Chapter 28
Chapter twenty-eight
Bridget picked at the apple in her hand.
She knew she should take a bite. It had been hours since she’d eaten.
Even more since she’d slept. With a frustrated sigh, she threw the fruit down the hallway.
She’d watched the night fade into morning as she tried to fade the slicing pain in her chest. Nothing had worked.
Instead, she decided to torture herself more by tracking down the painting of her, Cade, and Vega.
It was still exactly where she’d stumbled upon it with Cade the first time, right outside the southern garden.
Whoever created it, clearly had never met them.
They looked nothing like themselves and Vega never actually ripped out her heart.
The thought gave her shivers. Still, she couldn’t help but stare at it in hopes it would give her some sort of answers for what she should do next.
Faint morning light highlighted the dark-haired woman in the middle. She was regal and cold.
Okay, maybe some features were right.
“What are you planning?” Bridget murmured.
It was cowardice to ask the painting instead of Vega herself.
Bridget knew if she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, her sister would probably pop in, all too willing to talk.
However, Bridget was willing to bet there was an extremely small chance the answers she would receive would actually be the truth.
Seconds later, she caught Cade in the corner of her eye.
She didn’t look at him, opting to keep her gaze glued to the painting instead.
But the closer he came, the more her hands trembled.
Even though she’d pondered what to do all night and had even convinced herself she was ready, one glimpse of him, of the warmth in his eyes, had every certainty unraveling.
Bridget kept her arms crossed tightly and forced herself not to move until he reached her. When he finally did, she felt the weight of his gaze shift from her, to the painting, and back again. After a beat, his arm slipped around her waist as he tucked her into his side
Cade kissed the top of her head, his voice muffled against her hair. “You look like you’re obsessing.”
“I feel like I’m obsessing.”
For a moment, Bridget leaned into Cade and let herself savor his warmth.
Keeping her arms crossed, she craned her neck to look at him.
For someone she’d left sleeping in bed, he looked almost as tired as she felt.
There was a hint of purple under his eyes and his thick hair was wavier than usual.
At least he was in regular clothes. She was still wearing the shorts and old Yankees shirt she’d pretended to go to bed in.
As if reading her thoughts, Cade tugged on the fraying hem of her shirt. “You should get some rest.” His golden eyes cut to the apple at the end of the marble hallway. “Or eat something. It’s a shame someone just let a perfectly good apple roll right into a spider’s web.”
He'd noticed that? Bridget gave him a droll look before she sighed. “I can’t.”
She just knew the moment she closed her eyes, she was going to be pulled into Vega’s makeshift dreamworld of Cavamyne.
Cade fiddled with the white edges of her hair before he tucked a few strands behind her right ear. “If you want to sleep, I won’t leave your side. That way, if Vega—”
“I don’t want to see her right now.”
The words came out harsher than she intended. Cade just cocked his head.
“What do you think she’s going to do?”
Ask me too many questions. Try to use Nylah. Figure out that I remember. Realize you’re bonded to me and use it to kill you.
Every logical answer got trapped in her throat. She wasn’t supposed to be confiding in him. She was supposed to be pushing him away.
For a moment, she couldn’t breathe.
She didn’t realize she was clenching her fists until Cade gently uncrossed her arms and pried her fingers loose. Red, crescent shaped marks were embedded in her palms.
“Bridget, I want to help.”
There was so much damn worry and love in his eyes, she wanted to obliterate herself into a pile of ash on the floor. It was now or never. She had to get it over with it. Like ripping off a Band-Aid. Or she never would.
“I know,” Bridget finally croaked. “I just…”
Her throat tightened up, like it was almost physically impossible for her to actually say the words. Chest thundering, she tried to make herself swallow.
After a long moment, Cade asked, “What is it?”
Bridget used all the strength she had to push her voice to a whisper. “There’s just so much going on right now and I…”
If she managed to get through this moment, how in the hell was she going to keep this up? She was already being a coward by using the easiest and lamest plan she could come up with. Maybe she really should have gotten some sleep.
With his thumb, Cade wiped away the stray tear that had traitorously left her eye. “Hey, it’s alright. I know finding out Vega is your sister has messed with your head and that whatever happened in the past is worrying you. But you don’t have to go through it alone. I’m right here.”
The confident, supportive smile on his face flickered when she didn’t answer. “If you don’t want my help, at least talk to Nylah.”
“I think we should break up.”
The suggestion tumbled from her lips in such a hoarse, jumbled mess, Bridget was surprised Cade understood her at all.
Break up. It didn’t even seem like the right words for what they were.
It was too insignificant. But it was the only thing she could think of that would be the first step in creating separation.
Time seemed to slow down as she watched Cade’s expression battle between shock, confusion, and anger. Eventually, downright furious conquered his features. “No.”
Bridget blinked a few times. She didn’t have an answer for no. “Yes,” she stuttered.
“No,” Cade bit out, jaw clenched. “You can’t be serious.”
Why did she ever expect he would make this easy on her? She’d never seen him so outraged. And the stubborn draw of his brows told her she wasn’t going to win the conversation. “We have to.”
