Chapter Twenty Wren #3
She breezed past me on graceful feet, but I kept up, trailing at her back. “I haven’t seen you in days,” I called out, stumbling to keep up with her long strides. “Not even at dinner.”
Mother didn’t pause as she ascended the stairs. “I’ve been busy, little bird. Lots to do in order to raise our family’s name out of the mud.”
I paused for just a second, knowing full well she referred to my cursed birthday.
Mother walked to her room, ignoring me entirely. When she reached the door, she all but slammed it in my face.
The lock sounded a moment later.
That familiar ache throbbed as I stood there, staring at the closed door. Tears gathered in my eyes, ones I desperately wanted to shed but wouldn’t. I should be used to her curt behavior by now, but it never ceased to sting.
Ten minutes passed while I remained there like some pathetic pup, wishing she’d come out and show an ounce of affection. But she never did.
Swallowing the hurt, the pain of her indifference, I snuck to my room and shut the door before leaning against its back.
Sliding down, I had no choice but to give in when one single tear escaped.
It slid down my cheek and onto my dress, wetting the fine fabric.
I watched the wet spot until it dried, not moving even when Father and Callie arrived home, Father’s boisterous voice wafting up the stairs as he asked Sarah what she’d made for dinner.
Why was I surprised? I was a foolish girl who continuously allowed these people to hurt me. Again and again and again. The walls surrounding my heart rose, and I shut my eyes, imagining building the fortress stone by stone until no more tears fell.
I only deserted my room to attend dinner, a requirement. Blessedly, it stayed a noiseless one. I didn’t even try to catch Callie’s eye. So much went on inside my own head that if I looked at her, I feared my carefully constructed walls would crumble.
With a full belly, I performed my nightly ritual and read in bed, moving on to the next story in the mysterious little blue book.
No more petals fell from its pages, but I chose a story about Dusk and her Realm of the Unknown.
The passage mentioned the reapers at her disposal—people who were born with the ability to sense when someone would soon pass, and what would occur afterward.
According to the story, the reapers’ talent only surfaced when they encountered a loss so tragic, it burst free from their souls, rendering them reapers and servants to Dusk as she guided souls to the underworld.
A small picture had been sketched on one page: a woman rising from a burned building, remnants of what had to be a house fire beneath her feet.
A shadowy figure hovered behind, arms outstretched as if about to hug the woman.
With my nose practically pressing into the page, I studied the drawing, the hairs on my arms rising.
The fire had wiped away her home, yet three items lay untouched in the rubble: a pair of shoes, the laces spared from the flames; a plain goblet; and a necklace, the pendant a simple oval shape.
My focus continued to land on the necklace, my heart thudding in my ears as every other noise faded.
I wasn’t certain how long I stared, but the thudding in my ears lessened until I heard it—
A clack against my window.
I groaned and set the book on my bed, still opened to the page. Ripping the covers back, I headed to where Damien glared at me through the glass.
This time, I opened it a fraction, just enough so he didn’t have to yell.
“I’m done,” I told him stiffly. “I’ll send payment to the Broken Wing.”
I was preparing to shut the window when he called my name, his hoarse voice cracking at the end. It made me pause, against my better judgment.
“I feel bad, all right?” he ground out, his tone not helping his case. “I…I shouldn’t have left after that. I should’ve stayed, but you have to understand, we come from very different worlds.”
It sounded like he’d rehearsed his paltry speech.
I laughed, outright laughed in his face.
“You felt bad,” I repeated incredulously.
I didn’t even touch on the “different worlds” admission.
I shook my head. A heaviness settled over me, my feet sticking to the floor as if unable to move and shut him out even though his words pricked. I was no one to be pitied.
“It’s not like I didn’t want to, Wren. Actually, I was shocked by how much I did,” he said, lower this time. He couldn’t meet my eyes. “But it can’t happen—”
“You and I are done. Done working together. Done speaking. I asked you to help me with a simple job, yes, but somewhere along the way you and I both know something out of our control happened. You walked away twice, uncaring how I might be affected. You’re selfish,” I all but spat.
“And I’ve realized I don’t need you to figure out the truth.
I have a plan of my own. One that doesn’t involve you. ”
I couldn’t allow his ever-shifting feelings to affect me. I had to uncover a mystery much bigger than us.
“Wren, you’re going to get hurt,” he grumbled, his brows pushing together. “You can’t possibly think you can go out alone. You’ll be found out in minutes.”
I stood there, my heart thumping madly against my ribs while heat blossomed on both cheeks. “You may think me incompetent, Damien. Weak. Afraid. A lost ward princess. But I’m so much more than anyone has ever given me credit for. Myself included.”
I’d never been given the chance to find out for myself.
To know that I could accomplish a feat aside from teatime and plastering on a fake face for society.
Enough was enough. No more sulking. No more staying locked behind the doors of my home.
The time had arrived to discover who Wren Hayes truly was.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Damien protested, nearly losing his footing and sliding down the rough bark of the tree. “I just know you don’t understand—”
The slam of the window shut him up.
I prayed he’d seen the fire in my eyes. That he understood how much of an ass he’d been. But in the end, did it matter?
Damien’s eyes pleaded with mine through the glass, his lips parting as if he wished to speak. Likely to spew more excuses. Yet it was the way he reached for the window that caused a pang of sorrow so deep and cutting to slice through my heart that I stumbled back a step.
He mouthed my name. I ignored it.
I wouldn’t fall for those pleading eyes or the way he appeared on the verge of breaking. I would wipe Damien from my life.
I would be the one to find out why my gift had been taken and why the people of the Void were going missing.
Alone.