Page 45 of Pet: Torment

Ezra’s smile doesn’t falter.

“If he didn’t tell you, why do you think I would?” he asks.

I shrug, looking at the doors. “Maybe he didn’t tell you either,” I say.

Ezra laughs, his eyes widening slightly as he has an inner battle for control. He doesn’t have the authority to punish me. Not since Remus and I are bonded.

“He told me it was crucial that he leave immediately, before things get too out of hand,” he says, stepping closer to me.

“Oh…did he not tell you things were out of hand?” he laughs, taking in my expression. “I guess he doesn’t tell you everything either.”

He’s teasing me. He knows that Remus and me have a different relationship, but Remus is still keeping things from me. It is obviously more than he keeps from his brother. He’s making me question where I stand in Remus’s mind.

Before he can say anything more, Sky does me the favor of rescuing me. She steps forward, looping her arm in mine as she speaks.

“We’ll find our seats,” she says, pulling me to an entrance the Leviathan don’t go near. She has a determined expression as she pulls me away, and when I look back, Ezra is still watching us with a mischievous grin before he finally walks in the opposite direction.

“Don’t let him get in your head. It’s what he’s best at. You shouldn’t provoke him,” Sky says as we enter a private balcony. It’s fascinating to me to see the difference in my life from my days on Earth to now.

As Sky and I take our seats, able to overlook the entire trial without being disrupted or having other Leviathan stare at us, she speaks.

“He wants to protect you,” she says.

I shift my attention to her in confusion.

“Ezra?” I ask.

She laughs, shaking her head.

“Remus. He left because something strange is happening to him—something dangerous to all of us if it can’t be contained,” she says.

My stomach dips in discomfort as she speaks. She’s eerily calm as she looks out at the creatures responsible for taking our planet. She seems different than she was last time we met.

“How do you know?” I ask.

She shrugs. “Ezra tells me everything. We both know it makes no difference what I know,” she laughs, shaking her head. But there is no humor behind it.

“Did Remus really not tell you where he was going?” she asks.

I shake my head.

“He only said it was somewhere incompatible with me,” I say.

Sky scoffs.

“What?” I ask.

“He went somewhere incompatible with you on the heels of something strange happening to him. Just doesn’t look like we make it out of this okay,” she says.

I don’t respond as I look to the crowd forming within the chamber. I don’t want to give in to the rampant thoughts that are already running me ragged. If Remus was experiencing something so dangerous that it could effect us, yet he kept it to himself, that means it is bigger than he let on.

“It’ll be fine,” I say more to reassure myself than Sky. We’ve already seen the worst of what Remus and his siblings can do. We’ve lived the brutal takeover of our world. Whatever this means, we can endure it.

I only hope that it means nothing, and that our speculation is getting out of hand. I can’t imagine going through something as devastating as losing my home again.

Chapter Twenty-One

Remus