The Dark Calling (The Arcana Chronicles #5)(6)

He glanced back at us with a toothy smile, but his wide blue eyes held concern for me. “I’m not sure you should be up so soon. And I would’ve come to you.” As accommodating as ever.

Doubts arose. Maybe you’ve just lost it, Eves. Maybe Richter’s attack was the final mental straw.

Paul laid down his pen and twirled his chair to face us. “What can I help you with? I’m sure you’ve got a ton of questions. This is exciting, right? I know the boss is beside himself.” He waved at Aric.

Before more uncertainty gripped me, I said, “You gave me a shot. Why wasn’t there a contraceptive in it?”

He blinked, then said cautiously, “Because you told me you didn’t want one?”

I clenched my fists. “You’re lying. A little more than two months ago on the night all that snow fell, I’d been crying, and you asked me how you could help.”

Paul scrubbed a hand over his buzz-cut black hair. “I did. I’d been worried about your mental health. You were cooped up inside, listless and not eating.”

As if he hadn’t spoken, I said, “As you injected my arm, you told me the contraceptive would last for three months, and I told you the idea of living that long seemed far-fetched. Your response: ‘Better safe than sorry.’”

Paul’s lips parted. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t remember things the same way.” His voice was kind, his demeanor baffled. “I recall giving you a B-12 shot. You can look at your file. It’s all right there.”

“That’s not what happened!” My claws budded.

“Evie, it is.”

Aric watched this interchange with his muscles tensed, as if he expected he might have to step in—to save Paul. Aric was believing him over me.

I rubbed my temples. Maybe I should believe them over me?

No. Paul was lying to my face! For what malicious reason?

Gaze on my hideous claws, he held up his palms. “Ah, let’s just take it easy. Hey, this is A.F.” After the Flash. “Maybe I, uh, got everything wrong.”

Why did he have to roll over? If he’d continued his denial, I would have skewered him.

“I don’t want to do anything to cause a patient distress. Regardless of what happened in the past, you are pregnant now, and you don’t look so great. Please let me check your vitals again.”

“No need. You know how resilient I am.” My claws ached. “Do you think a single medic and his lies can slow me down?”

When my hair began to turn red again, Aric stepped closer to me. A warning not to use my powers? As if I could! Though my claws had sharpened, my vines still seemed to be dormant.

Paul exhaled a breath. “Lies? You think I would purposely withhold birth control from you? Why would I do such a thing?”

“You know I don’t want a child, and you know Aric does.” Paul glanced at him with a nervous look. Again, I wondered if they’d plotted this thing. Gran would believe they had. No, Aric could never do that to me. “You’re trying to drive a wedge between us.”

“You’re making me out to be evil. I’m not. I can only imagine the horror you’ve seen out in the Ash, but I’m not like the villains you’ve encountered. I’m not a cannibal or a mad scientist. I’m not a torturer living in a house of horrors.”

“That’s what makes you even more dangerous.”

“All my life, I’ve tried to look out for others. To help.” Paul’s blue eyes were guileless, his tone willing me to understand and be rational. “That’s my job, my calling.”

Calling. Gran had mentioned the dark calling. Had she been talking about Paul? I remembered her words: You have to kill Death. He will turn on you—they all will. Death is poisoning me!

What if Paul had hurt her, and she’d thought Aric was responsible? What if Paul was crazy?

He must have lost loved ones in the Flash. Had the apocalypse twisted him as it had every other survivor I’d met? “What exactly did my grandmother die from?” I would go back and study each word she’d written in the back of my chronicles. I would compile all she’d told me—even what I’d considered to be mad rantings.

“Your grandmother was sick, had been suffering from strokes.” In a tone that would rival a mental ward doctor’s, Paul added, “Evie, do you not remember that?”

“Of course I do. I want to know why she took such a turn for the worse on the one night I left the castle.”

“She’d been steadily declining.” He turned to Aric. “You recall her condition when she first came here. You told me you’d feared she wouldn’t survive the journey. I kept her alive for months more. When she passed, it was a mercy.”

Though Aric had in fact found her in dire straits, I demanded of Paul, “Did you show her mercy?”

Meeting my eyes, he solemnly said, “I would never hurt anyone under my care. Never.”

He was so freaking believable. So why didn’t I buy any of this?

Aric gazed down at my face. “Let us leave and discuss things.”

Paul stood, addressing him: “Sir, you’ve always been fair to me. What do you want me to do? How can I make this right? I need to make this right.”

God, he was good. Aric looked sympathetic. Not me. The tiny hairs on my nape rose. This is all an act.