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  “Ariel, your dad was not a good guy.” Camille sits forward in the recliner. Rebecca gets up from the ground and rushes to her side. Sitting on the armrest, she puts an arm around the woman’s shoulders. That’s how Rebecca is – always the comforter. “I mean, he did a good job at pretending when we first got together. I fell in love immediately, even though he wasn’t a follower of Zerach.”

  I glance over at Delaney. Her cheeks color and she stares into her lap. I’m sure she’s thinking of Sam.

  “We got married quickly. When I couldn’t get pregnant I went to Zerach, and he promised me you. I don’t think I paid much attention to the deal I was making and how that would affect your life. All I knew was that I wanted a baby so bad.”

  Rebecca nods in agreement. I glance around the room, knowing every adult here can relate to this story. We all have the same beginning.

  Camille continues, “But your dad was so angry when I told him that I went to Zerach. He left me, saying he wanted nothing to do with a baby promised to Zerach. I never told him about your gift. I was too afraid. Right after he left I met Vincent.” Her eyes fill with moisture. “He was your dad, Ariel. He raised you and loved you. You were his daughter, even if not by blood.”

  Ariel nods. “I know, Mom. I loved Vincent, but that has nothing to do with this. My real dad is in trouble. I have to help him.”

  Camille whips her head from side-to-side vigorously. “Absolutely not. This is a game, I’m sure of it. He’s working for the Sarafites.”

  “Do you know that for sure?” Paul pipes up. Fear’s written all over his face.

  “I don’t know it for sure, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet.”

  “So you think the letter to Ariel was a fake?” Delaney asks, and Ariel glares at her.

  “Yes, I do,” Camille answers.

  “No way.” Ariel releases my hand and jumps up. “I have it. I can show it to you. It’s real.” She races from the room.

  “Oh, Camille, are you okay?” Rebecca pulls Camille into an embrace. My parents exchange worried looks.

  “I knew something like this would happen,” Delaney speaks to no one in particular.

  Ariel returns with a bunch of papers in her hand. She hands them to her mom. “See.”

  Camille’s face drains of all color as her gaze connects with the papers. “Yes, I see. I’m sure the letter is from the Sarafites.”

  “So, he’s really kidnapped. We have to help him.” Ariel sweeps a panicked gaze across the room.

  Camille grabs her daughter’s hand. “I don’t think the Sarafites are holding him against his will.”

  “No.” Ariel yanks her arm away and shakes her head. “I don’t believe you. He’s my dad. He wouldn’t hurt me. Besides, you said yourself that he doesn’t know about my gift. What would he want from me then?”

  I force myself to stay planted on the couch. So badly I want to take Ariel in my arms. She looks so upset, so freaked out.

  “You don’t know him,” Camille says calmly. “He probably was just trying to trick you so he could take you from me. Maybe he knew you wouldn’t come with him willingly, or maybe he suspects you have a special gift.” Camille sighs, looking utterly exhausted. “I really don’t know what he’s up to, Ariel, but I don’t trust him.”

  “No, you’re wrong.” Ariel turns around and races down the hallway. A minute later the door to Delaney’s room slams shut so hard the windows rattle. Camille visibly flinches. Rebecca rubs her back.

  “Well, we don’t have a choice now,” Paul says. “We have to take you guys to Zerach’s headquarters.”

  “What?” Delaney’s head pops up.

  Rebecca stands and walks toward her daughter. “When we went to see Zerach the other day it was decided that if things got any more dangerous you kids would stay at the headquarters. It’s safer.”

  I glance over at my parents and they nod guiltily at me. Although the truth is that I’m fine with it. The sooner the better, actually. We’ll be protected, and Delaney will be far from Sam. Sign me up.

  Delaney’s cheeks pale. “No, Mom. I want to stay here.”

  “It’s only temporary,” Rebecca says.

  Camille stands. “I’m really sorry about all this.”

  “No, don’t be silly. I’m just glad you were here where Ariel’s dad couldn’t find her.”

