I let out a giggle as he flinches. He recovers quickly enough and chucks the ball back at me. It smacks me in the forehead before bouncing onto the table.
We make the briefest of eye contact, and then it’s like a silent trumpet has sounded, and we’re both scrambling to grab the ball and claim our turn. Normally I wouldn’t be a match for Nox and his eerie speed, but the paper landed directly in front of me and I get a hand on it at the same time he does.
“Aha!” I shout with triumph, ripping the paper away from him and hopping backwards. He’s spread across the table now after lunging for the prize, and the mischief in his eyes tells me only one thing: run.
I make a break for it, hoping I can get behind him before he launches himself at me, but all it takes is a blink and he’s directly in front of me, his chest a fraction away from mine.
“Give it to me,” he says, his eager eyes full of anticipation.
“I’d rather not.” I wink at him, clutching the parchment before spinning on my heels, but I only make it two paces before he’s in front of me again, blocking my path.
His blue eyes twinkle with the delight of the chase, and my heart skips a beat. “Now, why would you try to run when you know I’ll catch you?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t like the chase,” I say, impressed with the steadiness with which I’ve fortified my voice when I’m fully aware my legs are trembling.
“I won’t, then.”
He moves, and I go to move my arm out of the way so he can’t grab the parchment. Too late, I realize he isn’t going for the parchment at all, but my waist, and before I know what’s happening, he’s lifted me onto the dais and pushed his abdomen up against my knees.
“Are you going to try to run again?” he asks, laughter wrinkling the edges of his blue eyes even as his thumb absentmindedly plays with the fabric of my shirt at my waist.
I’m not sure how I’m expected to answer that question when I can’t breathe, much less run.
It strikes me then that I should be afraid of him. That I should remember the Nox from the day I offered to help him research my predicament.
What if I’d rather keep you?
For all the light-hearted banter, there’s a darkness inside him too. I can see it in the way his gaze goes drunk in my presence, in the way his eyes linger on me when he thinks I’m not paying attention.
And then there are the shadows under his intoxicating eyes.
There’s something wrong with Nox. Something lurking behind that beautiful exterior.
But Nox isn’t the only one harboring secrets.
“I have another question for you,” Nox whispers, his breath tingling my skin.
My voice trembles. “I’m afraid you’re all out.”
He takes the uneven strand of my hair, the one we cropped for the experiment, in his hand and examines it as he brushes the ends with the pad of his thumb. “What’s the darkness from, Blaise?”
I cock my head to the side, confused.
His moon-pale eyes flash upward and lock onto mine. “The darkness inside of you. Who put it there?”
My throat bobs as I swallow, but I shake my head. “I told you; you’re out of questions.”
Nox frowns, but he doesn’t push. Instead he says, “I’d like to show you something.”
I can hardly manage the squeak of inquiry that proceeds from my throat.
“Wait up for me tonight,” he says. Then he winks and is gone.
CHAPTER 24
BLAISE: AGE TWELVE
Pain.
It comes in torrential waves, ripping my muscles apart, cleaving this child from my body.
It hurts it hurts it hurts.
I’ve never hated Derek more. Not when he accused me of bearing a child to another man. Not when he left me after promising to marry me. Not when he let me rot up in the attic for months.
This pain should be his, this creature inside me, his.
He should have to bear it, not me.
Because the pain is going to kill me.
Sweat rolls off my forehead, soaking my pillow, but no one thinks to wipe it with a cloth.
The only use my stepmother finds for the cloth is to shove it into my mouth to stifle my screams.
She’s sent the servants from the house, carried them away to perform pointless tasks, but there’s always the chance the neighbors will hear.
I’m sure she’s concocted a lie to feed them on the off chance.
