Page 138 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
Oh lords, oh no. She couldn’t face him. She couldn’t. Not after this. Maybe not ever again.
“Adeline,” said Dimitri softly. “Please let me in. I just need to—”
“She’s sleeping,” said Posey between the gap. “Don’t—”
By the time Dimitri had barged into the room, Adeline had pulled herself up onto the windowsill, and vanished into the night.
Dimitri barged into the room, ignoring the sting of her words,don’t let him in. I don’t want to see him,ignoring everything but the pressing need to be with her, to ensure she was all right.
I will not go until I know you are safe. I don’t care how long it takes.
Posey gasped as he flung open the door. Disturbed, no doubt, by his wild appearance. He hadn’t stopped to check himself, but he knew his lip was split and his furred cheek dripped with blood.
His father hadn’t let him go easily.
The room was empty.
Curtains whipped in the wind. Dimitri rushed to the window, spying a white spot vanishing into the gardens, a moth-like shape in the night.
Adeline.
He tried to haul himself up after her, but the narrow shape of the window closed over his shoulders.
“Don’t!” Posey raged over the gathering wind. “Just leave her be!”
“I can’t!” he howled. “I don’t expect you to understand—”
“I don’t understand whyyoudon’t understand! How do you think this is going to end,Young Lord?Because it will end. The only question is how much it will hurt, and how much she will lose.”
“You don’t… you can’t…”
“What’s going on here?” Thomas arrived at the door, brow furrowed. His eyes widened on Dimitri. “Your face—”
“Adeline’s run off.”
Thomas stared at the window, and back to Dimitri’s face. “Did you hurt her?” His voice was low and harsh.
Dimitri felt no anger at Thomas’ assumption, only a bitter, dark sensation, low in his belly. He hated that anyone thought he was capable of such an action at all. “I would never hurt her,” he whispered.
“But youhave!” Posey insisted. “You will! That’s all you nobles can do to us, don’t you see?” She stared at Dimitri full in the face, eyes blazing beneath chasms of tears. “There are many kinds of pain, you know.”
He did know. And at that moment, he detested himself for infecting Adeline with any of his.
I’ll make it right. I’ll find a way. I’ll help you like you helped me.
Something lashed against the glass. Rain. Through his boiling body, tight with rage, he could feel the wind brewing.
“A storm is coming,” Thomas remarked.
“She’s only wearing her nightclothes,” Posey added. “She’ll freeze.”
Dimitri trembled at the thought. “I’m going after her.”
“She doesn’t want you to—”
“And I don’t want her to freeze to death, do you?”
Posey quietened. She went to the hook on the back of the door and handed over Adeline’s frayed coat. She said nothing else.
