Page 10 of Dark Bonds

Nodding once, she steps back, and I let her hands fall.

“Yeah, hot chocolate.” She doesn’t turn around. Instead, she grabs my hand and walks me inside side by side. It’s almostlike she’s afraid I’ll disappear again. I watch her hand, which is linked with mine, warm and comforting, and yet I still need her to explain and tell me why. I also need to know if she knew about Valerie too, or if that was just Dorian.

Inside, everything screams and begs for her not to have known. I don’t know if I could forgive her, and I need to forgive her.

Fuck, I just need sleep.

As we enter Tori’s house, I’m struck by how normal it all seems. The entryway is cluttered with shoes and jackets, providing a stark contrast to the otherworldly experiences I just had. The familiar scent of vanilla and cinnamon hits me, a comforting reminder of all the times I’ve been here before. It’s surreal how the ordinary and extraordinary are colliding in my life.

“I’m going to grab you something to wear, okay?” She shuts the door behind us and moves around me to go upstairs to her room. I wander over to the kitchen and slide onto a stool. It’s like all the chaos and adrenaline is finally crashing down around me, and my body begins to tremble.

The kitchen is bathed in soft, warm light from the overhead fixture, and I can see my distorted reflection in the polished surface of the countertop. It’s oddly comforting, this slice of normalcy in a world that’s suddenly turned upside down.

“I grabbed another muumuu. I figured we could be twins.” Tori steps up beside me, her soft, powdery scent wafting over to me. I grab the fabric and hold it to my chest as I turn to her. The material is soft and worn and clearly well-loved.

“I appreciate it.”

She holds a hairbrush and some spray in her hands. “If you’ll let me, I’d like to work through your hair after I make our drinks,” she says softly.

“Okay.” I lick my lips, watching her as she steps behind the island and pulls out mugs. All I can do is watch and hold my breath. My organs tremble, and my skin ripples with awareness.

“You have every right to be mad,” she begins, setting two mugs in front of us before she grabs the saucepan and ingredients from the pantry. “I’d be mad too.”

“I need you to answer a question for me first.” My voice vibrates with tension as I lick my lips for the hundredth time. They are so damn dry, I can’t even formulate the words I want to say. “Valerie.”

Tori’s brows rise, and she tilts her head to the side then utters, “Who?”

Everything inside me sags, and relief spreads through me like adrenaline. To avoid feeling anything, I look away and rip off my sweater. “That is answer enough.” I tug the muumuu over my head, letting it fall around my waist before I stand up.

“Alright,” she drawls, but she doesn’t push me to tell her who that is or why I’m upset about it. Instead, I can see her holding out, waiting for me to tell her more.

She turns back to the stove, setting the saucepan on the burner and filling it with milk. Silence stretches between us, heavy with unspoken words.

“I never knew about Valerie,” Tori says, her voice barely above a whisper, each word weighted with regret, “but I did know about the shadow shifters. I knew the truth, and instead of helping you, I… I took the coward’s way out. I bullied you because it was easier to push you away than to face what you might uncover about yourself… and about me.”

I look up sharply, her words piercing through the haze of exhaustion. “Why?” The single word comes out as a whisper, but it carries all my confusion and pain.

Tori stirs the milk slowly, her eyes focused on the swirling liquid. “I couldn’t tell you, Frankie. None of us could.” Sheglances over her shoulder at me as she stirs. “It’s who we are. When we leave the safety of the shadow realm at one, we have to find our way back there on our own. Most of us grow up with parents who are shifters, and it’s a part of our everyday lives. You didn’t have that, and I just guess I was scared to find a way around those loopholes to tell you.”

Anger and hurt bubble up inside me, but I force myself to stay calm. “You thought it was easier to make my life a living hell than to be honest with me?”

She nods, guilt etching lines into her face. “I was a coward, Frankie, and I’m so sorry. I should have been there for you, not against you.”

I swallow hard, her apology opening a wound I didn’t know was still raw. “I needed a friend, Tori, especially after everything with Valerie. You were the one person I thought I could trust.” I didn’t want to trust her, but somehow, over the fall semester, she just became a friend.

I don’t have many of those.

Tori’s eyes fill with tears, which shimmer under the dim kitchen light, and she looks away, blinking rapidly. Her voice trembles with sincerity. “I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I’m asking for it anyway. I want to make things right. I want to be the friend you needed back then.”

Her sincere tone tugs at something deep inside me, reawakening a dormant pain. “It’s not going to be easy. I can’t just forget everything that happened,” I whisper.

“I don’t expect you to,” she says quickly, her desperation palpable. “I just want a chance to prove that I can be better, and that I can be the friend you deserve.”

For a moment, we stand in silence, the weight of the past pressing down on us like a suffocating fog, then I nod. “Okay. Let’s start with hot chocolate and go from there.”

A tentative smile stretches across Tori’s face, and she turns to the stove, her movements deliberate as she pours the milk into the mugs and stirs in the cocoa powder. The rich aroma of chocolate fills the air, mingling with the faint scent of vanilla. She hands me a mug, and I wrap my hands around the warmth, feeling a small flicker of hope ignite in my chest.

I sip the sweet liquid, its warmth spreading through me as I struggle to find the words to tell her what I’m feeling.

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