Chapter 12
Thunder rumbled again, and the clouds chose that moment to break. In seconds, a torrent of rain soaked our clothes and plastered our hair to our faces.
Darcy’s revelation was hard to believe, but unsurprising. My nose had warned me of the magic before it appeared, but the attack still made no sense.
“Why would someone try to kill you?” Darcy smoothed some of my wet hair away from my face with trembling fingers.
I met his intense green gaze, my breath stuttering in my lungs. “I have no idea.”
“This makes no sense.” He shook his head, and droplets of rain fell from his hair onto my already cold cheek.
I shivered despite the heat emanating from him, and his gaze snapped to my face. He rolled off me and pulled me to my feet alongside him.
“Come on. We need to get back to the house. We’re too exposed here.” Darcy’s grip on my hand was tight as he pulled me along, but for once, I didn’t fight him.
My legs were shaky, and my breathing was too erratic. What had just happened? Had someone really tried to kill me? “Are you okay?” I asked Darcy again.
“I’m fine.” Darcy waved off two men who seemed to come out of nowhere, then his free hand curled into a fist, the move matching his clenched jaw and rigid shoulders.
He looked so tense that I was surprised the rain didn’t turn into steam when it hit him.
His gaze flicked from side to side, though the storm blurred the world into smudges.
Darcy gestured for one of the men to drive, then he opened the door for me and scooted in after me. The tires screeched on the wet road as the driver pulled onto the street.
Shivers racked my body, and I wrapped one arm around myself.
Darcy scooted closer until our linked arms were barely touching. I closed the remaining distance, pressing my arm against his like it could stop the fact that I was shaking so badly it felt like I might fall apart.
His warmth sank into me, slowly easing my trembling and making it easier to think, to detach myself from the situation and figure out why someone would target me.
My life was nothing unusual. I had roommates, a job, four sisters, an overly nosy and ambitious mother, and a sick dad.
The only things that set me apart were my job as a reporter and my status as a half-witch, half-fae.
I stiffened. Could someone have been trying to kill me because of what I knew?
Or, more accurately, maybe they had tried to kill me because of what they thought I knew either from my work as a journalist or from my Portent.
It was probably the first since only a handful of people in Austen Heights knew about my fae ability.
Maybe word had leaked that I was writing an article on the murder.
The pounding of the rain on the car mixed with Darcy’s heat, lulling me into a false sense of security. His magic wasn’t anything like what I’d seen him use before, bringing back my earlier theory that his magic was unusually strong.
Darcy called Charles and put the call on speakerphone before filling him in on the attack.
“Are you okay?” Charles asked me, his usually cheerful voice grim.
“I’m fine.” My response was impressively steady considering the nerves still fizzing in me.
“That lightning had magic directing it, Charles. It was meant for her.” Darcy’s grip was tight on my hand. “I could feel its intent before it struck.”
“But why?” Jane cried.
“Maybe the killer knows that you’re looking into Easton’s death, and they want to stop you,” Darcy said.
Jane gasped. “You need to stop, Lizzy. It’s too dangerous.”
“I can’t.” I shook my head, my wet hair clinging to my neck. “My job is on the line if I do.”
“Your life is on the line if you don’t,” Darcy said.
“Even if I stopped, there’s no guarantee that the killer still wouldn’t silence me since they can’t know what I know.” A shiver raced over me from the rain’s chill seeping into my bones.
“What do you know?” Darcy rubbed his thumb across the back of my hand. I wasn’t even sure he was aware that he was doing it.
“Not much,” I said. “Nothing worth killing me over, but I guess they don’t know that.”
“We just got back,” Darcy told them as the gate swung open.
“We’ll be there soon,” Charles said. “Don’t leave the house again without me.”
“We won’t.” Darcy hung up and turned to me. “Let’s go to my room.” He followed me out of the car and into the house, then he led me down the same hall as last night, his shoulders stiff.
“What on earth is going on?” a shrill voice stopped our progress.
I looked away from Darcy’s broad back to find Caroline and Louisa gaping at us, probably just getting back from town too.
It was hard to tell what they were more shocked by: me being in their home, us being soaked to the skin, or that Darcy was leading me into his bedroom.
At least they didn’t know it wasn’t my first time.
“Perfect timing. Would one of you get some clothes for Elizabeth? We were caught in the storm, and she needs something dry to wear while we… talk.”
