Chapter Twenty-Nine #2
Instead, he shrugged off his coat. He stepped closer—close enough for his heat to spill into me even through the rain—and draped it over my shoulders.
For a moment, all I wanted was to lean into him, to melt into the solid wall of warmth he radiated.
The inside of his coat was warm, impossibly warm.
I swallowed, tugging it tighter around myself.
I slipped my phone into the coat pocket and let the knife clatter to the road, my hand too weak to hold it any longer.
Quietly, we began walking side by side. I could feel his gaze skimming me now and again, down to my socks, then back up.
I broke the silence first, my voice rough with cold as we stepped past another creature. “Are we just going to leave them out here?”
“Yes.”
“But what about the people when they wake up?”
“The one who sent them will take care of the bodies before daybreak.”
That answer prickled my senses.
“Who sent them?” I pressed, lifting my gaze to his profile. His jaw ticked, his eyes cutting to me briefly before falling back to my feet.
“Let me carry you,” he said instead.
I declined, knowing he wanted to avoid the topic. “I can walk.” I shook my head. “Who sent them? Is it connected to the messenger?”
“Nher—”
I stopped walking, my voice cracking with fear and curiosity. “Are they after me? Is this something new? Have there been reports of creatures chasing people?”
“No.” His voice chilled me worse than the rain.
“So why me?”
“You—”
“Why did they break into the house? Why did they try to lure me out at first? To kill me?” My breath hitched. “No, wait. This has never happened to anyone before. If it’s happening now, if it’s happening to me…does that mean it has something to do with you? Are they after you?”
“No, Sanora.”
“Then what?” My voice rose, throat raw. “They’re after me? Why?”
“Will you listen?” His voice thundered above the quieting rain, rough and commanding. He dragged a hand through his drenched hair, teeth gritting as if he was one string away from combusting.
I shook my head, heart hammering, tears stinging my eyes. I could see it in his expression that he knew something. But he was holding back.
“I’m not letting you off this time. I need to know what this is. They almost killed me.”
“Yes,” he ground out, “but they didn’t.”
“They would have if you’d been a second late!”
His fists clenched at his sides, his eyes burning into mine, rage trembling beneath his restraint.
I knew I was being ungrateful, knew I was lashing out at the very person who had saved me, but I needed to know what was going on.
I couldn’t find shit in books, and he was the only one who knew the truth.
Without a word, I kept walking, bottling down the sudden anger tearing claws through my chest.
I was aware I’d been letting myself get blinded by the fact that it was unusual and absurd that he was living with me. Why he, the Soulless Man, bought every place here just to stay with me.
Yes, maybe because he craved warmth from someone like he said, but why Nimorran? He could seek companionship from everywhere except the land he scarred. He was the sole cause of what happened with The Crater, and staying right next to it was wrong. At least to me. It was too wrong.
There was more to it. More to it that he wasn’t telling. Maybe none of it wasn’t my business. But I almost died. So it was automatically my business.
A chill ran down my spine as I wondered if any of this would have happened if he hadn’t chosen to stay with me.
What was I thinking in the first place? Living with him? With him. The Soulless Man. A murderer once. A man capable of killing again.
Me included.
It felt like I didn’t know him anymore. No, I actually didn’t know him. I never had. No one did. No one knew what his past entailed. Even if his pattern was different from someone who harboured ill intentions, I still didn’t know him.
My mind screamed questions as I neared the front gaping doorway of the house. But then I stopped. Slowly, I turned. He was a few feet back, water dripping from his hair down to his jawline, his eyes dark in the rain.
I held his gaze. Just once, I wanted to push past his walls. Just once, I needed to try. I needed to know who the messenger was, who sent those creatures, why I’d been lured out, why they’d chased me. I had to know, before curiosity consumed me from the inside out.
“What are you hiding?” My voice came out softly.
He stepped closer, just two strides. “Go inside—”
“No.” My chin lifted. “I’m not sleeping in that house knowing they can come at me again.”
“The rain’s stopping. They’re gone.”
See? He knew. He knew they only came when it rained. I bet my life he knew more than that.
“What more do I not know?” I whispered.
His eyes flicked to my feet again with a sharp twitch in his jaw, as if seeing me standing there barefoot in sodden socks made him physically uncomfortable. “A lot,” he forced out. “Now can you go in?”
