Page 24 of Infernal

My stomach bottomed out as terror and panic seeped into my pores, into my bloodstream, shaking me to my core.

There it was.

The truth in his own words.

He’d compelled me to forget. To forgetwhat?When? And how often? A million different possibilities pummeled through my brain, each one dragging in a worse scenario than the last one.

I had no idea what or when he did this, and as afraid as I was of learning the truth, that fear was nothing compared to the unbridled anger that bubbled up on the tail end of it.

“How could you do that to me? I trusted you!” My head was spinning so violently it was making me feel sick.

“It isn’t what you think,” he said calmly, his hand relaxed around the steering wheel.

“You don’t know what I’m thinking.” Oh, God, the things I was thinking. Too many thoughts. Too much motion. “You need to stop the car. Right now!”

Knowing how easily I tossed my cookies, he veered onto the shoulder and quickly killed the engine. Without looking back at him, I swung the door open and jumped out of the car. I needed air, and I needed space…and I needed tonotthrow up again. I’d done enough of that for one day.

Squatting down, I sucked in as much air as my lungs could take and tried to clear the hazy panic from my mind. From the corner of my eye, I saw Dominic walking around the car as he casually moved to where I was hunched over, but he knew better than to get too close to me.

He opened his mouth to say something, but I quickly shut him down.

“Donotsay a goddamn word to me right now,” I warned.

He promptly pressed his lips together, but his expression remained unchanged. Cold. Uncaring.

Ignoring him and his stupid careless faces, I went to war with my body’s natural reflex as I tried to will myself not to throw up again. A few minutes later, I managed to get my stomach in check and felt strong enough to face him again. As horrifying as it was, as angry as I was, I wasn’t going to run away from this.

Not this time. This time, I was going to hear the truth.

I pushed my back against the car and met his eyes in the dark. “How many times?”

“Once.”

I swallowed noisily. “Did you…dosomething to me?”

He knew exactly what I meant. “I may be a monster, angel, but I’m not that kind of monster.”

The pressure in my chest eased a little. “Then what is it? What was so bad that you had to erase it from my memory?”

“I wish you would leave this alone.”

“Are you kidding me?! I’m not leaving here until you tell me what it is, Dominic.”

“Angel—”

“Just tell me what you did!” I demanded, my voice echoing eerily into the forest around us.

“I didn’tdoanything.” His stare was heavy with regret. “It was something I said to you.”

“Something yousaid?” I balked, certain I’d heard that wrong. “You compelled me to forget something you said?” I repeated it for a second time, still unable to hide the doubt from my words.

That made a grand total of zero sense.

“I told you it wasn’t what you thought.”

“Alright. Fine.” I decided to go with it for argument’s sake. “So, what did you say to me?”

“It doesn’t matter.” His eyes hardened into impenetrable marble. “It was a mistake, which is why I erased the memory. Now, will you please get back in the car?”

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