Page 43 of Bound By Roses

“Everyone wants you back in Marein.” He laughs, but says nothing, so I continue. “Merrick spends hours every day looking for you.”

“I’m aware.”

“Rhett misses you.”

“Rhett…” He says the word slowly, as if saying it will help him make the mental connection he lost. “His name makes me feel both annoyed and happy.”

I laugh. “Yeah, he’ll do that. Come back with us.”

“No. And don’t come looking for me, because if you do, you won’t find me.” He turns away from me, walking deeper into the cave.

“Jade!” I call after him, but he doesn’t stop.

Three words echo back to me before he disappears from sight entirely. “Jade is dead.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

QUINN

Ican hear Abby making her way up the sloping incline. Her footsteps are slow and even, and in them, I hear no distress. Even through our bond, I don’t pick up on the slightest hint of how her talk with Jade went. I just know that she’s alive, and that’s all that matters.

“How’d it go?” I ask when I sense she’s within earshot. I’m sitting on a log by the small fire I’d built for us, adding more wood whenever I feel my newfound fear of darkness creeping up. It’s old and bleached after likely having washed up on shore after traveling who knows how many miles across the sea. How it got up here on this cliff is something I can’t explain, but I’ve learned not to question small blessings when they’re granted. Our camp is simple enough as it is, consisting of only our fire and two cots laid next to each other and topped with whatever blankets we could carry. I’m grateful not to have to sleep in the dirt.

“About as well as you’d expect,” she sighs, sitting down by the fire and shivering lightly in a way that he knows has nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with the encroaching darkness. She fears it too, although for very different reasons. “He says he’s trying not to kill me.”

I snort a laugh even though nothing about this is funny. “Well, that’s comforting. Do I have to worry about him showing up tonight?”

“No. He’s gone, but I don’t know where. I don’t think he’ll bother us.”

“Thank the Gods for small blessings,” I mutter. It seems I’m on a roll tonight. Even without the impending threat of a pissed off dragon, it’s still going to be difficult to relax tonight.

“Thank you for not being your usual overprotective self.”

“I’m not that bad, am I?”

“You absolutely are. There was a time you would have slung me over your shoulder and carried me out of there rather than leave me alone with Jade.”

She’s exaggerating, but not by much.

I shrug. “I knew if you needed me, you would call.” I wrap an arm around her, and rub it up and down in an effort to ease her shivers. She’s not cold, but we both need the comfort. Whether we’re willing to admit it to each other or not.

“So do you want to talk about it?” she asks.

“I thought we already were.”

She flashes me a look that says ‘you know exactly what I mean.’ “Imelda is your aunt.”

I blow out a breath. Of course that’s what she wants to talk about. “It certainly seems so.”

“Why do you think she did it?”

I toss another bit of wood onto the fire. We only brought so much and the sky is only beginning to darken, but even just the act brings me comfort. This should be enough to keep the fire going until dawn. And if not, hopefully we’ll be asleep during the dark hours. “You’re going to have to be more specific. Why did she curse me? Curseus? Steal my sister? Kill your father? I can’t even count all the unspeakable things that woman has done.” And talking about them now isn’t going to help us defeat her.

“Why did she destroy her home?”

Her home? “Lunae attacked Marein.”

“Only after Imelda became queen. You don’t think she was manipulating the king from the start?”

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