  “Yeah.” Camille nods. “Excuse me, but I better go talk to Ariel.” After a collective round of nods from around the room she disappears down the hallway.

  I feel relieved that Camille went to talk to Ariel. I had thought of going after her, but I had no idea what to say. My mind is still spinning with all the information I’ve been given tonight. I’m not sure I’ve even begun to process everything.

  “What about school?” Delaney asks her mom.

  I get up from the couch, disgusted. “Why don’t you just tell them the real reason you want to stay and put us all in danger?”

  Delaney’s eyes widen with shock at my words. Too exhausted to keep this up any longer, I walk past her and out the front door. The air is cool when I step outside. It feels good against my warm skin. Adrenaline is pumping through me, making me so hot I feel like I have a fever. By the time my feet sink into the grass, I hear the front door open behind me.

  “Micah, wait.” Delaney steps out onto the front porch. Her red hair shines under the porch lights. Her bare feet move swiftly across the cement and she scurries down the front steps to catch up to me in the grass. “What was that about?”

  I stop walking and turn to face her. “You heard what Ariel said. Her father is possibly working for the Sarafites.”

  “And that’s my fault?”

  Her stubbornness has always been something that I’ve found endearing, but right now it’s infuriating. “No. But we’re not staying here just so you can be with Sam.”

  “I really like him, Micah.”

  I glance down at her arm, searching for what my dad told me about. At first I don’t see it, and then it pops out at me like a sucker punch. I grab her arm and point to the faint heart on the inner part of her wrist. I almost throw up when I see the S emerging in the center. “It looks to be a little deeper than that.”

  She flinches. Her chest heaves as her breathing becomes unsteady.

  “Are you in love with him, Delaney?” My voices sounds high pitched and strained, betraying my feelings.

  “I-I don’t know. It’s too soon to know for sure, but I think I might be falling in love with him.” She stares into my eyes as if searching for an answer inside them.

  I drop her arm like it’s on fire and turn away from her. “I can’t believe this.”

  “I’m sorry. I can’t help how I feel.” She comes up behind me, putting an arm on my shoulder. “If only you’d give him a chance. You’d see that he wasn’t so bad.”

  I shake her arm off. “Yeah, right. Like that’ll ever happen.”

  “C’mon, Micah. You’re my best friend.”

  One of the guards passes by and I quiet my voice to a whisper, not wishing him to hear what I’m about to say, what I’m about to confess. “I thought I was more than that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  When I face her again, she looks confused and sad. I reach up and rest my hand on her cheek. “You’re everything to me, Delaney.” A car passes and another one comes up the street, but I don’t care who is watching. “I guess I thought I was everything to you, too.”

  She grabs onto my arm. I know it’s meant as a friendly gesture, but for some reason her fingers cause goose bumps to rise on my flesh. “But…what about Ariel?”

  A pang of guilt jabs me in the gut. I drop my hand. “I don’t know what I feel for her. I’m still trying to figure that out. But I do know that I’d give her up to have you back.”

  “Micah.” Delaney frowns and tears shine in her eyes. “Please don’t say that.”

  I lower my gaze. “Cause you don’t feel the same way?”

  “Let’s not do this, okay?” Delaney
smiles tightly.

  “Just tell me the truth. You would choose him over me, wouldn’t you?”

  She doesn’t answer, but her face tells me all I need to know.

  “You would throw away everything for him? For that guy? Seriously? He’s not worth it. He’s not even one of us.”

  She grabs my hand. “Micah, I’m not throwing away anything. You’ll always be my best friend. That’s never going to change.”

  “If you choose to stay with him I can’t make any guarantees. I mean, what happens when you tell him about your gift? Then what?”

  Delaney bites her lip and her eyes shift away.

  My stomach drops. “You already did, didn’t you?”

  She hesitates, and then nods.

  I pull my hand away from her. “How could you do that?”

  “He doesn’t know everything. He doesn’t know about my hair. It’s just that I sort of had a vision in front of him.”

  “What? When?”

  “At a pizza place over by his house. Some waitress got attacked in the parking lot.”

  “You didn’t call me.”

