Page 94 of The Midnight Order
“That won’t be hard.” He smirks. “He’ll be where he always is when things get hard.”
I narrow my gaze, waiting for him to elaborate.
“Your house.”
I stand and brush invisible dust off myself as I prepare to face the man who killed my aunt, who was never my aunt.
“I’ll see you later?” I squeak, unable to steady my tone.
He leans down and kisses my forehead. It’s soft and tentative, but it’s just what I need.
“I’ll see you later. Asher and I are only a few doors down if you need to talk. Or if you just need to be near someone.”
“Thank you.” I smile.
I find Lowell right where Corvin said he’d be, standing in the tree line beyond my house, hidden in the dusk.
“I don’t want to talk.” His gruff tone rakes across my sensitive nerves from the last couple of hours of revelations, and my hands shake.
“Well, I do. You don’t have to say a thing.”
He doesn’t look away from the front of the house, almost like he’s expecting Soliel to rise from the grave and come to him.
“I’m so sorry about what happened to you. No one deserves to be treated like that.”
“You don’t know me.”
I swallow over a thick lump in my throat. “I want to know you.”
He turns his angry eyes on me. “But you don’t want me to sing you to sleep or hold you without permission?”
His question would be endearing if his fangs weren’t bared at me presently. “Well, I’d like to know you won’t rip my throat out while we lie next to one another, Lowell. Like you said, I didn’t know you when you did those things. We’re still learning about one another. Can you imagine if you were the one who woke up in a strange house, with creatures standing around you with masks on, telling you that you’re the key to their ancient curse?”
His face falls, his eyes drawn to his feet. “We took you much like I was taken. It wasn’t right.”
“It wasn’t, but you were doing what you thought was. If I remember correctly, one of you said that the wards don’t allow someone to go through if they don’t belong. Is that right?”
He nods.
“Then maybe I’m supposed to be here, and this was supposed to happen.”
“Maybe so.”
He’s turned back toward the house and is staring at the dark porch.
The light is off, and it’s hard not to let my mind wander to the depraved things that Asher, Corvin, and I got up to just beyond the closed door, and I sneak a peek at it.
“Were you made or born?” I ask him, praying it won’t cause him any distress or send him off the deep end for my asking.
“Why do you want to know?”
Contemplating what to say, I pause and shift on my feet. “Well, I was speaking to Corvin about my lineage and my blood, and I don’t know how much he’s told you, but there are some things I’d like to share with you if you’ll share bits of you with me?”
Tit for tat. It could work.
I hope, anyway.
I know Lowell will be the most difficult to crack. Rightfully so, with all he’s gone through.
