Page 98 of Blood Day: Part Two
He was proud.
The combination of emotions rivaled my own, only I felt terrified, relieved, and confused as hell.
He’d been forced to cut his way into the vent to create an exit for me because I’d apparently missed a grate in the other room, one that would have freed me from my tunnel-like prison.
But it didn’t matter, because he’d been able to save me here.
A myriad of plans rolled through his head, his strategy one I recognized as he shifted me beneath him on the floor and gave me more of his blood, drowning me in his healing essence while reminding me of who we were to one another.
We didn’t have much time, but he knew my body needed this.
Just as my mind required the details his touch provided—this is real. Cedric is real. He came for me. And now he’s going to help me escape.
I missed you, Lily,he breathed into my mind, his palms framing my face.I missed you so fucking much.
I missed you, too,I whispered.I thought you abandoned me.
I know,he replied.We’ll discuss it more when we’re out of this mess. But I need you to trust me now. Can you do that, sweet flower? Can you trust me again?
Chapter20
Lily
Trust,I thought, tasting the word in my mind and shivering as a sense of unease settled across my spirit.Can I trust anyone? Can I even trust this?
Is he truly here?
Or is my mind playing a cruel trick on me?
As much as I wanted to believe that this was real… I… I couldn’t.
I might be dying. I might be dreaming. I might have fallen to my death from that metal trap. Maybe this was the afterlife. Maybe this was all in my head.
Lily, Cedric breathed, his concern washing over me. But I caught the flare of purpose behind his thoughts, the very real understanding that he’d desired this break in my programming mere months ago.
He’d wanted to destroy me.
Watch me shrivel away to nothing.
Todie.
Because that had seemed better in his mind than a lifetime of servitude. A lifetime ofthis—the breeding camp. The moon chase.
He’d tried to curb my education to help me avoid this fate. Yet all along, deep down, he’d craved my demise. Because a mental death would save me from the physical torment of my future.
I swam through the darkness of his mind, seeing his reasoning and hearing his former plans to break me. To shred my hope and reduce me to nothing.
But somewhere along the way, we’d taken a turn.
Now he seemed to be regretting ever desiring that path, all because we were finally at the point and he didn’t like the consequences.
Trustwas a funny word. I couldn’t say if I trusted him or not right now. I didn’t trust anything, including my own mind. For all I knew, I was deep-diving into a well of nothing and making up Cedric’s thoughts. Making up his historical feelings. Making up his existence above me.
But his blood…
His blood certainly tasted real, spiraling me back into a dangerous sea of hope. I clawed for the surface, refusing to believe it, my mind too desperate for an escape to be reliable.
Cedric sighed my name, his tongue dancing with mine.We don’t have time for this, little flower,he whispered.But I don’t know what else to do. You need to know I’m here.
