Page 3

LEIF

A change in energy infiltrates my semi-consciousness, and I startle awake as somebody passes the chair I’m dozing in. On alert, I twist my head toward the door behind me and catch sight of Violet disappearing through it.

Rowan and Holly are speaking in the kitchen, and there’s no sign of Grayson. Where’s Violet going? I spring from the recliner and pursue Violet, catching up as she passes through the hallway mirrors and opens the entrance door.

“Don’t you think we should stay inside?” I gesture at the overcast world outside. “Someone could be watching.”

She regards me unblinkingly. “Hence the need to locate the suitcases and evidence they contain.”

Oh. I’d forgotten about them. Everything connected to Kai. In fact, anything outside of the shitshow I miraculously walked away from unhurt.

“Where do you think Kai’s mum put the suitcases?”

“If I knew that, I would possess them and their contents by now.” She stalks through the door, and I stride to keep up.

“I’m presuming she didn't enter the damaged part of the building as the stairs aren’t usable, and Mrs. Sawyer hasn’t randomly left the luggage in any of the rooms downstairs.

I will check hidden locations outside, and then we shall scour the lodge further. ”

But how much time do we have? Will somebody come to the lodge?

Not Eloise, please . I swallow. What the hell was I thinking when I chose to jump in front of Eloise?

Nothing, that’s the problem. I haven’t reacted that instinctively since I grabbed Violet at the memorial barbecue to stop her from casting dangerous magic.

The shock of Violet, disarmed and lying on the ground, and the real possibility that Holly would die, shoved me into my insane move.

If I hadn’t acted, Eloise would’ve got a hold of Grayson and the heart.

And if that happened, Eloise would have control over a reanimated Viktor, but the spells he’d cast on people would remain.

Everything had taken on a sharp and surreal appearance, and a flash of what Eloise might do to Grayson had prompted me. And Dash? Dash’s attack on Viktor came from nowhere, and when I ran at Eloise, I hadn’t fully registered his actions.

Honestly, I’m surprised I’m here and uninjured.

Eloise once spent time in my mind helping me, and I had a migraine from hell for the rest of the day.

Imagine what she could do to my mind if she weren’t helping.

I drag a hand through my hair, as fear punches me in the chest. And when Dorian discovers… ?

“I sense you’re anxious, Leif,” says Violet as we tread across the pebbles between the lodge and boat shed.

“Uh. Yeah. I’m in a shit load of trouble with your parents. Your powerful, pissed off parents.” I reach out to pull a stick from her tangled hair. “What next? After searching for the suitcases, I mean.”

She pauses and turns back. “I must find Grayson.”

My jaw slackens. “You’d hand him to your father?”

For the first time ever, anger toward me flashes in Violet’s eyes and I edge backward. “You believe I would do that?”

“No. I— I’m panicked. Confused.”

Her lips go thin. “I must find Grayson to protect him. Dorian now has an excuse to remove a member of the Petrescu line—the one who threatens my father because he desires my hybrid blood.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

“Have an excuse? Yes. Grayson prevented Eloise’s attempt to reanimate Viktor, which is enough of an excuse in Dorian’s mind.”

“ No . Grayson doesn’t want your blood.”

Violet remains silent for a moment. “Then you understand little about hemia, Petrescus, and the nature of mine and Grayson’s relationship.”

“Oh, I know about that.” I half-smile. “But the blood, no.”

Violet’s expression doesn’t change. “Grayson has not touched my blood.”

Their relationship? She remains silent on Grayson’s decision to alert somebody about her meeting with Viktor.

Or that Grayson included Eloise in the situation.

How will Violet react when she sees Grayson again?

He betrayed what we agreed, but also made the move we all wanted: protect Violet from Viktor.

In the end, we backed Grayson on a decision that love drove us all to. We joined Grayson rather than stop him following.

Violet hasn’t reacted as I thought, apart from one response shortly after Eloise left: “I should’ve expected you to do this.”

Beneath the betrayal, does she understand we made the right move in following her?

At least she’s talking about protecting Grayson.

We approach the boat shed, a flat-roofed steel structure at the edge of the trees, and Violet takes hold of the large padlock attached to a rusted chain looped through the door handles.

The metal breaks as easily as a delicate necklace as Violet tugs.

Without any effort or help from me, Violet pushes one of the two doors to one side.

“Don’t be concerned. I shall protect you too. All of you.”

“Against your family? How can we hide from them?”

“ You can hide. The shifters want you.”

Did I hear her correctly? “What did you just say?”

“That the shifter elders want you. Therefore, you can safely stay there if the need arises. Dorian is careful not to interfere in shifter business.”

As Violet clambers onto the small white boat we once hid Kai in, I gawk at her, betrayal and anger threatening to escape.

