Page 61 of Savage Blooms (Unearthly Delights #1)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Adam

Adam didn’t bother with a coat, or a scarf.

He barely bothered with shoes. He was so angry he couldn’t see straight, so violated that he thought he might throw up everything he had eaten at the pub, and he was still just drunk enough from his whiskies and porters that getting the fuck out of this house seemed not only like a good idea, but like the only idea.

Adam shoved past Finley through the library doors, walking so quickly down the hallway it bordered on a run. He headed for the kitchen, to the closest exit, where his muddy boots had been drying out by the door.

He would come back for Nicola soon, and they would figure something out.

They could leave together, or they could tie Eileen to a chair and waterboard her until she released all her secrets.

He would think of something, anything. But for now, the bone-deep urge to run was too strong to ignore.

It had been building for a week inside him, kept at bay only by the strange companionship he had found with his loves and friends.

But now, all the goodwill was gone and Adam felt trapped, trapped in a way so total and so crushing that he didn’t even have the words to express it, and he needed to get out.

Fuck Eileen, and every kind word she had ever given him, every lingering kiss or tight hug or insistence that he was worthy of this legacy, that he deserved to be here, to enjoy the privileges of a life of leisure.

And Finley, fuck Finley. Finley who had made him feel like perhaps they could be true friends, who had earned Adam’s respect a dozen times over with his practicality and humor, who handled him with rough, calloused hands and smiled at him in a way that made Adam feel like he was on fire.

None of it was real. Nicola hadn’t been kidding when she called this place a spiderweb.

Eileen was the black widow at the heart of it all, wrapping them up in silks and sweetness as she prepared to devour them, and Finley was just her servant, a spider wearing the colors of a friendlier insect to trick passerby into getting stuck.

They had trapped him in a fantasy, one that was only growing darker and more sordid with every passing day.

Nicola had been right. He wasn’t the prince in this story. He was the human sacrifice.

Adam yanked on his shoes and burst through the kitchen doors, ignoring Finley barking his name behind him.

Eileen, hot on both their heels, yelled from the doorway as he stalked across the grass, pleading for him to come back inside.

He even ignored Nicola stumbling out behind him into the yard and shouting something about his ring.

He needed to be alone, and he couldn’t face her right now, not when he was drowning in the guilt he felt about bringing her out here and involving her in this brutality.

He should have left her in America, or put her right back in the car and driven them both to safety the moment he laid eyes on Eileen. He should have known better.

Adam strode out across the green, swallowing down the lump in his throat as the lashing wind brought tears to his eyes. The manor house loomed behind him, ever-present and unescapable, no matter how far he walked.

Craigmar had its roots in him now, and he could feel them burrowing deeper, wrapping tighter around his organs as they called him home.

If there had ever been a point where he could return unscathed to his normal life, he had passed it.

Maybe the moment he kissed Eileen, or the day he agreed to help her search for their shared family history.

Or maybe it had been when he had first set foot on Craigmar soil.

The play had been set in motion with his arrival, and now Adam was trapped on stage under the hot lights, doomed to either recite his assigned lines or fall into ruin.

Adam kept walking, with nothing but the rustling tree branches to break the silence, not even sure of where he was going.

But then he heard a voice, high and urgent, cutting through the wind.

He slowed and turned to see three specks moving from the house towards him.

Eileen waving frantically, trying to call him back, and Finley and Nicola running at top speed out front.

It was Nicola who was shouting, over and over again, as though trying to warn him of something.

Adam was never able to make out what she was saying, because the ground opened up beneath him, and a sinkhole stinking of bitter herbs and rot and ancient mineral water swallowed him whole.