Chapter Thirty-Five
ENZO
I stare at Lola, at Nic, then back at Lola again.
Her cheeks are flushed. His are pale. There is blood everywhere.
Her hair is mussed, her makeup smeared, and the top buttons of her jacket undone.
Her state of disarray could be a sign of a scuffle, but with the way they keep glancing at each other . . .
But before that thought concludes, there she is again in my mind’s eye, walking toward me on the beach when I was so sure she was gone forever. Heartbroken and hurting, but still willing to put aside my grievances.
I trust you.
I swallow hard as Soren glares her down.
Whatever happened here, there has to be an explanation. She would not betray me after giving up so much to believe me. She just wouldn’t.
“It’s not what it looks like,” she blurts.
“Really?” Soren snaps. “Because to me, what it looks like is this: You’re working to undermine us with one of our sworn enemies.” He nods at Nic, who purses his lips.
She crosses her arms. “I’ve barely spoken to him.”
“It wasn’t just a rumor, was it?” Arden accuses. “You really did fall for the Liar.”
“That doesn’t . . . ,” Lola starts.
“So you don’t deny it?” Jade jumps in.
“I swear to you,” Lola says, “I’ve never gone back on my oaths.”
“And we’re supposed to, what, take your word for it?” Soren scoffs, his words grating under my skin.
“Don’t speak to her that way,” Nic snaps.
“You stay out of this!” Arden rounds on my brother.
“He’s right,” I say, voice lethal, grabbing Arden’s elbow to halt him. “Don’t speak like that to Lola. Any of you.”
Soren’s amber eyes flash. “Don’t tell me you believe her?”
I hold his glare. “I do.”
“Let me guess.” He jabs a finger at my chest, pinning the purple pendant hard enough to pierce my ribs. “Because you share a heart? Because you always give her special treatment? Because you’re too afraid to face reality?”
“You’re out of line, Soren,” I growl, shoving his hand away.
“No, you’re out of line. We gave up our lives for you! We gave up our families to become Tentacles. We risked everything because we trusted you.”
I trust you. We trusted you. I trust you. We trusted you.
Round and round and round Lola’s words swirl in my thoughts alongside Soren’s. Present, past, wrapping in and out of each other, tangling up, tearing in half.
“Well, trusting Enzo was your first mistake,” Nic says.
“Shut up, Nic,” I spit.
“She’s conning us,” Isla says, shooting a glare at Nic before leveling one at me. “Putting our lives on the line and refusing to tell us why.”
Her words roar in my ears, and I should be angry, I know, but every time the feeling rises, I’m thrust back to that night when I thought I’d destroyed Lola’s trust forever.
When she cast me out and ran to my brother at the Liar’s Den.
When it felt like it was only a matter of time before she came back threatening me with the only thing I feared more than losing her heart and facing that emotionless oblivion again—losing her.
The only family that chose me. The only one who wanted me, not the way the Tentacles did, but in an honest, whole, unconditional way.
“Stop,” I grind out again, but they aren’t done.
“We caught her with the very brother who’s had us chasing our tails for literal years,” Isla says.
“And you’re not even going to ask why, are you?” growls Soren.
“Soren,” I warn.
His face reddens. “Why won’t you ask why, Enzo?!”
“Because I trust her, too!” I shout.
Soren stares at me, barely breathing. The room is dead calm. Even Nic doesn’t blink, waiting for my explanation.
I don’t give them one.
Finally, Soren speaks again, quiet. Resigned. Deadly. “I don’t.”
“You don’t have to trust her,” I retort. “You just have to shut up about it.”
The words are out of my mouth before I’ve thought them through, and as soon as I’ve said them, I want to take them back. They hang between us, hard and clear and sharp as knives.
Soren stares at me. “I thought we were partners.”
“We are partners,” I say.
“Then hold her accountable.” He jabs a finger at Lola. “Ask why she’s with the Liar. Ask where she’s been disappearing to.” He raises a brow. “Unless you’re too afraid of the truth?”
Lola clears her throat. “What’s going on between Nic and me has nothing to do with the Tentacles.”
“So you admit something is going on?” Arden shoots back.
“Yes, I snuck out,” she retorts. “Yes, I should have been forth-coming. But I would never do anything to compromise the group.”
My ears ring, my pulse skitters, the room swims. All I can see is Lola retreating to the Liar’s Den, choosing Nic over me. All I can see is Nic, cursing me on a beach. All I can see is my father, smiling at him then turning to whip my backside.
I trust you.
“Tell us why you lied,” Soren says to Lola.
If this is to be a choice between Lola’s loyalty—which keeps me from oblivion—and the Tentacles, I have to choose her.
“She doesn’t need to,” I say.
Soren looks at me for a long time, a vein pulsing in his temple. Then, after an eternity, he turns away. “Then I’m done.”
“Excuse me?”
He walks toward the door without looking back. “Win the game on your own. Find the shard yourself. Let her destroy you right under your nose. I’m done.”
Jade, Isla, and Arden trail after him.
Lola grasps Jade’s arm. “Wait.”
Jade refuses to look at Lola. “I want to believe you’re on our side,” she whispers. “So tell me you haven’t been lying to me about where you’ve been going during my visits to Gran.”
Lola swallows, tears glistening on her lashes.
“Then there’s nothing else to say.” Jade pulls out of Lola’s grasp, and the Tentacles disappear through the door, leaving me with nothing but the roaring in my ears and the ache of Lola’s heart.
Or maybe the ache is mine this time.
I’m not sure anymore.
Perhaps I never was.