Page 104 of Shadows of Nightshade
I glanced towards the door. “There’s still a bottle in my purse—” Before I could complete my sentence, Titus had already turned and left the room.
I looked after him before Julian reclaimed my attention. He pressed his finger to my bottom lip, preventing me from biting myself, before he asked, “Who knows about this medication?”
“They…” Why did they look so serious? “My parents, my doctor… Finn.”
“Finn knows?” Julian asked, and the room grew even icier. “How did he get involved?”
“It started after I woke up in the hospital after… everything.” My skin was flush with heat, and my cheeks had to be bright red. I couldn’t look at any of them. “My parents like him and we were friends. Once he got his driver’s license, he took me to my weekly appointments. He can be very nosy.” I looked pointedly toward Damen. They were somewhat alike in this regard.
“You have to go to the doctor every week?” Julian repeated. “For what?”
“They…” A vitriol of hostility turned in my stomach, and my teeth clenched. “They want me to talk, but I won’t give in.”
“Talk about what?” His words echoed through my head.
The knot exploded through my chest in a surge of electricity, and I glared at him. “Nothing!” I growled. Why couldn’t people leave this well enough alone? “I’m fine!”
“Bianca…” Julian’s voice was a soothing calm over my misplaced anger. “There’s no reason to be upset. We won’t let anyone hurt you.”
He didn’t know what he was talking about. But, upon seeing the sincerity in his features, I could tell that he believed in his own words at least.
“Sure…” I remained unconvinced. My thoughts raced to distract him, to latch on to any other topic. “What’s so important about the marks?”
There was a short silence, or maybe it was the suffocating muffling in my ears, before it was broken by Julian’s defeated sigh. I looked to my knees as his, and Miles’s, shadows dropped from the peripheral of my vision, and Damen moved into the space. He sat, leg crossed in front of him, as he faced me.
He didn’t speak at first, though, and instead took my right hand and held it in his. I did not fight back as he held my fingers and allowed my touch to graze across his chest.
“Do you feel this?” he asked as a vibrating hum gathered in the palm of my hand. With every passing second, it grew stronger, moving steadily down my arms in a slow-moving current. My skin grew hot, and a pulse radiating from my own mark began to match to his.
I caught his waiting gaze, yet I couldn’t seem to respond.
However, he didn’t need words. “This happens because you’remeant to be with us,” he said. “You’re Mu—the missing member of our quintet. That mark on your chest proves it.”
Any excitement I started to feel was instantly squashed. It would be too easy to wish for that to be true, but it was also a terrifying thought.
I believed I’d finally found friends as Bianca. Not because of this thing I hardly understood.
I leaned back, bracing myself, and I lowered my hands over my blanket-covered knees.
“Oh.” I forced myself to smile. My anxiety was causing my thoughts to tumble as the pressure surmounted, and the last of my waning confidence vanished. Even if what Damen said was true, I would never be able to measure up to them. “That explains a lot.”
“Why are you upset?” Damen asked.
I shrugged. It was just another blow to deal with, another challenge.
Titus had returned, standing at the foot of the bed, and I could feel everyone paying full attention to me, gauging my reaction.
What did they want me to do?
This wasn’t what I wanted.
“I need to go to the bathroom.” The walls were closing in around me, and I fought to ignore the pounding in my ears as I pushed the thick blanket off my legs. They all stepped forward, but I ignored them, dodging their attempts to help me stand.
The light was growing dim, and it wasn’t until I padded across the plush rugs and closed the door behind me that I was able to breathe again.
They had no choice but to like me. I was only a replacement Bailey—the one they’d lost. Bianca didn’t matter at all.
I knewthey were talking about me, and I couldn’t blame them.
