Verum (The Nocte Trilogy, #2)(52)

And it’s getting ready to break.

He’ll be your downfall, child.

It’s the first thing that makes sense.





Chapter 26





I sit in Olivia’s room, her locket in my hands.

It’s gold, it’s delicate, it’s real. It’s cool in my hands.

I concentrate on it, on the etched calla lily.

Symbolic? Ironic? Coincidental?

Nothing is a coincidence in this house. It’s something I’ve come to realize.

Sunlight from the window pours through the sheer curtains, throwing muted light into the room. I turn the pendant over and over, watching it glint, watching the calla lily come and go.

To and fro.

To and fro.

And then,

I see her.

Olivia.

As clear as day,

Standing in front of me.

“Can you bring him to me?” she asks, her voice low and soft. “That’s all I want to know.”

Confusion billows like waves, through me, over me, around me.

Can I?

“I don’t know,” I tell her. “Where are you?”

I’m puzzled, but the vision ends with nausea, the way they always do.

When I become conscious again, I’m on my hands and knees on the floor, the room spinning to a stop around me.

As soon as I’m able, I stagger to my room and make a cup of Sabine’s tea, because it calms me. It’s the only thing that does.

At dinner, Dare is playing the piano, the notes wafting gently.

“Time here passes so quickly,” I mention to Eleanor. I sip at another cup of tea, because it feels like that’s all I do now. My hold on reality is tenuous, and all I can do is safeguard it.

Eleanor lifts an eyebrow but doesn’t argue.

“Time is your enemy, Calla,” is all she says. I set my cup down, and stare into it, and the tea leaves seem to have formed a question mark. I stare at it, mesmerized until Jones comes to take it away.

It’s that night when I dream again.

But I don’t dream of Olivia. I dream of my own mother, of Finn and my father, and of Dare.

The night is dark, the ground is cold.

That’s what I’m thinking as we pile into our car, Finn and my father and me.

Someone is chasing us,

But that’s impossible.

Because we live on top of a mountain, And no one else is there.

My phone is in my lap.

My mother is screaming.

Dare is walking up the mountain, covered in blood.

Everything goes black.

I don’t know.

I don’t know.

I don’t know.

I’m awake and I’m muttering and it’s a minute before my words become coherent.

“The night is dark, the ground is cold.”

I don’t know what it means.

All I know is I’m the rabbit and Whitley is the hole and I’m fallingfallingfalling.

I’m terrified of the dark, because it seems to growl outside of my window.

I’m terrified of being alone, and so I bolt out of bed like a shot, And make my way to Dare’s bed.

I expect him to turn me away, but he doesn’t.

He’s in his sheets, twisted among blankets, but he doesn’t act surprised to see me.

He simply opens his arms.

“Come here,” he says,

so I do.





* * *



Sabine’s voice lulls me, calms me.

“It’s meant to be,” she tells me, and I don’t understand.

“What is?” I ask, and I sound so young, like a child. It’s my innocence shining through and she smiles.

“Everything.”

“Am I here for a reason?” I ask, although I already know the answer.

“Yes,” she nods. “You are. And you’ll come to it.”

“Can you help?”

She nods again. “I already am, child. I already am.”

She hands me tea and I take it.

“Is there valium in this?” I ask, only half joking and she smiles.

“No.”

“Can there be?”

She smiles again. “You don’t need it.”

I beg to differ, but I don’t.

“The truth is coming, child. Be ready for it.”

I try to be, but it’s hard, because I don’t know what to watch for.

I go through the motions of my days, sitting with Eleanor when she asks, and spending my nights with Dare.

During the days, he’s aloof and cool and detached, but at night, he’s different.

He’s warm and gentle and mine.

By night I am free.

Nocte liber sum.

Tonight, he waits for me.

Tonight, he lies next to me, propped on his elbow, staring down at me.

“You’ve always been mine,” he tells me, his voice low. “Even before you knew it.”

He kisses me almost before I can answer, before I can tell him that he’s mine, too. I sigh and he sucks it in, his tongue in my mouth. His lips are soft, his arms are hard, and I don’t want to ever leave this bed.

For the first time, I fall asleep in his arms, the rhythm of his breathing and his heart lulling me into sleep.