Cade scoffed. “We have to. Do you hear yourself?”
Yes. And she was now regretting even thinking that this tactic could work.
Without breaking eye contact, Cade grabbed her left hand and held it up. “You want to break up with me, but you moved your ring to your other hand?”
Bridget snatched her hand away. Heat flooded her cheeks. She had no idea when she’d moved her wedding ring to the correct finger. Her memories were now such a jumbled mess, she kept having to remind herself which time she was in.
“I didn’t mean to do that,” she whispered, twisting the broken emerald around her finger to pull it off.
Fire flashed through Cade’s darkening expression. “Don’t you dare move it back.”
Bridget slowly dropped her hands. Lowering her gaze, she picked a tile to stare at her and hoped the world would stop tilting around her.
If she was going to push him away, she needed to move the ring back to her right hand or keep it in a drawer or something.
But Cade’s statement had melted her into an unmoving mess.
“Why?” he asked.
Bridget snapped her gaze back to Cade’s. The calm question was so opposite of the ire still brewing in his golden eyes, it almost left her out at a loss for words again. “Why what?”
“Why do we have to?” Cade asked. “What happened in the past that’s making you try to push me away?”
“I can’t tell you. If you trust me at all—”
“But you can tell Stellan.”
Bridget’s mouth fell open. Panic licked up her spine. His haggard appearance suddenly made sense. “You followed me?”
“Of course, I did. Something is obviously wrong. You could barely look me in the eye last night,” Cade argued. “And while my father has seemed to accept we’re together, that still doesn’t mean it’s safe to wander around here in the dead of night all by yourself.”
“You don’t understand…” Bridget began, thinking only of her conversation with Stellan about the bond. He couldn’t know. But then she saw what he was trying to hide. Jealousy. “It’s not what you think.”
She slammed her mouth shut. For someone trying to break up with him, she was letting every good excuse roll right out the window.
Confusion marred Cade’s features before his mouth curled in irritation.
“Fuck, Bridget, give me a little more credit,” he growled.
Letting out a tired sigh, he grabbed the sides of her face.
His thumb ran over her cheekbone. “I know that you love me… which is why you need to help me understand why you can trust him, but not me.”
Bridget wanted to scream that she did trust him. More than anyone. But the panic paralyzing her limbs choked her. Cade couldn’t know about the bond. Not yet. Even if the urge to just tell him was growing by the second.
Especially when there was a nervous lilt to his voice when he asked, “What did you show Stellan?”
“Were you listening the whole time?” Bridget whispered—half terrified of the answer, half hoping he just already knew.
“I don’t have supersonic hearing.” Frustration returned to Cade’s gaze. Again, he asked, “What did you show him?”
Relief soared through her limbs. At least they still had a chance to get his abilities back. At least they—
An all too familiar cloak floated through Bridget’s line of vision behind him. With a sour look on her face as she glanced at the giant portraits of Cade’s ancestors, Alexia pulled up her hood and eyed the open archway to the southern garden.
“Alexia,” Bridget mumbled, brain sputtering with all the pieces it was trying to put together.
Cade stared at her like she had two heads. “What?”
“What time is it?” Bridget asked. Alexia shouldn’t be alone. Since they’d arrived in Astraeus, Nylah had made it her life’s mission to ensure that didn’t happen. Since she poisoned me, I’m going to pester her, she’d said.
“I don’t know. I think around eleven…” Cade said, wildly looking around for a clock. Once he spotted Alexia, he paled. The same conclusion she’d spun to obvious on his face.
How was it already that late? Bridget pushed past him and darted toward Alexia. She grabbed the other girl’s arm and ripped her backwards before she made it to the courtyard.
Alexia sneered. “Get your hands off me.”
“How did you get past Nylah?” Bridget demanded.
“What in the hell are you talking about?” Alexia’s now wary gaze darted between her and Cade, who’d followed her maniacal sprint.
“She’s been guarding you like it’s her damn job,” Bridget muttered through gritted teeth. “You know, kind of like what you used to do to me.”
Having the gall to look affronted, Alexia ripped her arm back to her side. “Is that why the little twerp won’t leave me alone?”
Bridget’s stomach sank to the floor. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. She knew it in her bones. Nylah never slept late. Without a word, she took off toward the main staircase, Cade hot on her heels.
Taking the round, carpeted staircase two steps at a time, Bridget’s lungs burned by the time she made it to the fourth floor. Sprinting past the library, she skidded to a halt in front of Nylah’s door and slammed it open.
The same large lump she’d seen in the middle of the night still lay in the center of the bed.
Cade grabbed her arm, clearly saying something, but the sharp ringing in her ears drowned out every noise except her own heartbeat.
Bridget flipped the covers off the four-poster bed. Two fluffy pillows stared up at her.
For a split second, it was like every single atom of her body had imploded and escaped through a gaping hole in her chest. When specks of light began to flood her vision again, Bridget found herself collapsed in Cade’s arms. Her entire body trembled as a singular, slicing message erupted through her brain: Nylah was gone.