Page 31

“Can I…” Riley motioned toward Blaire’s face, and when Blaire shook her head, confused, she added, “Your makeup is a wreck.”

Blaire shrugged, lifting her head so Riley could clean her tear-streaked makeup away.

She didn’t want to imagine what she looked like, but she was sure it wasn’t pretty. She didn’t care in the slightest, but allowed Riley to “mom” her, at least until she probed the tender spot on Blaire’s temple.

Blaire winced, pulling back, and Riley opened her eyes wide.

“Shit. You’ve got a wicked bruise forming.”

Blaire shut her eyes tight and leaned her head back against the statue’s base. She refrained from laughing. If Riley only knew. She couldn’t hide how defeated she felt.

“I don’t even know why I’m here…” She turned her face away from Riley to stare into the hedge maze. “I thought Lukas didn’t want me here… Why did Professor Velastra even bring me to this place? He saw that… thing on me, but even he thinks it’s a mistake. But then he told me to stay. I have no say in any of this. What’s the point of my being here?”

Riley clenched the handkerchief in her small hands. “No… I don’t think it’s entirely like that. I’m positive Lukas is going to warm up to the idea. He just needs time. Things will get better, I promise.” She looked up. “Wait. He told you to stay?”

Blaire turned back to Riley, furrowing her brow. “Yes… before he left, he told me to stay. Or maybe he asked. He said not to leave. But I don’t want him to ‘warm up’ to the idea. I don’t want someone to be with me because they have to, and I don’t like the idea of someone having to get used to the idea of being near me. That’s not how it should work. Besides, he’s a… well, you know. Why can’t I just go to university without all this other stuff?”

Riley frowned.

“Love and being with someone should be instinctive and real,” Blaire added.

“Well, with the way Lukas looks at you, despite his grouchy exterior, I’m certain he feels the pull of the bond,” Riley said, as usual offering a silver lining to the storm cloud hanging over Blaire’s head.

She thought about the way his body pressed against hers, and how he breathed her in. She shivered. His scent did things to her; did he respond the same to hers?

She didn’t know if she should take Riley’s advice and stick it out, trust it would get better, and do what Lukas asked, or face whatever consequences awaited her if she rejected Lukas and the school’s goodwill. These new, conflicting feelings toward Lukas weren’t helping her with that decision. He protected her. He made her body react in ways she’d never experienced.

She shook her head. “Everything is just so confusing, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. I understand.” Riley said, but her face betrayed her, revealing her own confusion.

They sat in silence before Riley spoke again. “Wow. Those assholes really did a number on you before we got out here. Does it hurt?”

Blaire sighed. “They didn’t do this.”

“Oh gods, don’t tell me Lukas did that? I’ll kick his ass.” Riley started to get up, her petite face comically red with her newfound anger.

Blaire reached out to stop her, shaking her head quickly. She needed to come clean about everything. She wasn’t ready, but she wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready for this conversation with anyone.

“He didn’t do this either. He told me he wouldn’t hurt me, and I believe him… This was the work of my piece of shit stepbrother. I normally keep stuff like this covered with makeup.” She shrugged.

Riley’s brows knitted together in confusion. “Stuff like this? This happens often?”

Sighing, Blaire looked up at the sky and nodded. “Yeah… it happens all the time, but mostly when Caleb doesn’t get his way.” She closed her eyes. “…or when I refuse him.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Riley sounded angry, so Blaire couldn’t just leave it at that; she already opened this can of worms, so she might as well see it through.

Opening her eyes and looking back at the mid-afternoon sky above, she watched the cloud cover thicken and become darker, shrouding the courtyard in gloom. She wondered if a storm was coming.

Riley cut into her dissociative thoughts. “Blaire…”

“We lived alone together after my mom and his dad died in a car accident when I was sixteen, and he basically controlled everything.”

“Sixteen? So, you had to live alone with him that young?”

Blaire looked from the sky to Riley’s confused face.