Page 101 of Blackwood

“Not now Knox, but you’ll—”

My phone buzzes.

@LucaWasHere

Izzy, Izzy, still so blind.

Did you think that beast was mine?

The frostbit brute with vacant eyes,

He growls, but never satisfies.

You taste the wrong names in your mouth,

Choke on guesses, looking south.

You flinch at ghosts you can’t define,

While I trace patterns down your spine.

My stomach drops. I jerk up instinctively, eyes scanning the crowd.

Cade frowns. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Knox leans over and snatches the phone from my hand. He reads it and mutters under his breath, “Seriously? The poet, again.”

Cade’s alarm bells go off immediately. “Bella, talk to me.”

I glance at him, unsure how to even begin. “Okay, well, it’s kind of a long story. Or… actually, not really—”

Ellie cuts in sharply, “She has a creepy Instagram stalker.”

“What?” Cade says, louder than he probably meant to.

“Thanks, El.”

Before I can say more, the DJ’s voice blares again. “And now… stepping into the ring Northvale’s own, leader of The Hollow Kings, the one and only, Damien ‘Rez’ Reznikov!”

Cade leans in, voice low but deadly serious. “Sweetheart, just show me. Please.”

I hesitate, fingers tightening around my phone but I hand it over. The second it leaves my hand, I regret it.

He reads it once. Then again, and scrolls up through the thread. His body goes rigid. Right leg bouncing like a warning shot. His jaw locks so tight I can hear the grind of his teeth. He lets out a slow exhale through his nose.

“Bella,” he says, eyes still glued to the screen. “Who the fuck is this?”

I don’t answer.

He finally looks at me and it’s not anger I see. It’s something worse. It’s hurt. Fear. That raw, protective panic I’ve only seen a few times before. Once when I twisted my ankle at the lake. Once when I didn’t come home from a party. Once when I cried on the Whitmore patio and he handed me a blanket and a strawberry milkshake like it was enough to fix the world.

“Tell me right now,” he says, voice sharp, “Who the hell is this, Bella?”

“I don’t know,” I admit quietly. “We’ve tried to find out.”

“Bella, you need to take this to the police.”

“No.” I shake my head. “It’s fine. He’s just a creep. I’ll be fine.” I press a kiss to his cheek. “I promise.”