Page 20

I didn't go looking for them. I had been avoiding the crazy ass sister and brother combo all night.

I just wanted silence.

The house stank of expensive perfume and old men's lies. Dinner guests clustered like vultures, their laughter thick and false. I couldstomach the fake smiles, the empty compliments. What I couldn't stand was being away from Miyori .

The floorboard creaked under my suede shoes as I passed Lilith's door. The sound of her and her brother’s voices slithered through the crack in her bedroom door.

I should've kept walking.

I didn't.

"I went to the address you gave me. "

Sebastian sounded like he was having a child's tantrum, a brat denied his toy.

Lilith answered coldly, "And?"

“She’s not there. She hasn’t been back since that night you went there.”

There was a pause.

Then—a slam. Glass shattered.

“She’s gone, Lilith.” His voice sounded high and petulant. “You told me she’d be there.”

“I didn’t promise you that,” she said, calm. “I said where. If you were faster—”

"I WANT HER."

The words ripped out of Sebastian. He was spoiled, greedy, rotten.

A dull ache started behind my eyes.

“You said I could have her,” he whined. Like he was talking about an inanimate object and not a person. I was intelligent enough to understand the irony. But he wasn’t me. He didn’t deserve Miyori .

"Stop." Lilith's voice froze over. "You sound like a child. It's pathetic."

I leaned against the wall, my hands curling into fists so tight my knuckles cracked.

My heart pounded.

"Priest's not yours anymore, so you don't want me to have her." Sebastian's voice dripped poison. "He's still thinking about her. I see it. I hear it. She's in his fucking blood." A pause. "And if I don't get her, he will. Then poor, crazy Lilith will be all alone."

Silence.

Then—SMACK. Flesh on flesh.

"Don't hit me! It's the truth!" Sebastian growled, sounding unhinged. "I’m going to find her... I'll bring her back." His voice dropped. "I'll keep her forever this time."

Lilith didn't argue.

I walked away before I gave in to the urge to peel the skin from their bones with my bare hands.

I needed to find Miyori .

Before he did.