Page 55 of Hunted By Fear

“Uh, I think I’m gonna go find Kai and say hi.” Ruin hooks a thumb over his shoulder toward the door, but doesn’t look away from Aeri, and I’m not sure if he wants her to tell him to stay or to go.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. I think I’m going to lie down for a few before dinner.” She moves up to the head of the bed, pulling thecovers down and crawling underneath them without so much as glancing at either of us.

Ruin looks at me with a frown on his face that matches my own.

“Where might I find Kai?”

“The library, if you just go down the main stairs—”

“It would be easier if you just showed him,” she says, cutting me off, making me pause.

She clearly wants a moment to herself, to think and breathe, but the idea makes my stomach turn.

Alone and asleep means she’ll be vulnerable.

“Aeri, I—”

“I’ll be fine, just go, Bast.” Her voice is an octave too high, and I feel her sadness as it bleeds into the room around us. The last thing I want to do is upset her further.

Reaching out, I rub a hand over her foot through the blanket.

“I’ll be right back.”

She doesn’t respond, and I begrudgingly get to my feet to show Ruin to the library.

I make it as far as the bedroom door before I look back, regretting my choice when I find her huddled up in the middle of the bed. She’s so small, damn near defenseless; she’s just a mortal.

The urge to tell Ruin to find the library himself and go back to her, despite what she said, is so strong that I actually turn around. Thankfully, I catch myself and move out into the hall and toward the library without a glance back.

It’s the only way I can make myself leave her.

I feel Ruin’s presence as he follows me down the stairs. I know he has ‌so many questions, but I’m grateful when he chooses instead to keep his mouth shut.

I don’t have answers to anything right now, and it’s tearing me apart.

All I want to do is fix everything for her…and maybe kill the angel while I’m at it.

That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Fuck.

I knew it was bad, but that…

Fuck.

There’s no other word that will do to explain how I feel about that shitshow.

I'd missed so much.

Months, not just the dayshe’sbeen stealing away, but entire months that I have absolutely no recollection of.

Well, Ihadno recollection of.

Hearing Bast tell Ruin was like a train wreck. I didn’t want to know, but I needed to. I need to know what Rome has done to me, more than just simply knowing he’s fucking with my head.

And that’s the only real way to describe what he’s doing because I could never love him; just the thought makes my skin crawl and my stomach roll. But despite that, I know it’s true.

I saw the anger in Bast’s eyes when he spoke of Rome and the sadness when he looked at me.