Page 60 of Feathers From the Sky

“Give it here,” Margot says, taking my phone before I can respond.

I don’t know what to do with the pit of dread forming in my stomach. It’s violent and nauseating. Why didn’t I leave Nico to protect her? How long were there notifications on my phone while it was in my pocket? How long has she needed me?

“Jesus Christ,” Margot breathes. I spin in my seat to take my phone from her, but she’s already shoving it into my hand. The image is grainy, but I can tell exactly what made her react that way.

“Turn the fucking car around.” When Nico doesn’t move from the center lane fast enough, I start shouting. “Get over and turn the fuck around. NOW!”

With this kind of traffic, it’ll be easier to find an emergency vehicle turnaround rather than get off and back onto the highway, and Nico merges accordingly.

I’m staring at the screen again, mouth agape as I take in the open door of her cell.

“Who the fuck did this?” My mouth is dry, and I’m struggling to breathe. My thumb twitches over the footage, and I almost drop the phone when I realize I’m shaking.

“I’d put my money on Emile or Victoria,” Nico says.

I switch back to the bathroom camera and see Gwyn holding the tiny fucking first aid scissors in her fist as she backs away from the door. She looks determined, her cheeks a violent red.

“Hide in the cabinet, baby,” I say over the speaker as quietly as I can. “I’m on my way.”

21

GWYN

He’s not here.

Roman isn’t at the fucking compound.

If he were just upstairs, he’d be down here by now. Between the tremor I heard in his voice and the time it has taken since he last spoke, I know he’s not here. There is no reason he would take his sweet time in a situation like this. Unless his desire is to make me sweat, but I could hear from the tone of his voice when he told me to hide.

He’s scared.

That doesn’t bode well for me. At all.

And telling me to hide in the fucking cabinet? He’s clearly not thinking straight. There are pipes under the sink. What contortionist shit does he think I’m capable of? Certainly not fitting under a goddamn bathroom sink.

Instead, I go behind the stone half-wall that separates the shower from the rest of the bathroom. I’d locked the door when I came in and found the only weapon I could think of. The tiny little bandage scissors won’t do shit against a vampire, but maybe I can take things into my own hands if I need to.

I’m getting sweaty in this fucking hoodie, and I do my best to take slow, deep breaths. A racing heart won’t do me any favors. I consider taking my sweatshirt off and doing some yoga and trying to meditate, but I know the vampires are sensitive to scent. Between my blood and panicked sweat, I’m surprised no one has come yet.

I can’t imagine Victoria wouldn’t ring the dinner bell.

I hear a sound in my bedroom, a whisper and a footstep.

“Get the fuck out of there or I will rip your heads from your shoulders,” Roman’s voice crackles over the speaker, and the footsteps fade away.

My breath hitches, and I don’t know how much longer his threats will work.

I pop my head up, waving my hand to trigger the camera’s motion sensor.

“They’re gone. You’re okay,” his voice says, and it soothes me even when it shouldn’t.

“How long?” I whisper. There’s no point in being silent, not with his voice on the intercom.

“Fifteen minutes. Try to stay calm,” he says.

I slide down the wall.

A lot of things can happen in fifteen minutes.

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