Again, his awkward pause made it sound like we would be doing something besides talking, even though that was exactly what we would do. How could men be so smart in some ways and utterly clueless in others?
My face burned. “We really will be talking.”
“Right.” Caroline’s narrowed gaze swept over me before she and Louisa stalked down the hall.
“Thank you.” Darcy didn’t wait for more of a confirmation before he led me into his room and closed the door.
He pulled me into his walk-in closet and let go of my hand as he rummaged through his impressive collection of ties.
The silence brewed between us much like the storm outside, but my thoughts were as shaken as the rest of me.
Someone had tried to kill me.
A knock sounded on the bedroom door, and Darcy opened it to reveal a scowling Caroline holding out an outfit.
“Thank you.” He closed the door before she could ask any more questions.
I sighed. It would’ve been easy enough to explain to Charles’s sisters about the spell mishap. But if Darcy wasn’t going to bother, neither would I. They were the least of my concerns right now.
We went to the bathroom, and I glanced at the shower and swallowed. “How are we doing this?” Sleeping in the same bed was one thing, but showering together? There was no way.
Darcy wrapped the tie around his eyes and knotted it behind his head before leaning against the shower’s glass wall. “You can go first. I won’t look.”
“Oh, thanks.” After finding out Darcy wasn’t the killer, I wasn’t sure how to feel about him. He was prideful and condescending, but he was also, apparently, a gentleman.
I stripped out of my wet clothes and stepped into the shower. The invisible rope didn’t keep the door from closing—magic was unpredictable like that—but it made me hyper aware of how Darcy stood two feet away on the other side of the glass.
My thoughts flashed to the desperate way he’d called me Lizzy before he saved me. The panic in his face, and the tender way he’d touched me after. My stomach flipped, and I turned the water hotter.
Darcy had saved my life because someone had tried to kill me.
A shiver rolled over me, starting in my toes and trembling through my body.
I blasted the hot water even more and took the fastest shower of my life.
The heat quickly steamed up the walls, which helped a little, but it didn’t change the feeling of vulnerability hanging over me.
I should be questioning Darcy, demanding answers, and fighting to get to the bottom of this, but I needed a moment.
I couldn’t have a full breakdown with Darcy right there, but I was close.
I let myself stand under the scalding water for a few more moments, wishing I could wash away the memory. But it was there, and now all I could do was deal with it and determine the culprit’s identity.
At least I could rule out the Unmarked. Today’s attempt proved the killer had magic.
The hot water eased the lingering stiffness in my muscles. As I relaxed, the adrenaline leaked away, and a wave of exhaustion slammed into me. I leaned against a wall, the tile cool against my bare back.
“Are you okay?” Darcy asked. His voice, the reminder that he was still so close, had me straighten.
“I’m fine.” Too bad my voice wavered.
The handle squeaked as I turned it, and the water shut off, leaving the room in deafening silence.
“Done?” Darcy held out a fluffy navy towel. Even with his eyes covered, he still turned his head away.
“Yes.” I did my best to dry off, then pulled on the clothes Caroline had offered, a loose blue T-shirt and a pair of black fleece leggings. Surprisingly, she’d even given me a pair of underwear and a lacy bra that was too big and probably cost more than my entire wardrobe. “I’m dressed.”
“Your turn.” He pulled off the tie and handed it to me.
I covered my eyes and tied a secure knot behind my head.
Darkness enveloped me, making it impossible to see anything.
Tension in my stomach uncoiled at the realization, but the sound of Darcy’s zipper and his wet shirt plopping to the floor sent my pulse racing again.
Thankfully, he turned the water on, and the rush of it covered everything else.
A faint tug on my wrist told me he’d stepped inside.
My cheeks heated, and I blurted out the first thing that popped into my mind. “Why were you and Easton arguing about a woman?”
“What?” Darcy sounded like I’d pulled him from a completely separate train of thought.
“If someone is trying to kill me because of that night, I need to know everything. No more secrets.” A splash sounded from the shower, and I squeezed my eyes shut despite the blackness already surrounding me.
“Easton thought Caroline Bingley had a thing for me and was mad that I was ‘ignoring her.'"
“You and Caroline?” I tried to picture it and wrinkled my nose when the mental image came all too easily.
“We aren’t together,” he said. “We dated at one point, but there’s nothing between us now.”