Page 78 of Heart of a Witch
He sat next to me, dipping the bed. After a minute, he clicked his tongue. “About earlier, I do care about you, and it’s been a long time since I have cared about anyone in this way…” He entangled his fingers. “You make me nervous, if I’m being honest, and I only got defensive because I don’t want to talk about that part of my life. Not yet.”
“I makeyounervous?”
“You’re so forward and open-minded. You call me out on things, and you’re funny.”
“I’ve never met anyone like you, and I’m terrified I’ll mess things up. The people I care about have a habit of her getting hurt.”
“How so?”
“Let’s just say no one has lasted long in my life, except for my brother and father, and those relationships are nowhere close to functional.” His shoulders dropped back. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Can you let me worry about that?” I couldn’t help but smile. “I can handle my own, believe it or not.”
“Oh, no.” A ghost of a smirk played on his lips. “I believe it.” He gazed up as if lost in thought. “When you played for me yesterday, that song… it was like I heard it before. I kept thinking throughout the night of where I’d listened to it before, then it hit me. I hadn’t.”
I nodded slowly. He couldn’t have because I’d created it.
He continued. “It spoke to the emptiness in me, showing me feelings I knew all too well, and now I understand why. You have the same pain in you. From what you said. I didn’t want to admit it before.”
“I shouldn’t have pressed you about the…” I was afraid to finish the sentence.
“Don’t be. You’re curious. Anyone would be, and it’s why I never take my shirt off around anyone but my brother.”
I stayed quiet, biting at the inner lining of my lip.
“Don’t pity me,” he said quickly. “I’m not the one who should be pitied. There are those with far worse scars.”
“Like Corbin?” I asked.
He looked at his feet. “Yes, like Corbin.”
Twenty-Two
Elijah
The servants had already begun hanging decorations for Noelle, though I was sure the early display had more to do with the high priest coming to visit rather than Father being in a festive spirit.
Adeline found me as soon as I returned from taking Victoria home, her fingers shaking as she attempted to clasp them together. “Thank Zerheus you’re here.”
“What is it?”
She gulped, and a shiver ran down my spine, making my skin crawl. Her eyes crinkled in the corners, and her blue eyes glossed. “I’m sorry.”
Had someone died? “Adeline, tell me.”
She breathed in deeply, her voice barely a whisper. “It’s Master Corbin.”
My throat closed over.
“He came back early, looking for you. He said he had news, but Father Shaw found him first, and they went to his study, and I’m not certain what happened, but he’s been in the bathtub since. No one’s been allowed to go into his room.”
Vomit climbed up my throat. We both knew what had happened. I hurried past her and up the grand staircase.
I should have been here. I shouldn’t have gone to the cabin, knowing Father was looking for my brother, but I assumed with him asleep on the sofa and Corbin being out late like normal, they wouldn’t cross paths. They usually didn’t.
Bracing myself for what I was about to see, I held my breath, creaking the door open. The bathroom door, connected to his room, was slightly ajar. Water seeped under the crack. I swallowed thickly. “Please don’t be dead,” I whispered under my breath, shakily pushing the door open.
He was as white as the sheets crumpled on the ground next to the free-standing tub, where watered-down-crimson puddles surrounded it. He wasn’t moving, and my heart stopped before I could take another step.
