43. Chapter 43
Elias
The tablet was already in my hand before I was fully awake.
Four fifty-three. I’d beaten my alarm by seven minutes. I set it down, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and reached for it again out of habit, thumb already moving to the workout log.
Two notifications appeared.
I opened the first.
Maryn Veil, daughter of Joel Veil, admitted to Covenant Hospital. 11:42 p.m. Head trauma and strangulation bruising. Stable.
I was on my feet before I finished reading.
The second notification loaded as I moved toward my closet, yanking a shirt from its hanger.
Incident report: Rite House.
Deceased: Lydia Cannon.
Responding Covenant officer notes injuries inconsistent with statement given by M. Veil. Witness reporter S. Cannon places an unidentified male exiting the premises at approximately 11:29 p.m.
Investigation ongoing.
I stood in the middle of my room, shirt in my hand.
Lydia was dead. Maryn was in the hospital.
And Sera had seen a man.
I dressed in under two minutes.
***
The hospital corridor was empty at this hour, my footsteps too loud against the floor. The nurse at the desk had barely finished introducing himself before I was through the doors he’d buzzed open.
Please be okay. Please.
The room was dim, the only light coming from the monitor beside her bed. I stopped in the doorway, one hand on the frame, and made myself breathe.
She was alive. The slow rise and fall of her chest made something inside me unclench.
I crossed the room, sitting beside the bed, afraid to touch her.
The bruising on her throat was dark, purple bleeding into the pale skin of her neck. On the other side of her head, a gash disappeared into her hairline.
Lydia had done this.
My hands found each other between my knees. I pressed them together until my knuckles ached.
I was the reason Lydia was still in that Rite house. I had saved her after elimination—given her access to Maryn.
I sat with that for a long time.
When the doctor came, I stood. He shook my hand, going over her chart. She would be okay. Everything he said after that was a blur.
When he left, I sat, reaching for Maryn’s unusually still hand. Awake, she was always squeezing her fingers together or tucking them behind her back; now, her raw, bitten nails lay unmoving.
A sound escaped me as I closed my eyes, resting my head against the side of the bed.
I should have called for a chaperone. If Sera wanted ammunition, I was handing it to her. I stayed anyway.
“You scared me,” I whispered in the silent room.
Her fingers twitched in my grasp, and I looked up. Her eyes fluttered open and closed before settling on me.
“Elias.” Her voice was cracked and broken.
“Shhh,” I whispered, pressing my lips to her knuckles. I blinked, a tear escaping and sliding down my cheek. “Don’t try to talk now.”
She swallowed, but her eyes were already drifting closed again.
The next time she woke, she asked for water in a voice I hardly recognized. I pressed the button for a nurse, releasing her hand only long enough to hold her head up so she could drink.
She tried to speak again.
“Go back to sleep. I’m here.”
***
I blinked awake and pulled my tablet out of my pocket, checking the time. It was after midnight. I should go get some rest.
Maryn moaned in her sleep, and I tucked my tablet back in my pocket, settling back in my chair and closing my eyes.
When she woke a third time, her eyes were clearer, and her attention went to our fingers laced together. She tugged her hand weakly, and I released my hold. She tucked her fingers under the blankets.
“You don’t have to hide from me.”
Tears welled in her eyes, but I wasn’t sure if they were from the pain or my words.
“Do you need a drink?”
She nodded, eyes still watering. When she’d drunk the entire cup, her head fell back as she exhaled a strangled sigh.
“You stayed,” she said after a moment.
“Of course I did.”
She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again. “What time is it?”
“It’s Sunday morning. You’ve been here since Friday night.” I leaned forward. “Do you need anything? Pain medicine?”
She shook her head. “I think... just rest.”
I nodded.
Her pupils were normal, gray eyes steady.
“Maryn. I need to ask you what happened.” The words spilled out of me, bottled from so many hours of carrying them.
Her pulse thrummed at her throat.
“I’m sorry. You can tell me later.” I pushed back in my chair, but her hand came out, resting on mine. I stilled, looking down. Her thumb was red at the corner. Was it new, from her fight for her life, or something she’d done to herself?
“Lydia... attacked me. When I got home from the ball.”
I scooted my chair closer. “And you killed her?”
She swallowed, closing her eyes. For a long moment, she said nothing.
I reached for her hand, wrapping mine around it. “Maryn, you don’t—”
“Yes.”
Finally, she opened her eyes, meeting mine.
There was so much shame, so much guilt in them, and I was reminded of every time I’d ever watched a man die under my father’s orders.
Of the grief that had settled on my shoulders the very first time I’d been commanded to make an arrest, to see it through, and for every one since then. There was no coming back from it.
I squeezed her hand. “Don’t blame yourself. She would have killed you.”
Maryn’s fingers tightened around mine, and she closed her eyes again, turning her head away from me as tears began to stream down her face.
“Maryn.” I touched her cheek with my free hand. “Look at me.”
She was frozen, shutting out the world for a moment. Then, she opened her eyes, looking at me.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
Slowly, she nodded.
“I have to ask you something else.” I ran my hand through my hair. “Someone reported a man leaving your room.”
She stilled, her grip going lax in my hand.
“What?” She sputtered. “No. Why would— Elias, I would never—”
“I know.” I kept my voice even. “I believe you.”
She stared at me.
“Sera made the report.” My stomach twisted.
I shouldn’t have asked a question I already knew wasn’t true.
I’d worked out Sera’s motive while sitting with my thoughts all night.
What better way to get rid of the competition than to ruin her reputation?
Sera clearly hadn’t considered how it would look for me. Or perhaps she had.
“There was also a button found near the window. Not white.” The real question I’d wanted to ask.
She blinked once. Twice. “Vera’s always losing buttons.”
We stared at one another, her lids growing heavier by the moment.
I nodded.
“Get some rest. I’ll be here when you wake.”
Her eyes drifted closed.
She was asleep before I’d settled back in the chair.
***
When Maryn was cleared to go home, I helped her into my car, the chaperone silent in the back seat, and drove her to the Rite house. She was quiet the whole way.
In her room, she sat on the edge of her bed, moving carefully, one hand pressed to the side of her head.
I set the two pills the nurse had given me on the table beside her tablet.
“Take those when you start to feel the pain. Your meds will wear off before nightfall.”
She looked up at me, vulnerable in a way she never had been before.
“Thank you,” she said. “For staying.”
I smiled, touching her cheek gently. “I’ll be back to check on you tonight.”
I left before she could say anything else.