Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
I shook my head even though I wasn’t as confident as I portrayed myself to be. “I don’t think she’ll truly hurt me. I think maybe she lost her way somewhere and needs a harsh reality check.”
Dylan searched my eyes. He’d find nothing but a resolve to fix this before the sun came up. I had to hurry. I needed to catch her at my house before she left, so there’d be no denying what was happening. “All right,” Dylan said. His hand fell back to mine. How quickly holding each other’s hands felt like the most natural thing in the world. “Let’s go then.”
This would likely be the hardest part of the evening. I gently squeezed his hand. “No, Dylan.” I kept my voice low. Serious. He had to see the gravity of this. She may not be a danger to me, but I wasn’t certain about how she’d react if Dylan showed up at my side. I wanted to talk her down, get her to see sense, not enrage her even further.
But denying Dylan was never an easy thing, and judging by his determined expression, tonight it’d be no easier.
“You can’t come with me.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Uninvited Guest
DYLAN
There was no way I was staying behind on this. Not after everything that had happened. It took me seconds to make up my mind.
“No,” I said. “You might need me.”
“You’ll be putting yourself in danger.” Miles reached for my hand. His fingers gripped mine tight.
“And so will you. It’s safer if there’s two of us there.”
“Seeing you could upset her.”
“She’s the one who’s currently sneaking around inside your house. She isn’t going to be upset. She’s going to be caught, red-handed. I won’t interfere, won’t say anything if you don’t want me to. But I’m not staying behind.”
Miles seemed angry for a moment. His nose twitched, his lips were pursed tight. I didn’t want to upset him, but I definitely wasn’t going to let him go through this alone. “I get that she knows you more and clearly isn’t a big fan of mine,” I continued with trying to plead my case. “But having us both there could get her to back off. She can realize it’s a losing game and that she needs to stop…”
Fuck.
It sounded like such a massive task. Macie may have already crossed the line of irredeemable. She threatened my life with a silver bullet. She worked with death magic and cursed Miles, made his life a living hell these past few years. It was difficult to reconcile and feel bad for her, but I could see the pain in Miles’ eyes that made this different for him. I saw tonight as a last chance. A single and final life raft we could throw at her and have her decide to either grab it or sink.
“Fine,” Miles said on the exhale of a very deep breath. “Let’s go. I want to make sure we catch her there.”
Hunter jumped up from his chair. Macie’s face shimmered in the reflection of the water as she looked up from the book, lost in thought. Except her eyes seemed to stare directly at me. Miles was already reaching for Hunter’s front door.
“Please keep me informed,” Hunter said, keeping up with my hurried pace as I followed Miles out onto the porch and toward his car. “This really shouldn’t be held from the council long.”
Miles paused before getting into his car. “Give me tonight.” He appeared to be pleading. He viewed this last-ditch effort in the same way I did. And the heavy dip in his brows and sadness in his eyes told me he didn’t have very high hopes. I swallowed what felt like a boulder-sized lump.
We got in the car, silence heavy between us. Miles reversed out of the driveway with a speed he didn’t quite have on the way here. I reached across the gap and placed my hand on his leg, his thigh was tight with tension. He had his eyes fixed on the road ahead, lit only by the headlights as we drove out of the woods that surrounded Hunter’s home. The shadows were long, stark, haunting.
What the hell were we driving toward? I didn’t have a good feeling about this at all, but I made my choice in leaving with Miles. I wasn’t going to start asking him to turn around.
“You okay?” I asked, trying to gauge his emotional state.
He had the steering wheel in a two-hand grip. His fists were tight. “I think I will be. I’m just happy we finally know who’s behind all of this. But I’m also nervous. Scared. I care about her, Dyl. I know that sounds crazy, but I’ve seen her grow up. Maybe she just needs to talk to me, heart-to-heart.”
Miles was convincing, but I wasn’t sure if even he could defuse this situation.