Page 33 of Midnight Queen

“Tell mewhat?” I all but shout at him. When Lorcan’s mouth flattens into a line like he plans on keeping the secret, I march closer and shove at his chest with my weak hands. “I’m so tired of everyone walking around on fucking eggshells around me! Tell me right fucking now or I swear to God, I will leave here and find out myself.”

Lorcan’s hands fly up in surrender. “Hey! Don’t put this on me like it’s my fault Silas is pussyfooting around you.”

I stop my assault with a defeated sigh. “Just tell me what happened.Please.”

“Fine,” Lor agrees. “Dell is fine. It’s Duke you should be worried about. He’s currently in a medically induced coma. The car he and Silas were in was hit by an explosive. Silas obviously walked away okay, but Duke wasn’t that lucky.”

There’s rushing in my ears as I process this information. Staggering back a step, my hands reach up and grip the strands of my hair. This whole week while I’ve been holed away,doing nothing, Duke—my friend and confidant—was lying in a hospital bed.

The angry ball of fire in my belly grows knowing that Silas would keep this from me—that he would make the decision for me, that I would be in the dark about Duke.

Whirling back to face Lor, I drop my hands and lift my chin as I declare, “I need to see Duke and you’re going to take me there.”

He stares at me for a second like he’s waiting for the punch line of a joke, before his face pulls into a scowl. “No, I am not. Silas wouldn’t allow it.”

“I don’t know much about you, Lorcan, but I know enough to know you’ve never fully listened to a fucking thing Silas has said.” Like a guilty child caught in a lie, the corners of his mouth twitch. “You either take me there or I will drive myself, and then Silas really will kill you for letting me out of your sight.”

Completely unfazed by my threat, he lifts the sparkly cup off the counter and takes a long, slurping drink through the straw.

He thinks I’m joking and that my threat holds no weight, but I’ll prove him wrong. Spinning on my bare feet, I march toward the front door of the house.

I only get ten feet away before he’s calling out to me, “If we’re going to the hospital, I’d recommend changing into something where your arse isn’t hanging out like that. While I might not mind the view, I’m sure the respectable doctors there might not agree.”

Tugging the T-shirt tighter around my legs, I turn to look at him. “You’ll take me?”

His shoulders shrug. “Sure, why not? I like the way the vein in Silas’s forehead bulges when he’s mad at me, and if you’re okay with the repercussions of leaving, then I’ll gladly be your chauffeur.”

Head held high and shoulders back, I simply tell him, “I’m not a prisoner in this house or anywhere else.”Not anymore and never again.

For so many years, I was confident in a hospital. I would walk through those sliding glass doors, and instantly I knew what I was doing. Never did I doubt my skill—I knew I was good at my job. That all changed when every patient I touched started to die.

It took meeting Silas and Ira for me to learn that it wasn’t the curse my mom always said I had, but it was, in fact, just a crazy fluke—that it wasn’t my fault that they all died.

Even knowing this, as I follow Lorcan through the sterile halls of the intensive care unit, the chaos of a hospital no longer calls to my soul. The woman who used to thrive here doesn’t exist and being here confirms that this is no longer my path.

I’m not quite sure where my new path is leading me, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that it will be in the dark world Silas rules. I just need to prove to him that I’m ready to be there. That I’m strong enough to stand at his side.

“Could you look any more suspicious with that hood over your head like that?” Lorcan hisses over his shoulder at me, his handsome face pulled in distaste.

Yeah, I wasn’t sure that night in the warehouse if he was as attractive as he appeared to be, but now I know he’s even more so. Even under the harsh light of the fluorescent light bulbs up above, Lorcan Reid can fuckingget it. Just ignore the faint air of batshit crazy coming off him like a cheap cologne, and he’s a real winner.

But crazy is fun, and I really appreciate anything that can make me smile right now.

“You look like you’re going to rob the place, which would be in poor taste seeing as it’s a hospital. Though, if I’m being completely honest, still sounds like fun.”

Picking up speed to catch up to him, I whisper harshly. “Would you rather the staff here see my bruises, and think I’m your poor battered wife?” I’m more worried about the fading bruises and scabs drawing too much attention to me.

It felt nice to put on real clothes—even if it was just an oversized hoodie and a pair of jean shorts,

“Oh? We’re married now?” a dark blond brow raises in question. “I should warn you, darling, I struggle with the concept of monogamy.”

“That doesn’t shock me in the slightest. You have manwhore written all over you,” I respond, rolling my eyes.

Lifting his tattooed arms, he examines them, “Do I? I don’t recall getting that tattoo…”

“You’re really annoying,” I pretend to insult, even though I’m thankful for the easy banter. It’s distracting me from the stress and guilt I feel about Duke being in the hospital. I can’t believe for a week I had no idea he was here, hurt because he was trying to save me from Gideon.

My fingers nervously twist the frayed hem of my shorts as we near the room in front of us. Instantly my eyes are drawn to the obnoxiously bright orange tape crisscrossing over the cracked glass of the sliding door.

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