  She waves away my concern. “You were too far away. You never would’ve made it in time. Besides, it was fine. I handled it.”

  Delaney’s never done a rescue without me. It’s like she doesn’t need me at all anymore. “How come you didn’t tell anyone?”

  “I kind of thought Officer Thomas would tell my parents. I’m actually surprised he didn’t.”

  “Can’t you see how dangerous this is?” I ask. “Involving Sam in all this?”

  “But that’s just it. I don’t think it is. I trust him.”

  “Why?”

  “I know him, Micah. I can tell he cares for me. I know he’ll never hurt me.”

  I bridge the gap between us and grab Delaney’s face in my hands. I can’t let her make this mistake. I have to stop her. “No, Delaney, you don’t know that he won’t hurt you. But you know I won’t. Our entire lives I’ve helped you, and I always will.” I pull her face to mine and kiss her in a way that I never have before. It’s so different from kissing Ariel. Delaney’s lips are familiar. Kissing her feels right. It’s comfortable, like the sun shining down on me or wearing my favorite sweater on a cold day. Her kiss warms me from the inside out. When her lips respond to mine, I think I’ve finally convinced her like my dad had done with my mom. Then her lips stop moving and she shoves me back.

  “I can’t. I’m sorry.” Her eyes are moist.

  The rejection stings worse than anything I’ve felt before. I can see in her eyes that she’s thinking of him, that she’s worried she’s betrayed him in some way by kissing me. It’s ridiculous, really. I mean, they’ve been together for a few weeks, and she and I have spent a lifetime together.

  “Fine,” I spit out, my pride wounded. “Go running to your boyfriend, but when he breaks your heart, don’t come running back to me.”

  Chapter 28

  Sam

  MY HANDS ARE so sweaty I can barely steer my truck while I drive to Delaney’s. I wipe them alternately on the thigh of my jeans while holding the steering wheel with the other. My heart is beating so hard I think I might have a heart attack. But despite all of that, I feel like I’m floating. It’s like the last sixteen years of my life have vanished and all that matters is this moment. This moment when I realize that I am falling in love. Yes, I am falling in love with Delaney Scott.

  It’s something that I thought would never happen, and yet it feels more right than anything I’ve ever done. Like every other decision I’ve made has been in a fog and finally I’m seeing things with clarity. I could kill myself for all those years I spent hating her. Loving her is so much better. Her face comes to mind, and my heart hiccups and then starts beating erratically again. I imagine her lips, her skin, and I can’t wait to lose myself in her arms.

  Turning on her street, my pulse quickens. I don’t care if her parents see me. Hell, I don’t care if the whole town of Edenly sees me. I’ll scream my love for her from the rooftops. I’ll fight those Sarafites to the death. I pull my foot off the gas as I approach her house. It’s all I can do to keep composure and not tear out of the truck while it’s still moving. I’ve never wanted to see someone so badly.

  I plan to tell her about Killian and Kaine. I’m ready to do the right thing for once in my life. I’ll share all the information I have with her family. I’ll tell Zerach and his men what I know. Heck, I’ll even work with Micah. Anything to keep Delaney safe. Once we get rid of the Sarafites Delaney and I will be free to be together. Hope unfurls in my chest, opening slowly and filling me with happiness.

  Delaney’s red hair comes into view and a smile jumps from my lips. She is standing in her front yard, her back to me. I pull over to the side of the road across from her house and press on the brake. My truck stops, the engine idling. Before turning it off, I glance up one more time. Then my stomach drops when I see what I didn’t before. In my haste to get to Delaney, I missed the fact that she’s not on the front lawn alone. Micah is with her.

  My eyes burn when I see his hand on her cheek, her fingers stroking his arm. The tender look in his eyes causes bile to rise in my throat. Betrayal burns through me when her face inclines toward his. The air leaves me, and I feel dizzy.

