Page 26 of Reap the Night
It wasn’t too busy just yet, though, so we had our pick of tables. We ordered our cones, and it turned out that Hemlock was also a mint chocolate chip kind of person. Ordell got his regular raspberry ripple with chocolate sauce, and we found a table at the back of the parlor.
The guys ushered me into the booth, and Hemlock sat beside me while Ordell took the bench opposite.
“I can’t help but think you’re caging me in to stop me from running. What is it? What do you want to tell me?”
“Eat some ice cream first,” Ordell said.
I took a lick, but my heart wasn’t in it. “Look, just spit it out, okay? You’re scaring me.”
“By buying you ice cream?” Hemlock said.
And how the heck was his scoop almost gone? “Just spit it out.”
“We’ve been watching Ezekiel,” Ordell said. “And we weren’t sure at first, but after seeing him at dinner last night and then again tonight, we’ve come to the conclusion that he’s falling for you.”
I heard his words. I processed them. But they made no sense. “You’re insane. He isnotfalling for me. Nothing about the past three weeks indicates that he’s falling for me. He spent all his time with Ariella. He hasn’t attempted to contact me at all, not even with his dream walk ability, and did you not see him with Ariella last night and tonight? Everything points to him falling for her.”
“That’s what he wants you to think,” Hemlock said. “He wants you to think that he’s falling for Ariella. He wants to get a reaction from you. He wants to know how you feel. Heck, maybe he even wants to hurt you. It would be in line with who he is.”
“He sent a Raven to you, right?” Ordell said. “Sent it to Kaster’s apartment?”
“He knows that you’ve been sleeping there,” Hemlock said. “He's probably been watching you.”
“Having me watched?”
No,” Hemlock said. “Actually watching you. He’s growing in power, and one of his abilities allows him to see through his Ravens’ eyes.”
Oh God, so every Raven I’d been seeing the past week…Ezekiel could have been watching me? So he’d know how much time I spent at Kaster’s, that I’d been sleeping there. Could the guys be right and the last two dinners had been his way of punishing me by flaunting his relationship in my face, trying to hurt me because…because he was falling for me? It was ridiculous. It didn’t make sense. It couldn’t be, but there was apart of me that reveled in the possibility, that heated with joy at the thought that he could feel the same way that I…Oh God, this could not be happening.
“Orina, you’ve gone pale,” Ordell said. “Look, I know it’s a lot to take in, but we believe it to be true. Hemlock and I have taken it in turns to scout the castle at night, and we’ve yet to find them together. Ariella is either in the kitchen or in her room. Alone.”
“That doesn’t mean a thing. You’re not there all the time.”
“We believe the dinner party was a ruse. Ezekiel attempting to get a rise out of you because he knows you’re seeing Kaster Black,” Hemlock said. “And again tonight, he spent more time watching you than he did Ariella.”
“I didn’t notice.” All I’d seen was him holding her hand or touching her cheek. “No, you’re wrong. Why would Ariella be so smitten if he hasn’t been spending any time with her?”
“How do you know she’s smitten?”
“She told me when I followed her to the washroom.”
“Then maybe he has spent some time with her. Enough to charm her, but trust us when we tell you that his affections don’t lie with her. Not yet, anyway.” Ordell cursed and lapped at his melting ice cream for a moment to get the scoop under control. “We need him to fall for Ariella so she can fall for him too. Not an infatuation. Love. But if you’re in the picture, then that may not happen.”
“Remember,” Hemlock said, “although Ezekiel knows that Ariella is somehow linked to his curse, he doesn’t know how intricately or how important it is for her to love him. His affections lie with you.”
“So we need to sever them,” Ordell said. “You need to make things official with Kaster.” The corners of his eyes tightened when he said it, as if it pained him to do it. “Hem, I can’t say it.”
“Say what?”
“You have to fuck Kaster,” Hemlock said.
Ordell growled and crushed his cone. Ice cream spattered all over us.
Hemlock plucked some napkins from the dispenser on the table and handed them out before continuing. “Ezekiel needs to smell Kaster on your skin, to know that you’ve consummated. That you’re taken. That you’ve moved on.”
Is that why he’d sniffed me tonight and last night too? And they wanted me to sleep with Kaster even though it would mean losing my blessing, unless…Unless they didn’t know about that condition.
I laughed. I couldn’t help it because first there’d been Ordell, wonderful gives-the best-hugs Ordell, who I was beginning to fall for, who then mate-marked me, putting me at risk of being fucked and eaten by his beast, and now Ezekiel had feelings for me. Real falling-for-you feelings, and I might feel the same. Fuck it, I did feel the same, bone-achingly, heart-wrenchingly the same. I was falling for a monster, and a monster was falling for me, and I couldn’t do anything about it, so if I didn’t laugh, then I’d sob my fucking heart out.
