Page 54 of Malice
She blinked at me in confusion. “What? I just told you I fell into the lake and nearly drowned.” She tugged on the waterlogged hoodie she wore for emphasis. “You were supposed to keep me warm, not kill me.”
“I would never kill you. What are you talking about?”
Pulling the hoodie over her head, she balled it up and tossed it at me. “Not you. This damn thing. It tried to drown me. Why do you have to be such a giant?”
I frowned down at the same hoodie I’d searched for earlier before letting it fall to the muddy banks. “Merri, answer my fucking question. Why did you cross the ward?”
As I repeated myself, I assessed our surroundings. I should have been able to see her even though she’d stepped through the magical barrier. In fact, everything on this side of the ward should have been visible before I crossed. Looking at the state of things, we hadn’t been seeing the truth at all.
“I didn’t mean to. The mudslide tossed me into the lake, and when I surfaced, I was... here.”
I frowned, glancing back over my shoulder in the direction Merri had indicated. The lack of familiar landmarks wasn’t a surprise to me; that was the ward at work. It hid the truth of the island from anyone on the outside. But it was only supposed to do that in one direction. Those inside the ward should be ableto see the reality of what was on the other side. Like a two-way mirror.
“I was starting to worry I’d gone through a portal or something and that I was going to have to get in the lake again to make it back to you.” She shivered, and on instinct, I wrapped her tighter in my arms.
“No. There is no portal.”
“I knew the world was ending, but it’s worse than I thought.” She laughed bitterly. “I don’t know what I expected. Why would you guys want to keep the truth from me?”
My frown deepened. “It was never about keeping the truth from you. It was about keeping you safe.”
She let out a derisive snort. “Oh, trust me. One look at this, and I wouldn’t try to go anywhere. You should have shown this to me weeks ago. I’d have become a voluntary shut-in.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be hidden from you or any of us. Something is wrong.”
I needed to get her back to the safety of the warded property. Merri most likely was the trigger for Malice’s alarm. Not an intruder. That eased some of my mind, but frustration and anger were still there, pushing at me.
“Come on,” I growled. “We need to get back.”
She yanked out of my hold. “No. Not yet. I need to get something.”
“Absolutely fucking not. You’re shivering and wet. You need to come with me.”
The glare she shot me was straight out of Grim’s handbook. “I did not come all this way and nearly die not to get Christian his stupid flowers.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? You crossed the ward to pickflowers? Do you know how risky that is?”
“First of all, we’ve already established that I did not mean to cross the wards. Second, fuck all the way off. I am trying tosavehim. You might be okay with people dying, but I’m not. Not when I can do something about it. Did I go for a walk to pick flowers for a potion that could help my friend? Yes, I fucking did. And I’m not returning to the house empty-handed. So either you help me or stay out of my way.”
So help me, I was going to take her over my knee in a moment. “Look around, Merri. Do you see anything that remotely resembles flowers over here? All I see are dead things. Even the grass on this side of the ward is brown.”
Her eyes narrowed and she clenched her jaw. I was half expecting her to stamp her foot for good measure. Instead she just muttered, “Fine,” and took two steps into the lake.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I shouted, grabbing her by the back of the neck and hauling her out.
She windmilled her arms and kicked out with her feet, sputtering, “Let me go, you big oaf.”
“You’re going the wrong fucking way.”
I didn’t give her the option to argue with me. In one smooth motion, I scooped her up and began striding in the right direction.
“Put me down!” she screeched.
“Not fucking happening.”
“Chaos, I swear to all that is holy, I’m going to give you the worst tittie twister of your fucking life. Put. Me. Down.”
As far as threats went, it wasn’t particularly effective. Mostly because I had no clue what that was, but I didn’t doubt she meant every word. I knew better than to tell her that.
