Page 29 of Shadows of Nightshade
“Bianca!” Finn was upset. Finn rarely got upset. He was mostly cool and calculating—the calm to my panic. Well, unless something made him mad. Then I tended to be the logical one.
“Where are you?” he asked me.
“Um…” Was he still looking for me? I thought he’d given up by now. “Somewhere,” I answered. “It’s fine.”
But what if he was looking for me for a reason? I should have texted him. I pressed my hand against my thigh. What if something happened to my parents or…
Well, it had to be them, because I didn’t know anyone else. My pulse began to race.
“What’s wrong?” I breathed, frightened.
“When you say ‘it’s fine’, it’s never fine!” Finn sounded furious. Even so, I was relieved. No one had been hurt. He was only angry withme. That was the lesser of two evils. “Are you hiding something from me again?”
Then his words were processed, and my heart skipped a beat. “I’m not—”
“Who are you with?” he interrupted.
“Um…” Crap. “I told you I might go to the greenhouses…”
“I just left the greenhouses,” he snapped. “Bryce said he hasn’t seen you all day.”
My eyebrow twitched through my panic.
Bryce. Why did Finn have to bringhiminto it? I didn’t like the idea of them talking about me. “What, are you friends with him now?”
How would they even know each other?
“Stop changing the subject,” Finn rebutted. “Where are you?”
“I—” My thoughts raced as I tried to come up with an excuse. Something that wouldn’t sound suspicious at all. “I’m at a friend’s house.”
“Who?” Finn asked. “Does this person have a name? Don’t make me track you down. I’ve been fighting to let you keep your independence.”
I frowned, disturbed despite my anxiety. What did he mean by that?
“Just tell me before something happens.” He sounded frantic.
“What do you think is going to happen?” I asked.
“Bianca!”
Fear flooded me, and my blood turned to ice. I didn’t understand. Why was he getting so worked up?
But I couldn’t tell him. How would he react if he knew I was meeting his estranged brother? Plus, he’d figure out how Damen and I came to know each other.
I was such an idiot.
My hands shook. I needed to respond, but how? Finn was getting more furious by the second.
There was a harsh movement as Miles ripped my phone from my hands and moved beyond my reach. My vision stayed hazy as I stared at the large, pacing man.
“Just who do you think you’re talking to like that?” Miles’s rolling accent had changed into something harsh, and it hurt my ears.
I jumped to my feet, desperate to put an end to this disaster.
I’d barely taken two steps before Damen intercepted and held me against him. He made a shushing noise in my ear, but I hardly heard him. My focus was on Miles.
It felt like my world was about to come crashing down around me.
