do you think she is…leaving you?”
“I don’t know, Sarah. I can’t think. I can’t find her. She wasn’t there when I arose. There was no note. She isn’t here. Where else could she be?”
“Maybe she went to Little Woods? To Celeste’s?”
“Ok, I gotta go. If you see her…send her home and tell her to wait for me. Ask her to give me a chance to talk to her before she makes a choice,” I beg Sarah. I have never begged anyone for anything in my entire life.
“Of course, Bash. She probably just got held up somewhere.”
I run out of the bar into the night.
I almost leave my bike behind, running there would be faster. I’ll need the bike to bring her home when I find her though. Climbing on, I shoot into the night like a bullet.
Jogging up the steps of Celeste’s house, I can smell Elina. She was here today. I feel my panic start to subside. Ok, she’s here. I have her.Ok.
I knock lightly on the door, hoping I’m not interrupting a moment between them. Celeste swings the door open, looking surprised by my appearance.
“Good evening, Mrs. Girard. Can I speak to Elina, please?”
She shakes her head slightly. “Elina isn’t here. I haven’t seen her today.”
The rush of dread that immediately floods my system must show on my face.
“Where is my granddaughter, Sebastien?” Her voice trembles.
“I don’t know,” I whisper. Turning around and walking heavily down the stairs, I do not turn back even though I can hear Celeste’s heart rate pick up and the gasp she lets out.
Walking slowly down the street trying to feel her, smell her, I catch a very faint bit of her essence on the wind. I follow my senses to a park down the street. She is more concentrated here. She was here for a while. I reach down and run my fingers across the grass. I follow her scent in the air until it ends. On the sidewalk, her scent so strong before is now intermingled with other humans, maybe 3 or 4. Strangers. I look around me.
I turn and shoot toward thecattedrale. I need help.
