Page 11 of Clarity

As I sat in the boarding area, waiting to be able to get on the flight, my phone buzzed yet again with a notification, worried texts from Brosia and Celeste wondering where I was. My best guess was the rune had worn off and Parris had alerted his brothers, who had, reasonably, asked my friends to get in touch with me.

I hadn’t told anyone where I was going, or what I was doing.

Even if their loyalty to me was still intact, they had mental links with their chosen vampire lovers, more than just the head invasion trick Parris had attempted on me. They may not have been able to keep the information to themselves even if they wanted to.

Still… They just wanted to know I was okay.

Or… a less generous read of the situation, they were being compelled to seek information.

Either way, I wasn’t jeopardizing my escape.

I put my phone in airplane mode and cast another gaze around the boarding area, looking for anything that felt out of place. It had taken a bit of witty spell work to make my way onto this flight, with a bag full of… interesting things. More protection magic would’ve been ideal, but anything more than I’d already done required more skills, materials, ortimethan I had.

I had to take the chance.

There was no relaxing until I was on the plane, in my seat, until the plane was in the air. My shoulders were tense until the city lights I could see under the clouds through the plane windows had dwindled, replaced with large swaths that appeared black now. Farmland, trees, whatever. I couldn’t tell.

I’d made it away from Blackwood though.

It wasn’t a full flight, so I was alone in my row. No need to climb over people for the bathroom. I gave a nod to the flight attendant as I passed and made a point of looking over every passenger as I made my way down the aisle, trying to figure out if there was any danger to me on this flight.

You’re overthinking it now.

Maybe.

Maybe.

Still, I took a last glance behind me, making sure nothing strange was going on before I stepped into the tiny airplane bathroom and closed the door behind me.

“Don’t make a sound.”

Fuuuuck.

FUCK.

My mouth clamped closed, tongue relaxed, as my brain immediately followed the command I’d been unprepared for. Before I could evenattemptanything, Parris had my hands pinned behind me, with my back to him.

“You’re a clever little witch, aren’t you?” he asked, meeting my furious glare in the mirror. “That was real ingenuity.”

“Thanks, can you get the fuck away from me?” I thought, already feeling him digging around in my damn head.

He laughed, and I hated what it did to me, warming my chest. “You still haven’t even heard what I want from you. You must be pretty scared of it though, based on you boarding a flight to New Orleans. Why here? I thought it was a different Creole?”

“Itistwo different creoles, but the history and culture of my ancestors is tangled. My Haitian roots are just as deep as my Creole ones.How did you track me?”

“I didn’ttrackyou. I made an educated guess, and it happened to be correct,” he said, shifting so my arms weren’t so uncomfortably bent and so there was less space between us. He moved in closer, right up against my back, holding my wrists at my sides. “Why you so scared to hear me out?”

“I don’t need to hear you out. I don’t want anything to do with any of this.”

“Damn,” he grunted, dropping his mouth to my ear. “Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

“Then why are you so turned on?”

“I’m… not.”

Shit.

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