28. Chapter 28
Chapter twenty-eight
Riselda navigated the underground labyrinth with ease. Soon Lux was beneath the evening’s somber sky, across the manicured courtyard, climbing within a carriage.
“Sleep, darling.” Riselda pushed a vial into her hands. “It’s mild. Nothing like the Shield utilizes. But it will help you rest without nightmares.”
Nightmares.
She mumbled her thanks, the door clicking closed to seal her within. She watched Riselda’s eyes harden as the horse jerked forward, watched her spin in a swish of dark skirts. Toward the mansion. Toward the mayor.
Lux shoved the curtains aside, throwing the potion with every ounce of strength she could muster, and listened with satisfaction to its shatter against an obscene townhome. She rested against the cushions.
She would never allow a fog to descend upon her mind again. Not of any kind.
Staring across the carriage summoned the image of Shaw’s smoldering eyes and a mask of bone. Lux kicked out with a heel, tearing a rip through the seam of the fabric and effectively destroying the mocking memory. What had he truly been after? The mayor’s likely stores of lifeblood? To avenge his long-dead grandfather and become mayor in his stead? Lux scoffed. He was probably working alongside the mayor. He probably had no family.
Aside from Aline…
Lux licked her dry, cracked lips and winced. The little wretch was likely his accomplice. They didn’t look much alike, after all.
The carriage ambled over the cobblestone street, and she lost herself in dark thoughts, spinning deep in sweet imaginings of revenge. She didn’t realize she had arrived home until the door was opened, and the night greeted her.
Lux managed to climb from the carriage with a quiet murmur of gratitude before her body went rigid. She didn’t register the horse moving on or the crunch of carriage wheels, as her eyes were focused solely on who paced in front of her door.
A sudden wind swept through the street, sending her hair streaming along with it and her skirt pulling against her legs. His gaze found her own then, and Shaw tugged on his cap as he stepped from beneath the streetlamp and into the darkness. Toward her.
“I’ll have you know I’ve been asking after you for hours,” he said. “Where have you been?”
Lux’s mind buzzed, numb. She didn’t move, and she didn’t speak.
He moved closer. Close enough to see her proper. And from somewhere outside her body, she registered his jagged intake of breath before hands gripped her arms, hauling her forward and into the light. “Saints! What’s happened?”
Her eyes tracked his. Concern, fury, terror. His emotions were unveiled. What a fool he was.
His rough hands continued to travel upward, his thumb brushing along the tender point of her neck, and she flinched. “Lux.” His voice cut on her name. “Tell me who did this to you.”
She had never heard him this way. Like he would scorch the earth.
But darkness, not fire, was all she knew.
You did.
“Why do you slit their eyes?”
Shaw blinked. “What?”
The wind whipped harder. Lux fisted her hands only to release them. Shaw dropped his own to his sides.
He stepped back. And she watched on as he filled with shadow.
“Why do you slit their eyes?”
“So you’ve taken your discovery and formed an entirely new opinion of me, have you?”
“A question for a question.” The chasm inside her widened, cold and dark and gaping. “I never want to see you again.”
He actually laughed, low and severe, and the sound felt every bit like the blades to her heart. Though it was stifled quickly when her boot connected with his hip, sending him staggering.
“What the hell!” He gripped the offended area, righting himself.
“I haven’t trusted a single soul in this town for nine years.” She used his shock against him and kicked the ankle directly beneath his injured hip, hobbling him. “You power-mad, conniving—”
He growled before he lunged. She was fast, but his legs were longer. When he snagged her wrist and pulled her bruised back against his chest, securing her hands in his own, an animalistic rage clawed through her skin.
She hissed, “I trusted you. I trusted you in everything you have ever told me. But it was all a lie.” She could feel his breath against her neck, bending low to reply, to calm her. “Including that I am no monster.”
She knew she couldn’t bear to hear his voice.
Lux flung her head back, reveling in the satisfactory shout from behind her. Shaw’s arms went slack to attend to his injury, and she sprinted for the door. Flinging it wide, she dove within the welcoming darkness, shutting out the insidious warmth trailing in her wake. Forever.