Page 154 of Diamond Angel

Benedict’s broken smile grows wider. “You are still as beautiful as ever, Celine.” He glides towards her. If Adam weren’t in my arms, I would jump between them. “It will be a blow to lose you.”

“You’re planning on killing me, then?” Celine asks.

He presses a hand to his chest in shock. “Of course not! Why on earth would I want you dead? Especially now that you’ve chosen to trust me.”

I’m hoping Celine has the forethought to let him continue thinking that our presence here means that he is pulling the strings. That we’re willingly cooperating. Celine might be, but I’m still holding out hope that there’s another option. Not Ilarion, not Benedict, but a third way out that doesn’t involve so much death and heartbreak.

My sister frowns. “How do you expect me to trust you?”

He reaches into his pants and pulls out something. I gasp, taking a step back, worried it’s some sort of weapon. But then I notice the glint of silver.

“Here,” he says, offering it to her. “A key to this room. You can lock yourselves in and no one will bother you.” When she doesn’t take it, he jangles it and smiles. “Trust starts with baby steps,mi bella. Small gestures.”

She takes it reluctantly. My skin is still swarming with those invisible ants. Anxiety crackles through me in strange little pops and shivers.

Whistling, Benedict walks towards the door. “Ilarion might show up here,” he warns. “If he does, I will try and hold him off. The key will get you out of this room. Andthiskey will take you as far away from this place as you can go.”

He pulls out a car key and sets in on the side table. “I tried to tell you at our first meeting, Celine: I’m on your side.” Then he steps out and closes the door behind him.

Celine and I turn to each other at the same time. “Lock the door,” we chorus in unison.

Rushing forward, she shoves the key into the lock and turns it. It clicks with a definitivethunk. “It’s locked,” she says, rattling the doorknob to be sure.

I breathe a sigh of relief and put Adam down on his feet.

“Mama! What’s going on?” His little voice lifts with panic as he clings to me.

I drop down on the four-poster bed and take his hands in mine. “Spy work is not easy, my love. We just gotta be a little brave and a little patient, okay? You can do that for me, right?”

Adam bites his bottom lip uncertainly. “I just wanna go home.”

“I know,” I say as my heart swells with fear. “And we’re going to go home very soon. We just need to take a little break here first.”

“And then we’ll go back?”

“We’ll go somewhere safe.”

He doesn’t seem content with that answer, but he has no choice but to put his trust in me. I’m his lifeline now and I’ve never been more aware of that fact.

I push myself up onto the bed and open my arms out to him. “Come on,” I coax. “I’m gonna tell you a story.”

He crawls into my lap and rests his head on my chest. “Can you finish the elves and the shoemaker?”

“Of course.”

I’ve told him the story so many times that I don’t really need to think about the words as I say them. My thoughts run wild as I weave him images of midnight creatures and fancy shoes.

Celine paces by the door the whole time, her face scrunched with concentration. There’s a thin line between focus and panic and she’s tap-dancing on it.

Then again, so am I.

When I finish the story, I look down and see that Adam has fallen asleep in my arms. Moving carefully, I place him on the bed, cushioning both sides of him with a pillow. It was a habit I developed when he was a baby and he’d roll to the edges of my bed while I scrambled to quickly get dressed. He doesn’t need either cushion anymore, but I still do it anyway whenever he climbs into my bed.

It must be nice to have someone who loves you who can make the world feel so safe. You can fall asleep in their arms and wake up to pillow forts to keep you from falling.

Who’s setting upmypillows, though? Who’s carrying me to bed?

Who’s keeping me safe?

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