Page 10 of Boy of Ruin
I roll my eyes, turn from the mirror and walk to the nightstand, snatching up my knife and stowing it in the back pocket of my black, ripped jeans. “Aren’t there enough eyes on me? Why do I need yours, too?”
A beat of silence that seems a little too long passes and I turn to face Ria again, seeing her brow furrow as she averts her eyes to the polished wooden floors.
My pulse picks up speed as I tense. “What?” I press her. “What is it?”
She clears her throat and glances over her shoulder, into the hallway. Jeremiah’s room is opposite the house from mine, and the one Nicolas and Ria hole themselves up in is on the first floor, so I assume she’s looking for prying eyes in general. Turning her gaze back to me, squeezing her fingers around her arms, she says, “I don’t know if I’m supposed to be the one to tell you but—”
“But what?” I press, stepping closer, growing impatient. Did something happen to my husband? Where is he? Is he okay?
“They checked all the cameras.” She chews her lip, furrows her brow.
I can’t breathe, my throat is closing up, my body frozen as I stare at her, waiting to hear it wasn’t him. Waiting to hear he’s okay. I want to run past her, shove her aside and leap down the stairs just to see with my own eyes. To know he’s still breathing. Still living. Still whole.
“I heard your brother,” she cringes with that word, realizing her mistake, but thankfully she doesn’t correct it, just keeps talking while I struggle to breathe, “talking.” She swallows. “With Nicolas. They didn’t find anything…and Nicolas thinks you might have…” She shifts from foot to foot. “Might have imagined it.”
Oxygen fills my lungs as I inhale, letting my eyes flutter closed. I’m nearly dizzy with relief knowing Jeremiah didn’t get to him. I feel lightheaded, but I force my eyes open, and see Ria’s concern as she makes to step into the room, but I hold up my hand, letting her know I’m fine while I breathe in through my nose, out through my mouth.
Then her words register in my mind.
I drop my hand, the momentary relief replaced with anger. I can see the figure in my head. Wearing a dark hood. No facial features, and it was dark, in the middle of the forest, but I know I saw someone.
“I didn’t imagine it,” I say through gritted teeth.
I watch Ria’s throat bob as she swallows, averting her gaze. “I believe you.” Her voice sounds rough with those words as she meets my eyes again, and a shiver runs down my spine. “They took me too, you know.” Those words are barely more than a whisper.
Before I can say anything though, we both hear footsteps coming down the hall, sure and quick.
Ria straightens immediately, turning to face the hallway, and I hear my brother before I see him.
“Are you ready, Sid?” He sounds impatient, tense.
When he comes into view, he stops short, glaring at Ria. She might have run into his arms at Noctem, because she knew he was better than the 6 who kidnapped her after letting her free for a few weeks when she ran from Mav, but there has been no love between them. I don’t think she’s quite forgotten how he held a gun to her head that night in the car, all those months ago.
He’s done far worse to me.
I haven’t forgotten, either, but I guess I’ve come to expect it from him.
He slides his hands into the pockets of his gray basketball shorts, a white T-shirt stretched across his broad chest. I realize I should be in workout gear because we train every morning, but for some reason, after what happened last night, I had assumed we might skip it this morning.
I should know better.
And if no one fucking believes me, if there’s no evidence, maybe he doesn’t even think there’s a cause for concern.
We’re just onto business as fucking usual.
Even with an erratic schedule, my brother is a stickler for routine. I think it helps him feel in control, when he spent so much of his life being out of it. I know that feeling, because I did too. But I don’t desire control.
I crave freedom. Escape.
But there was someone out there.
“What are you doing?” Jeremiah asks Ria, his voice low as he cocks his head, a lock of his dark brown, wavy hair just above his pale green eyes.
Ria steps back but runs into the door frame. “I was just—”
“She was telling me that you and Nicolas think I’m delusional,” I butt in, coming to stand closer to them, to protect Ria from my brother’s horrible temper.
Slowly, his jaw clenched, he turns to face me. “I never said—”
