Page 155 of Oathbreaker

When he stops talking, I turn around fully. After I pull a loose dress from another drawer and put it on, I twirl my hands to gesture at him to keep going. “But now...?”

His mouth twists.

“What aren’t you telling me, Hunter?” My voice drops with determination. He will not keep me in the dark.

He shakes his head.

And says nothing.

“Hunter, you have to tell me what’s going on.” His mouth tightens even more, and with his hands on his hips, he turns away from me.

Wow.

“Hunter, you know that keeping things from me?—”

“I’m not trying to keep things from you, Sunbeam. I just…I want to know more about what’s going on before I get you jumbled up in this mess.”

I raise an eyebrow. “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?” I deadpan.

He lets out a frustrated groan and runs a hand through his hair. “For now, you need to stay locked in Amelia Manor,” he says, the finality of his words dropping like an anvil in the space between us.

“Excuse me?” My body flushes with frost.

“Sunbeam,” is all he says in response.

“Hunter, you can’t just lock me away in here with no explanation!”

He tsks and turns away from me again, walking toward the door. “Don’t leave the inside of the building. Anything you need will be brought to you.”

Breathing is painful, the scratch of air raking down my trachea. I must make a sound because he turns to me and swears under his breath when he sees my face.

“When we were on Isla Cara, we found human remains. It was my father. He’s dead.” He says this in the most emotionless tone. I gasp at his words and want to reach out to him. But I also want to throttle him.

Yes, I wanted Benjamin Brigham to bleed out until he died a painful death. Hunter wanted him gone too.

That’s still his father, though, and running across his dead body would be a lot for anyone.

“Oh, H,” I say on a breath. I reach a hand out to him but pull it back to my chest. Kitty circles me before standing on his hind legs, pawing at me to get my attention. “I understand that things are scary right now?—”

“Scary?” he says in a low voice. He leans against the door, much like the stance he took the last time he locked me in a room. “Things are beyond scary, Winter.”

Thick silence follows that statement. I search for the right words to say, but I take too long because Hunter fills the void.

“I’m not—” he knocks his head back against the hard wooden door. “I’m not in control here.” Each word sounds heavy, like they’re difficult to form on his tongue.

“Control is an illusion, H,” I reply. My voice is barely over a whisper. I pick Kitty up with trembling fingers, searching for the calm I usually find by plunging my hands into his fur. He licks my cheek.

“Control is what will keep us alive,” he says with a rasp. The frenetic energy in his words is new, foreign. “There’s so much you don’t know.”

“So why don’t you tell me!” The words burst from my lips.

“How can I tell you what I don’t even understand? That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I need to figure this all out. I don’t know what I’m dealing with or who I’m dealing with. I don’t know what’s real or what’s fake or what’s all an illusion. I need to get a handle on this situation and figure out which way is up before I bring you into this.”

“Hunter, it’s too late?—”

“I don’t care, Winter! I will not lose you again. I won’t stand losing any of you.”

His anger, frustration, and…fear is plain on his face.

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