Page 30 of Not Her Day to Die (Star-Crossed #2)

D arius shoots up off of the bed. The last he remembers was being dragged off of Sunday and then…

And then his world went dark.

They must have drugged me.

Establishing himself in the here and now, Darius yanks the blankets back and attempts to get up.

He’s fully clothed now and back in the main house, in a bedroom he had been thrown into before.

The curtains are drawn and the room is cloaked in shadows.

He appears uninjured, except for his heart, it's burning .

I need to find Sunday. Make sure she is okay. I have to stop this before I am forced to hurt her…or even worse.

Guilt slogs its way through his system. Dense and gritty. Darius knows Sunday would never fault him for what happened, but he can’t help to blame himself.

He is a Thorne.

He is the reason she was brought here.

“They’re going to be here soon, you need to get it together.”

A familiar voice cuts through the dark room.

Darius reaches towards the lamp next to the bed, flicking it on. “Veronica?”

Veronica leans against the door, she’s sporting a black eye, a busted lip, and a bruised cheek .

“What the fuck happened?” Darius hadn’t seen her since before Sunday was shot. He never expected her to be here, never expected her to be hurt.

Veronica bares her teeth. “Mark got in a few good hits before I managed to escape him. He heard me on the phone. Deduced what I’d done,” she speaks in a hushed tone.

Darius is on his feet now, walking closer to Veronica. “What have you done? What’s going on? You need to leave and run and escape this town. It isn’t safe,” he matches her voice, attempting to keep his words contained to this room.

Veronica laughs, a soft grating noise. “No fucking shit, Darius. Your brothers are on the way. Along with the FBI. They’ll be here soon to end this once and for all. Just don’t let the Thornes use you as a scapegoat.”

Stomping and shouting from outside the room draws his attention. He doesn’t understand, but he knows there isn’t time.

“Where’s Sunday?” Darius asks, narrowing his eyes.

Veronica shifts from foot to foot. “I don’t know. Carrie was supposed to let me know when she made it back here…but she hasn’t shown up.”

Dread slinks into Darius’s gut. “Sunday’s still down there? We have to find her! What if they kill her? She can’t speak if she’s dead!” Panic muddles Darius’s mind.

Before when they were in the loops he at least knew what to expect. But now?

If she dies…

He doesn’t finish the thought.

Veronica flinches back further into the door behind her. Her hands clench into fists. “I won’t let anything happen to her. I promised Auggie.”

The panic dissipates and it is replaced with a whirring fan of anxiety and grief. “I’m sorry,” Darius expels. “Now please. What is the plan? How are we going to get to Sunday? ”

He doesn't know the way to the underground facility. Every time they had taken him down there, he’d been blindfolded.

The stomping gets closer and closer.

Darius tenses.

Neither of them have time to react as the door is shoved open. Darius can’t catch Veronica before she’s thrown to the ground.

“Fuck. Sorry sis.” William pushes the door back into place, helping Veronica up. He stiffens at the sight of her face. “We need to leave before this gets any worse,” he tells her, ignoring Darius entirely.

She pushes William away from her. “No, I’m done being a complacent coward. And what about Luna?”

Darius recognizes the name.

He had met the FBI agent Jane Franz more times than he cared to remember. Learned of the woman’s daughter early on. Of what most likely had happened to her.

But it hadn’t been his sole focus.

That was Sunday.

“Fuck! And what happens when you end up killed?” William exclaims before turning his wrath on Darius. “If only you could have left us all well enough alone. Then you wouldn’t be here! Then Sunday wouldn’t be here!”

Darius’s nostrils flare in anger. “Then more girls and boys and everyone in this town could be raped and murdered! It’s not our fault this town is evil!

It’s not our fault that nothing is ever brought to light,” he whisper-yells, jabbing a finger at William’s chest. “That would be your dear old dad’s. ”

William opens his mouth to snap back, but Veronica steps between the men .

“Shut up! This isn’t helpful!” Veronica barks, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation. “We need to hurry. William, you know how to get down there don’t you?”

William screws his eyes shut. After an eternity, he finally confirms, “I do.”

“Good. We’ll wait for his brothers and then we can go and find her–”

A distant bang echoes out from the woods. It’s from the general direction Darius would assume Sunday is in.

A gunshot.

All three of them jump.

“There isn’t time. We need to get to her, now .” Darius rubs his chest, a deep stabbing pain was present when he woke but now his heart throbs and aches in a way he has never felt before.

The sensation intensifies.

His knees shake as he looks down at his heart, expecting to see blood or some injury he had somehow overlooked, but there isn’t anything there.

He stares a bit longer.

A light shimmers. A deep dark violet.

Darius blinks and it’s gone.

What was that?

The wish he made so long ago flickers to the forefront of his mind.

I wish to know before she's in danger.

Before he can put any more thought behind it, William draws his attention.

“Fine, we’ll go now,” William agrees uneasily, cutting through Darius’s confusion. “But we’re going the back way, I don’t want to stumble on any of Thorne’s men.”

Darius isn’t sure if he trusts William .

But he has faith in Veronica. In every timeline she always looked out for Sunday. For his brothers.

“Okay.” Darius reaches out a hand to shake William’s, but when he does, there’s another shimmer, except this time it’s crimson. Dark and bloody.

He withdraws, instead gesturing for William to lead.

William narrows his eyes but doesn’t remark before turning back to the door. “Stay between us Veronica,” he says.

Darius doesn’t argue as they carefully and quietly exit the room.

His heart continues to ache. He hopes desperately that wherever Sunday is she’s okay. But the pain in his chest is intensifying with every step he takes.

By the time they are out of the house, it nearly cripples him.

Hold on Sunday, I’ll be there soon. I promise.