Page 48 of Firethorne
It was hard to walk with any speed or urgency in the ridiculous heels I was wearing, and as I stumbled, almost toppling to the floor, I heard Damien, call out, “Careful,” and his warm hand reached out to grab my arm.
“I’m fine. You don’t have to walk me home,” I snapped, pulling my arm out of his grasp. “Your father doesn’t want you following me, remember?”
“Like I give a fuck what my father wants,” he hissed. “I don’t take orders from him.”
“Are you sure about that?” I goaded, huffing as I tried to walk faster and put some distance between us. But his strides were bigger than mine. I wasn’t escaping him any time soon.
“Positive. I’m not his fucking lapdog. I leave that to my brother.”
I didn’t want to engage with him, I didn’t even want to look at him. I was scared what might happen if I did. So, I kept striding forward, focusing on getting back to the cabin as quickly as possible. Back to normality, if that even existed for me now.
“You shouldn’t be out here all alone,” he went on. “It’s dark. Anything could happen to you.”
I hadn’t even noticed that the lights Lysander had been so sure he’d get installed when we first came here had never materialised.
“It’s not the dark I’m afraid of,” I sneered, and he gave a low, gruff chuckle.
“I’m glad you think like that. The monsters in this place don’t hide in the shadows. They’re not afraid to stand right in front of you, smiling in broad daylight.”
“Don’t I know it,” I spat back.
I carried on marching through the woodland, blocking him out as I got closer and closer to the cabin. But he was like a dog with a fucking bone. He wouldn’t let me go.
“Do you really want to stay here, after everything you’ve seen tonight?” he questioned. “After everything that’s happened?”
I stopped and spun around to face him.
“No. I don’t want to fucking stay here,” I seethed. “But I’m going nowhere without my father.”
“Why? Is his hold on you that tight?”
I stepped towards him, pointing my finger in his face. The moonlight reflecting off his skull-painted face made him even more demon-like, but I stood my ground.
“My relationship with my father is none of your fucking business. And the minute I tell him what I saw tonight, and what you did, we’ll be out of here.”
“WhatIdid?” Damien pushed his face close to mine, fury rolling off him as he clenched his jaw. “Don’t you mean whatwedid. I don’t remember you telling me to stop, Maya.”
He was right.
“I don’t have time for this,” I huffed, and turned my back on him, stomping away. But he continued to follow me.
“If you wanna leave, I’ll take you right now. Drive you off this fucking estate to the train station and buy you the goddamn ticket myself. I’ll even walk you onto the damn train.”
I ignored him. I’d already told him I wouldn’t leave without my father. But he kept on.
“I mean it. You need to leave.”
“And you need to leave me the fuck alone,” I replied, as the dim lights of the cabin came into view.
Once I reached the porch, I called out to him, “Stay away from me and stay away from my father. I don’t ever want to see you again.” And then I ran up the steps and into the cabin, slamming the door behind me, and then leaning against it, letting out a breath, relieved that I was finally alone.
I managed to compose myself, then called out my father’s name, expecting him to be here, now that Firethorne was back. But I was met with silence, so I raced across the living room, heading for my bedroom, and once inside, I closed the door.
I pulled the devil horn hairband off my head and threw it onto my dresser, then grabbed my oversized band T-shirt from my drawers. I sat on the bed and unzipped my boots, pulled them off with a feeling of relief and then stood up to slip the dress off, shimmying as it fell to the floor. I put my T-shirt on, turned the light off and lay on the bed, trying to focus on mybreathing and not the pornographic film playing over and over in my head.
I stared at the ceiling as the moon cast shadows over it, reminding me that my curtains were open. I thought about getting up and closing them, but honestly, I didn’t have the energy.
So, I lay there, thinking about what had happened. How Lysander had shown me parts of himself since I’d been here. Parts that made me warm to him, something I didn’t do easily in life. And yet, tonight, I’d discovered another side to him. A side that was secret, forbidden, something he’d wanted to share with me, if Damien was to be believed. But would he really go so far as to drug my drink to do that?