“How the fuck can you say that when you know how frightened I am of that society swallowing me? I might never leave again—or worse.”

Violet pauses and watches me inscrutably before climbing back out of the boat. Even the girl who struggles to read body language must notice I’m upset.

She places a soft hand on my cheek. “Then we find another plan. Leif. I will not allow any harm to come to you. I understand you’re emotional after this morning's events, but please do not jump to conclusions.”

“Sometimes I struggle to know when you’re serious.” I curl my fingers around hers. “Or when you’ve made a rash decision.”

“Rash decisions? Like yours?” she comments.

I look away. Yeah, like mine to shove Eloise.

The fishing boat is a decent size, but the blue and white paint faded and not as fancy as I’d expect from the Sawyers.

Maybe they have a better one elsewhere, since the yacht I picture would never fit inside the shed.

At a place overseas? People like the Sawyers always have vacation homes more prestigious than this ‘little’ weekend place.

“Why hasn’t Sawyer repaired the lodge?” I ask Violet.

“I presume he doesn’t want anybody to ask questions about the damage. Now. Suitcases.”

Sarah couldn’t hide a travel bag in the boat’s cramped seating area, never mind a suitcase, which Violet confirms with a grumble.

I turn full circle to examine the rest of the boat shed.

Fishing rods and equipment hang from a bronze rack nailed to one wall, and there’s a small metal cupboard at the opposite end, on top of the concrete floor.

Violet opens that as effortlessly as she did when she broke the padlock and finds nothing but half-empty paint tins and various brushes and tools.

A beige tarpaulin covers items toward the rear of the shed, beneath the rack. A bicycle wheel pokes from the lefthand side, but the outline shows more hidden beneath. I pull at one corner and the tarpaulin falls away revealing three bicycles—two adults and one child stacked together.

And suitcases.

“Vi—”

But she’s kneeling in front of them before I can finish. Wiping her hands on her legs, she stares before grabbing the nearest. I stand over Violet’s shoulder as she not-so-gently unzips the leopard-print, wheeled case and opens it.

Clothes. Violet wrinkles her nose and dives into them, pulling out pants and shirts. I kneel beside her and grab them before they land on the dirty floor. “Be careful.”

“Nothing here.”

Violet take the clothes from my lap and stuffs them back inside the case before pushing that one away and taking hold of a matching, larger case. Again, clothes fly from the case as Violet roots through.

“We’ll need to put the clothes back neatly,” I tell her. “Sarah might come back for the suitcases.”

She stares at me, a black tote bag from the case in her hand. “We don’t have time.”

With a sigh, I fold a pair of pants and begin re-organizing the first rifled case. Violet dumps the tote bag on the ground. “Anything in there?”

“No. Bottles of human potions.” She holds up a face cream, face pissed.

“Anything in the pocket inside the suitcase?”

Violet unzips the compartment and pushes her hand inside, and her taciturn expression doesn’t change. “Empty. Where did Sarah hide everything?”

“Here?” I suggest.

“Leif. The suitcases are empty of evidence.” She snatches a third case, this one packed with hair styling implements, another make-up tote, and underwear. I take a sharp breath as Violet shakes the suitcase upside down, sending everything across the floor.

“Violet!”

“There’s nothing here!” she half-shouts, standing and folding her hands beneath her arms. “Kai told us Sarah snuck away with suitcases and returned empty-handed. These suitcases.”

I watch Violet warily as I gather the discarded belongings. “Nobody knows what Sarah packed. Maybe she planned a vacation.”

“A vacation? To the lodge? And why hide the cases if they only contain clothes?” Violet spins around. “Kai told us the mysterious box in Sarah’s wardrobe went missing the same day.”

Do I touch Violet, or will her anger fly out and hit me? Because her self-control is loosening as something else in her day isn’t what she expected. The lodge was the closest and most logical place to bunker down and decide on our next move, but Violet had an ulterior motive.

She brought us here to look for the suitcases and evidence.

“Sarah could’ve removed things from the cases and hidden them elsewhere?” I suggest.

“Then why would she need to hide the cases if they no longer contain important items?” Violet huffs. “This makes no sense. I dislike when things make no sense.”

“Still, we could take a good look around the lodge at a different time?” I suggest. “We can’t hang around here for long. It’s great that we’re isolated at the lodge, but also not great.”

“Why?”

“What if Viktor’s accomplices hid nearby and saw everything? They might look for us.”

Violet throws the tarpaulin back over the bicycles and suitcases. “If these accomplices exist and witnessed Viktor die at our hands, they’d lack sense if they followed us.”

I don’t want to tell her the other theory—if these people exist and didn’t pursue us, they could’ve followed Dash or Grayson.