  I stare at them even though I desire to turn away. It’s like seeing a train wreck. I don’t want to look, but I can’t help myself. As I watch them, I hope that it’s all a misunderstanding. Maybe this is how best friends interact. But then he grabs her face in his hands and brings his lips to hers. I hold my breath, waiting for her to shove him away, only she doesn’t. It’s clear from where I sit that she’s responding to it. She’s kissing him back.

  I turn my head unable to look anymore. But the image is tattooed on my brain, imprinted in my mind, and it won’t leave. I may not have pictures on my skin, but I have one in my mind now, one that will never go away. When I pull away from the curb, I’m so mad that all I see is red — red everywhere. The trees are red, the lawns are red, the sky is red, even my hands are red. I fear I will never see another color.

  As I drive, the color of red staining my vision, it hits me that Delaney doesn’t love me. I wonder if she’s been playing me the whole time. Maybe this had all been part of some scheme. I picture Micah and Delaney laughing about it behind my back. Anger deeper than any I’ve ever felt before consumes me. I never thought anyone could hurt me as much as my mom did when she left me, but I was wrong. In this moment, I know my heart is broken and I fear it will never be put back together again.

  When I get home Dad is still at work. It’s the only silver lining in this dark day for me. I’m hollow. A memory of carving a pumpkin with my mom when I was just a little boy comes to mind. I remember scooping out the seeds with a spoon. That’s how I feel right now, like Delaney has taken a spoon and scooped out my insides. I imagine them trailing the ground, all bloodied and broken.

  I stumble into the kitchen and pull Dad’s bottle of vodka out of the freezer. I don’t bother with a shot glass. That won’t do the trick. Instead, I grip a glass tumbler in one hand, the bottle of ice-cold vodka in the other, and sit down at the kitchen table. The first sip burns my throat so bad going down I can hardly breathe. However, that’s nothing compared to the pain in my heart, so I take another sip. By the time I get to the bottom of the glass my eyesight is blurry and my mind’s fuzzy. A knock at the door startles me. I squint, trying to locate the numbers on the clock, but I can’t make them out. An irrational giggle bubbles up in my throat.

  I stand up, but my legs are wobbly. Staggering to the door, I notice that the sky is pitch-black. It wasn’t as dark when I first got home. I must have been sitting at the table longer than I thought. I fumble with the doorknob for a second, focusing hard on turning it. Funny, it never was this complicated before. Finally the door bursts open and I almost fall. Huh.

  “Time’s up.” Killian pushes me backward, and I teeter on the balls of my feet. “We’ve waited long enoug
h.”

  Kaine’s large frame fills the doorway. He crosses his arms over his chest and stands with his legs apart. He looks like a bouncer. As if I’m in any condition to try to escape. I chuckle.

  “Stop that. What’s wrong with you?” Killian gets right in my face, sniffs. “Have you been drinking?”

  I turn my head. “So what if I have? It’s none of your business.”

  Killian paces around the room, lifting things up like he’s searching for something. Even in my inebriated state it makes me nervous. My skin crawls. I just want them out of here.

  “Look kid, we had a deal, and our patience is wearing thin.” He stands in front of me, tipping my chin with his fingertips and forcing me to face him. “You either tell us the girl’s secret now, or we’ll find out another way.”

  I rock on the balls of my feet. The room sways. I feel like my head is filled with cotton balls.

  “Answer me!” Killian squeezes my cheeks, his fingers digging into my face. A sharp pain slices through me. His face is mottled with anger.

  He’s giving me a headache. I shake my head. As much as I hate Delaney right now, I’m not handing her over to this guy.

  “Kaine.” Killian releases my mouth and turns to his partner.

  I open and close my mouth in an effort to relieve the feeling in it.

  “Get him to talk.” Killian snaps his fingers, and Kaine steps forward.

  My stomach rolls lazily and moisture fills my mouth. I think I’m going to hurl. I double over just as Kaine approaches. He grabs me by the back of the neck and pain tears through me. I yelp.

  “You better talk fast, kid,” Killian warns.

  I know I can’t fight them in this state. A vision of Delaney all over Micah fills my fuzzy head. Anger fills me. Why can’t everyone just go away and leave me alone? Leave me to my own misery?