Page 87 of The Hunt of Night

“To see you,” she admits, twisting her fingers together as her head dips, but she keeps her gaze on mine, peering at me through her lashes like she’s vulnerable.

I can’t bite back the scoff that burns from my throat as I shake my head. “You’ve seen. Anything else?” She presses her lips together and takes a tentative step toward me, but I lift my hand, pausing her next move as I continue to shake my head. “You’re good where you are.”

She nods, unlinking her fingers as she shakes them out at her sides. She stands taller, taking a deep breath, and my chest tightens as I watch her brush off the vulnerability, hiding her weaknesses just as quickly as she revealed them. It’s not the fact that she’s putting walls in place that bothers me; it’s the fact that I’ve seen the same reaction in myself. Admitting there’s anything similar between us swirls like poison in my gut.

“Sorry, I…I just…” Her words trail off as she tries to find the right level of bullshit to get through to me, but I’m not dealing with any of it.

“You just what?” I push, ready to get the fuck out of here. Why the hell am I not just leaving her here and going to my room?

Fuck.

I can’t bring myself to move, and that agitates me even more. Curiosity wins out.

“I wanted to see you.” The words are a whisper on her tongue.

I tilt my gaze, trying to assess her from a different angle, but I don’t come up with anything different. “I don’t believe you.”

“I can’t imagine you would,” she replies with a tight smile. I open my mouth but nothing comes out, and the reality is, it’s because I have nothing to say to her.

I manage to take a deep breath, keeping the irritation from my tone as I twist the door handle. “Anything else?”

Her eyebrows pinch, her gaze darting over me. I can sense her brain whirling with the need to keep talking.

“How is Nora?”

I see red. Crimsonfuckingred. I step toward her, finger aimed in her direction as I snap. “You keep her fucking name out of your mouth.” She gapes at me in shock, and I scoff. “Shocked? You shouldn’t be. Did you expect this to be some sweet reunion? Newsflash, it isn’t.” I can feel my chest heating from my rising blood pressure, creeping up my neck and tingling down my arms to the tips of my fingers.

“I just…” Her words trail off once again and my nostrils flare with anger.

“You just can’t seem to finish that sentence, and I honestly have no desire to know what’s on the tip of your tongue,” I bite, pushing the door to the fae building open.

“Adrianna, I’m sorry,” she blurts, garnering my attention once again. Her hand is flat against her chest as her lip wobbles.

“For?”

“E-Everything,” she stutters, and I shake my head.

“I feel like you have a colossal list of shit you should be sorry for. You’re going to need to get a little more specific if you think I’m going to even remotely believe anything that you say.” Even then, I know I won’t. She doesn’t deserve my forgiveness. She doesn’t even deserve my time, yet here I am, still giving it to her.

Her hands twist in her white t-shirt, coiling around the material until her knuckles are the same color. Unshed tears line the bottom of her eyes, but it does nothing to produce even an ounce of sympathy.

“I shouldn’t have come,” she says, trying to swallow back the emotion, and I nod.

“You’re right.”

Her eyebrows crinkle with pain at my words. “I miss you.”

I scoff. “You can’t miss me. You don’t know me,” I retort, making her eyes widen as she holds her hands toward me.

“I did, I?—”

“You left. You left Nora and me without a care for anyone but yourself. Everything that followed changed the both of us. So, no, you don’t know me, and you most definitely don’t know her, because the day our lives came crumbling down, at your hands no less, those girls went with it.”

“N-No,” she stumbles again, tears rolling down her cheeks as she blubbers, and I snarl.

“Yes.”

The venom on my tongue is real and I don’t like it. I don’t like the darkness that sweeps through my limbs or the level of anger that courses through me, because I can’t control it. I can’t control myself in her presence, and it makes me feel more vulnerable than ever before.

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