Page 19 of Hunt the Dusk
“I hate you.”
He stroked my rapid pulse with his thumb, and my eyes threatened to flutter closed. “Now you’re simply repeating yourself,” he crooned, his breath hot on my lips inviting me to offer myself to him.
My chest heaved as I fought the urge.
He smirked and released me abruptly, leaving me gasping against the leather, shame burning a path across my collarbones and gathering in my cheeks.
“Lessons can be painful, Miss Lighthart. But I believe my little massacre helped you to learn yours. I’m not an unforgiving man, so you can date Kaster Black if you wish. A balm for your wounded sensibilities. No one can ever say that Ezekiel Tepes doesn’t take care of his things.” He sat back and looked out of his window. “Now get out and take the carriage back to the castle. I have business to attend to.”
My heart pulsed in my throat as I stared at him, stunned.
My door opened, and Ezekiel’s driver waited patiently for me to exit. The driver who’d probably heard and seen everything. Shame warred with anger, twisting into a knot inside me, but the words I needed, words I wanted to say, refused to come.
There was nothing to do but climb out and accept that Ezekiel Tepes was a twisted son of a bitch who lived in his own fabricated world of privilege.
Tearing a hole in his reality was going to take some time.
I had a year.
I hoped it would be enough.
Ordell and Hemlockmet me at the stables, and after sending a Raven to the chapter house to let them know I wasn’t coming back tonight, we took their carriage back to the castle.
Ordell drove, and Hemlock rode in the cabin with me.
“You’re very quiet,” he said. “Do you want to talk about it? What he said…what he did?”
“No.”
“For what it’s worth, we are grateful for your help.”
“I’m not sure anyone can help him.”
“Part of humanity is caring about things. Ezekiel obviously cares about you.”
“I wouldn’t call it care. He gets a thrill from trying to control me.” I jabbed a thumb at my chest. “New shiny toy.”
“No,” Hemlock said. “We know him. We’ve seen him century after century. This…with you…it means something.”
“I hope for all our sakes that it does.”
“What happened tonight, Orina? If you tell me, then maybe we can dissect it, figure out how to move forward.”
I sighed and nodded. “I was on a date with Kaster Black and?—”
“You went on adate?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I went on a date.”
“Go on,” he said tightly.
“The date was more of a ploy to find out information on the fire that killed the Order ordained a few months back.” Ifilled him in on what my team had told me about the fire and how we’d deduced that Kaster might know what happened, but I left out Padma’s condition. That wasn’t for me to tell. “Ezekiel showed up and asserted his dominance as usual. He was pissed I was out with Kaster.” Hemlock’s eyes lit up. “Made it clear that I belonged to him, and we had words…” I cleared my throat. “Um…anyway, it ended with him saying I was allowed to date Kaster if I wanted. Said I’d learned my lesson…” I gritted my teeth. “Referring to the massacre. He said he was allowing me to date as a balm for mywounded sensibilities.”
Hemlock exhaled sharply. “He apologized.”
“What?”
“You really don’t see it, do you? That was Ezekiel apologizing for what he’s done.”