I didn’t move. “No. Tell me everything first. Or at least half.”
His voice dropped, laced with frustration. “You can’t understand.”
“I know the messenger was from The Crater,” I pushed. “Are these from there too?”
He hesitated. Then sighed. “Yes.”
“Does The Crater target people like this? Did I do something wrong? Is that why they’re after me?”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But they’re after me.”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. His eyes told me everything.
They are after me.
I let in a shaky breath as I tried to contain the rush of emotions breaking loose. “Why?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it.”
“It is after me!” The words tore out of my throat, raw, scraping my chest. “And you still can’t tell me what they are? They almost killed me. Twice!”
“Yes, and I feel like shit that it’s happening to you!” His voice roared through the night, breaking and slicing through my chest. I flinched, blinking in shock, because for the first time, his iron composure cracked.
But his fury didn’t seem to be at me. It was at the creatures, at himself, at the very fact that this was happening.
Thrax stomped closer. “I don’t want you involved.” His voice ground like stone. “So drop it and come inside. I’ll handle it.”
He turned, striding towards the house.
Oh, not this time, Thrax.
I spun on my heel and walked the other way, shrugging his coat from my shoulders and letting it fall to the ground.
I had barely taken five steps when his voice, thick with frustration, rushed out. “I swear on my goddamned life, Sanora.”
I ignored him, my legs carrying me further away.
By my eighth step, he closed the distance in a blink, his hand clamping onto my shoulder, spinning me back. Both of his hands gripped my shoulders now, hard enough to steady me, his body leaning down until his storm-dark eyes were level with mine.
For a moment, he dropped his head, as though he needed strength to speak the words out without losing himself.
“This has nothing to do with you.” His voice was calmer, almost pleading. “You’re leaving in a few days. You’ll forget everything. It’s nothing serious. I’ll. Handle. It.”
He held my gaze, waiting—needing—for me to agree.
But I couldn’t. My eyes blurred, and before I realised, tears slipped down my cheeks, hot against the cold rain.
I didn’t even know why they were falling.
Maybe because I wasn’t just angry anymore.
Maybe because I was tired. Tired of being left in the dark.
Tired of feeling like a pawn in something I didn’t understand.
Tired of looking at him and realising I knew nothing, yet my life was starting to bend around him.
Even in the dim light, among the water cascading down my face, his eyes caught my tears. And I saw something shift in his expression.
Thrax sighed, his hands dropping from my shoulders as he straightened, dragging his fingers through his wet hair.
“Fine,” he admitted, jaw clenching, gaze hard on me.
“They’re after you. They want to kill you.
Those things today were raised from nothing.
That messenger? She was a girl who died in those hills.
Her body was resurrected only to kill you that night.
Hmm, what else?” He paused, then pressed on.
“No, this has never happened to anybody. You’re the first. But when you leave here, they won’t follow you.
They can only be created during heavy rainfall and thunder.
You’re safe as long as there’s no storm.
And even if there is, I’m here. Is that enough now? ”
My heart stopped at the rush of words, eyes blinking rapidly against the rain streaming into my eyes as I stared at him, trying to process. I was the first?
“Who sent them? What’s the reason?” My voice broke on the questions I’d been aching to ask.
He shrugged.
He shrugged?
“Don’t give me that shit. I know you know.” I glared at him.
“I can’t tell you. You’re leaving in a few days—”
I took a step back. Then another.
His eyes narrowed, disapproval flashing dark across his face. “Don’t you dare move another step.”
I did.
My mind twisted back on itself. I knew I’d said his behaviour didn’t match that of someone with murderous intent, but what if I was wrong? What if he was working with them? What if this entire thing was a performance, and I was just the bait? He was the Soulless Man. Who was I to believe otherwise?
He raked his fingers through his hair. “What, you’re scared? You think I want to kill you?” A dry, humourless laugh burst out of him. “Sweetheart, if I wanted to kill you, I’d have done it long ago.”
“You could be…catching fun with me,” I breathed, so faint I doubted he heard.
But he did. “Catching fun?” The rain hammered down again, his voice turning raw, furious than the storm itself. “No. Because if this was me ‘catching fun,’ watching you in pain wouldn’t break me twice as hard.”
I froze.