Page 102 of Devoured

A half step over the threshold, I glance up, and Sinclair Severi stares back at me, his hair damp. His lips contorted in a desperate sort of frown. He sits rigid at his desk, his spine as straight as an arrow. I blink at him. He continues staring.

“You’re alive.” His voice is even—too even and too calm. An inkling of a lie sparks embers in my chest, not at his words but at his mood.

I shut the door softly behind me. “I am.”

He nods, a measured jerk of his chin. “I couldn’t find you.” His gaze moves to my shoulder, but I lift my hand to hide the bite mark. “I looked for you, but even Cora didn’t know where you’d gone.”

A tightness coils through the hollows of my heart, and my pulse begins to thump wildly against my ribs. The buzzing becomes static in my ears. He can’t know about Calix and me.

He can’t know about Portia and Evie.

However, his gaze darkens as if he already does. I tiptoe carefully across the wooden floors, afraid to make one wrong move. Cora said I couldn’t tell anyone about the torture tonight, or Calix would die. She might not sacrifice me yet, but she’ll be all too glad to murder her nephew.

I need a lie. A good lie seeded in truth. Sin won’t believe I was on my own all night. He won’t want to hear that Calix and I were alone together either, nor can I confess to being friendly with Evie.

I have only one alibi.

“I was with Portia,” I say, forcing my voice to remain casual even though my insides rattle with nerves. “We were in her bedroom.”

His gaze tracks me as I tread lightly across his room, toward my door. “I was worried you’d been thrown in the dungeon again.”

“Nope.” I pull my hair over my shoulder, over Calix’s teeth marks, and shake my head. “Not tonight.”

Sin stretches back in his chair. Kicking his legs up onto the desk, he toys with a quill, pressing the nib into his thumb. “Portia is the one who told me you’d been imprisoned before. When I arrived from Guatemala, she marched out to meet us, yanked me aside, and told me you were trapped in a cage. I came to you as soon as I heard.”

It should be a nice story, but there is something dark in his tone.

I swallow. “She’s kind. I—I like her a lot.”

“You would consider her a friend?” he asks, and the question sounds leading. I don’t know how he wants me to answer it.

I could look into his eyes, I think. I could try to use my strange powers on him. But I’d be more likely to hurt him. Or erase him. “Of course.”

He nods again. “That makes sense.”

I brush the handle of my door, wishing I could turn it, throw myself inside, and hide from this conversation. Something isn’t right here. “What makes sense?”

“That she would be looking for you as well.” His legs drop from the desk, and he leans forward. “She was also looking for you last night. She asked me to check the dungeon for her, but she vanished before I could tell her you weren’t there.”

Fuck.

I press a hand to my stomach, willing my nerves to subside. He watches me like a hawk, devouring my every movement. I need an excuse. A better lie.

“Because she found me,” I say swiftly, sliding my hand from my stomach to my hip. I sigh as if I’m too exhausted to keep talking. “Cora asked to see me after yesterday’s supper. I was trying to avoid her, Sin. I hid in the kitchens until Portia stumbled across me.” For good measure, I add, “I didn’t realize you’d be stalking me.”

He scoffs. “I’m not stalking you.”

“No? So you’re just demanding to know my every location because it’s fun?”

Sin arches a brow. “My mother didn’t say anything about wanting to see you.”

I meet his stare. Challenge it. “Of course she didn’t.”

“After I confronted her, she promised me that she would leave you alone.”

“Didn’t she promise you she wouldn’t hurt me at all?” I wish I could shake him. I wish I could force his eyes to open and make him see his mother for who she really is. But I can’t, so I turn away from him and open my door. “You know what? Never mind. I want to be alone.”

He doesn’t respond for several seconds, not until I step into my room.