Page 54 of Guarded By the Nightmare

He should’ve thought of that before heliedto me though.

Nolan was dead, he’d shucked out his mind like an oyster, and that was how he knew...everything.

Everything, everything—everything!

“You heard me!” I said, making it into my bathroom, where I slammed the door and locked it, for whatever good it would do.

“Mina!” he shouted from the otherside. “Are you all right?”

“You lied to me!” I howled back at him, hitting the cheap plywood door with both fists.

“I don’t understand!” he shouted back.

“Neither do I!” I hit the door again and sank down. “You were supposed to—I thought I could trust you! Why the fuck?” This last statement was directed at myself. “How could I be so stupid? Again? I fuckingamthe lowest common denominator.”

Sylas phased through the door, appearing halfway through it, like he was frozen in carbonite.

“Get the fuck out of here!” I yelled. I was sure all my neighbors were up by now, and my lease would be cancelled tomorrow.

“Mina,” he said low, patting the empty air between us with his palms.

“I’m not your fucking lamb,” I snarled.

“Okay,” he said. “I am sorry. Again.”

I searched his eyes, his face, his entire being, for anything that was untrue in the moment—and when I didn’t find anything, I started doubting myself, all over again.

“Why can you not trust me?” he asked.

“Because you lied. You said Nolan was alive—but clearly he’s not—you ate his mind when he died.” I leaned back and pulled a wad of toilet paper off the roll to wipe my nose with—and then started trying to swipe the taste of him out of my mouth.

“Mina, I did not,” he said, catching my wrist to stop me, and fully entering the room.

“Then how did you know?”

“Know what?”

I shoved him back and rose up on my knees, pulling down the edge of the underwear I had on so he could see. “That they made me their lamb. Here,” I said, pointing at the hastily carved mark of a lambda, that Trent and the others had etched into my skin in the woods that awful night.

“Oh, Mina,” Sylas said, like his breath left him. “I didn’t know.”

“Then why did you say that?” I asked him, halfway through a sob. I was so fucking tired of crying. I didn’t want to cry anymore.

“I saw it in a nightmare of yours. You were a lamb, being chased by wolves. And I suppose I’ve thought of you like that, ever since.”

“A stupid, stupid lamb,” I said, falling back, sinking my head—but he caught my chin.

“A lamb who’s helped me kill three people—and been responsible for twenty more. A lamb growing claws and teeth.” He pulled up my face so I was forced to look at him. “Tell me how this Nolan hurt you. I want to take all of your pain and give it back to him.”

My jaw dropped, and then I snapped it shut again, as he removed his hand. I couldn’t imagine telling him, seeing as Nolan’s ingress had been particularly humiliating—but then I realized that even if I didn’t, he’d eventually read it on the inside of Nolan’s skull.

“When the police couldn’t find the cellar, I went back myself one night. Mostly to prove I wasn’t crazy and imagining everything.” I sank back on my heels and looked down.

“And no doubt set off one of the magical tripwires they had there, protecting it,” Sylas said, as I wrung my palms against my lap.

“Well. I like that version of things better, at least. And here I’d been thinking all this time that I was just an idiot.” Especially seeing as everyone else in the world seemed to think I’d gotten what I deserved.

Except for Sylas.

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