Page 85 of Captured in Love
No, not afraid. I was worried they’d find me and that their explanation for why they kept that secret from me would make sense. My thoughts are still too messy for me to talk to either one of them.
It’s been more than a day since I last slept. I have no idea what my last meal was. And I’d left behind all my belongings apart from my backpack.
But for tonight at least, I have a roof over my head and a friend of sorts who took me in.
My hands tremble suddenly, and I drop the towels on the counter next to the sink, then collapse on the closed toilet seat. I bury my face in my hands to muffle the sobs that rip through me, and I let loose the feelings that have been building inside me since the moment I heard Levi talking on the phone with his father.
I’d cried on the way, yes, but not like this. Now I feel like my heart is being torn in two. I’ve been grieving my mother for years, but the knowledge that her life had been cut short by Levi’s father reopens the old wounds. I miss her, and it hurts so much.
And I miss Levi and Raphaël, too, even though it’s only been a day since I left them. That pain is fresh and sharp, both from their betrayal and the distance growing between us. Just when I’d opened myself up to love, it all came crashing down.
I should have known it would end this way.
But I let myself fall, I let them in anyway.
It takes me several long minutes to get my breathing under control. Longer still to stop the flow of silent tears. Finally, I undress with shaking hands and climb into the old-fashioned bathtub. I run a bath, sinking until the water covers my ears, my eyes, my nose, until the world around me disappears and all I hear is the sloshing sounds and the rush of blood in my ears. My heartbeat slows, and the warmth seeps inside my body, relaxing me.
Eventually, I run out of air and break the surface again.
When I open my eyes, I find Isak looming over me.
I shriek and launch myself back, splashing water everywhere. I raise my hands, instinctively reaching for my magic, prepared to blast him with the full strength of the taser spell.
“I’m sorry!” he yells and spins around so he’s facing away from me. “I won’t hurt you!”
It’s what he said to me at the guesthouse when he barged in unannounced. History is repeating itself, and I don’t have the energy to deal with this.
“Then why are you here?” I return, my voice shrill and high. “You scared me!”
I lift my knees and hug them, curling into a ball to hide myself. This isnothow I imagined the moment when Isak first saw me naked. Not that I expected a situation where I would need to be naked in front of him anytime soon.
But still.
“I knocked and called your name,” he explains. “You didn’t answer, so I thought something happened to you.”
“Oh.” I push my hair away from my face. “Okay, that makes sense.”
He huffs in answer and points to a messy pile of cotton on top of the towels I’d put by the sink. “I brought you some clothes. They’ll be big on you, but it’s only for the night.”
He bends and picks up my discarded wet clothes. I see the moment he reaches for my light-blue panties. He hesitates a fraction of a second, the muscles in his back tensing beneath his shirt, then snatches them up and wraps them in my sweater. He handles the mismatched bra the same way.
My face flames with heat, and I mumble, “You don’t need to do that, I’ll get them later.”
“You want them dry by morning, yes?” he asks without turning to look at me.
“Yeah,” I admit, then add, “Thank you.”
He goes to leave, then pauses by the door. “Will Levi and Raphaël be coming after you?”
I give the question the consideration it deserves. It’s not just that they might come knocking in the middle of the night—we’re currently on the outskirts of a sea dragon village, and if a witch and a vampire show up, knocking on doors to find me, trouble will follow.
“No,” I say. “I don’t think so.”
I’d put a cloaking spell on myself, and Levi shouldn’t be able to find me. He’s an incredibly powerful witch, but just as I can’t use his type of magic to heal or break complex enchantments, so he can’t undo mine at such a distance.
Isak turns his head slightly, giving me the view of his profile. His eyes are closed, and something melts inside me, just a little. He’s giving me the privacy I need, all the while making sure I’m okay.
“Want to tell me what happened?” he asks softly.
