Page 21 of Wicked Thirst
“Shame. It’d give us the excuse we needed to cage you up with the rest of the heretics,” she muttered under her breath.
I turned to Eloura. “Are you well enough to take a meeting tomorrow?”
She gave me a low bow. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”
I glared at Clive. “You are dismissed until you are summoned.”
He opened his mouth to speak, and I silenced him with the wave of my hand. “Your opinion isn’t necessary.”
He closed his mouth, then spun on his heels and left the room. I felt Moira at my side, always there like a comforting presence who always had my best interests in mind. Even now, with our family under so much pressure, she was there. And I was grateful. Because as Eloura said earlier, we were on the brink of war and this time the streets of London would run red with the blood of our own . . .
CHAPTER TEN
PIPER
“Where are you going?”
Nothing.
“How are you going to find him?”
Silence.
“Atlas.”
He continued to walk toward his room, collecting weapons and strapping them to his body. He’d already put a knife around his thigh and another in his boot. Then he slid some brass knuckles in his pocket. He kept his head down, never making eye contact with me. Yet with every step he took, his blood magic seeped from him, giving the room a red, misty fog effect. The tattoos on his body seemed to rise up from his skin and fall back flat. They moved over him like he was struggling to keep them in check.
Is this Atlas’ way of showing emotion? No words, just inner turmoil spilling out uncontrollably over his skin?
He patted his hands down his chest, then over his pants. When he seemed to be happy with whatever it was that he was checking, he finally looked up at me.
“No one hears of this. Do you understand me?”
“Right, like I was going to announce my soulmate going absolutely crazy, making him a target in a volatile environment that none of us have any control over at the moment.” I threw my arms up and let them fall back with a slap on my sides. “None of this makes sense. I don’t even really understand what happened and now you’re hunting down Grayson like he’s some kind of war criminal.”
One moment he was across the room, the other he was in my face, hovering over me all menacing. I sucked in a sharp breath but didn’t back down from him. “This . . . is all your fault. I warned you to stay away from him.”
Is he for real? “I left the castle.”
“And yet somehow you’ve got the soulmate mark. A mark of love.” The muscle in his jaw ticked. “That could only happen in person.”
"I’m not going to apologize for that.” I didn’t back down. “It isn’t perfect, but it is love. Were we messed up? Yeah, we were. But once we figure this curse the hell out, then we will get it all together, and I’ll have a few choice words for him.”
How could you not tell me?
Why the secrets?
And you pushed me away for this?
“Funny you believe that.” His breath fanned across my face. “Wake up. This is not a fairytale.”
“I have no choice but to believe it, because I refuse to believe he’s gone for good. As his best friend, you shouldn’t think he’s gone either.” This whole thing was so messed up. I didn’t have a choice but to believe that everything would work out between us . . . eventually . . . because the thought of any other outcome was too painful to even try to process.
A growl rumbled deep in his chest and he bared his fangs at me with a light hiss, then stormed passed me to his closet. A moment later he threw a bunch of clothes in my direction. “Put that on.”
I glanced down at my silky dress that’d been torn to shreds. I was borderline indecent with the amount of skin showing. “Where’d you get all these?”
He gave me a withering look. “Do you really want the answer to that?”
