Page 85 of Nora's Kraken

Now, though, with time and hindsight, I know exactly what he saw.

He saw a young woman who was eager to please, who wasn’t confident in herself, who didn’t really even know herself, and who was desperate for approval,anyone’sapproval.

He saw someone he could manipulate and control completely, and I’m sure it was a slap in the face to his ego when I finally showed him I wasn’t.

“It was at that rally, right?” I ask, still trying to drag this conversation out, give myself time to find some way out of this. “The voter registration rally?”

His eyes narrow a bit at getting an answer that’s more than a couple of syllables long, and he takes another sip of his drink before setting it down and resting his hands on the table.

Still, he smiles at whatever the memory holds for him. “You fell in love with me so quickly.”

Another wave of stomach-lurching regret. He’s not wrong about that.

“You had it good with me, Nora. I gave you everything.”

I’m sure he wants to believe he did.

“And to find out you’ve been living in that shoebox of an apartment. Taking the bus. Working in some store. Pretending to be someone else and getting by with so little. Make it make sense to me, Nora.”

A sick, sinking feeling settles into the bottom of my gut.

I’ll never be ashamed of the life I made for myself here. I’ll never regret the decision I made to leave and the hard work it’s taken to get this far. But something about what he just said clings on and won’t let go.

Pretending to be someone else.

While I don’t want to listen to anything this monster has to say, that insult hits a little too close to the truth for me to ignore it completely. Is that what I’ve been doing? I’m not the same woman I used to be, but I’ve been making decisions like I am. I’ve been playing my cards small, afraid, cautious.

It’s what I’ve been feeling these last few weeks, isn’t it? As I’ve come back to life, come back to myself, it’s put all the rest of it into shocking clarity.

I don’t know exactly who I am. I don’t know who I’m going to be. But I do know that I’m going to survive whatever’s happening here.

Meeting Daniel’s eyes fully for the first time since we sat down, I really study him.

He’s looking right back at me, and as I stare him down, I see the first crack. A pulse of uncertainty in his eyes, maybe surprise at whatever he finds in my own. He covers it quickly with another blank look and a polite smile, but not quickly enough for me to miss it.

“I’ve been living the life I want,” I tell him quietly. “On my own.”

“That’s not entirely true, though, is it?”

His placid smile is gone. In its place is cold, inhuman flatness, a sharp, brittle-edged rage threatening in the tightening of his features and the hard set of his mouth.

“You’ve found someone else, haven’t you?”

Ice pours through my veins, and I’m desperate to keep Elias out of this. “I haven’t.”

Daniel takes a piece of paper from his pocket, unfolds it, and lays it on the table between us. It’s a copy of a report with bold lettering printed across the top indicating where it came from.

The Paranormal Citizens Relations Bureau.

He only leaves it on the table for a few seconds before picking it up and pretending to read it, like he hasn’t probably already done so a dozen times, but a few words jump out immediately.

My name. Elias’s. Kraken. Mate.

Keeping my face as neutral as I can, even while my heart is racing, my eyes dart unconsciously to the hip where the gun is still hidden under his jacket. Luckily, Daniel doesn’t notice as he folds the paper up and tucks it back into his pocket.

“Is he coming for you, mouse?” Daniel asks, using the nickname he gave me years ago.

Mouse. Small, quiet, easy to trap or step on.

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