Chapter 11

I sat on the floor, leaning against the kitchen island on the opposite side of the entrance with my legs sprawled in front of me. The cool surface of the tile pressed against my skin, and the lemony scent of cleaner surrounded me. The more time I spent on the cold kitchen ground, the easier it was to breathe. My murderous nightmares had been replaced by memories of all the cruel things I’d done. I’d clawed myself free from the cobwebs, but even with all my mates slumbering around me, I couldn’t fall back asleep. After crawling out of bed, my mates didn’t budge, leading me to the realization that they’d been more drained than they let on. I was glad they could rest; they’d been through as much hell as me and they deserved peace.

I wrapped my fingers around the bar legs, taking care not to squeeze too tight. The minutes that passed were like the prelude to a bomb exploding. Once Lucian returned with information, the ball would begin rolling and eviscerate the time I had with my mates.

I thumped my head against the cabinet. Life shouldn’t be this difficult.

The soft pad of footsteps had me tensing up. I shifted my eyesight to see whose shadowed form approached. Everything came into stark view. It was the blond boy. He swept his attention to the door leading out back.

“What are you doing?”

The boy gasped, whirling so fast, his body jolted, and he let out a low, deep groan. Clothing tore with a loud rip. Suddenly, a little kitsune shook its body and threw itself at me. Or I think it tried to aim for me. Instead, it was about to plow into the chair.

I rolled to my knees and popped my tail free, using it to tug the chair to the side while I plucked him from the air mid-pounce.

He snarled and snapped his sharp teeth at me. The click of his jaw rang through the kitchen with a building growl.

“Shhhh,” I wrapped my hand around his muzzle. “I’ll let you go when you stop.”

He whined, his soft cream body tensing up. As soon as he quieted, I set him on his paws and returned to where I’d been sitting against the island. One of his tails grazed my arm. I never knew kitsune were so soft.

His small body shuddered, and he shifted back into his human form. Since the clothing he’d been wearing was too big on him, the fabric hadn’t burst off him, so although the shorts were done for, the torn shirt hung past his waist.

He stayed stiff, a few feet away from me, looking like he might shatter if I moved.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” I cleared my throat.

He didn’t seem convinced.

“I could have already done away with you—” I clamped my mouth shut. Not the best pathway in explaining myself, but instead of cringing away from me in fear, he relaxed and nodded. “Did you need something?” I kept my voice low and even, trying to slump as non-threateningly as possible. Even so, his attention was drawn to my horns and my tail casually resting against my thigh. I pulled them back into me and leaned my head on the wood flush against my back.

“I’m thirsty.” His voice was so low and gentle, I was surprised I heard it at all.

“Water is stocked in the pantry, you’re welcome to anything in there.” I tipped my head toward the door across from us.

He glanced back where I motioned but swiftly whirled to face me as if I would attack him while his eyes were not on me. After licking his lips and a moment of obvious contemplation, he backed up, still half facing me as he went to open the pantry.

“There’s a light on the inner left side,” I called.

Fox returned moments later with a water bottle in hand. His attention returned to the back door.

“There’s an exit here, the front door, then there’s an exit through the attic bedroom. All the windows open upward.” When he relaxed, it confirmed my suspicion that he was checking all the ways to get out of here.

I would have done the same after the hell they’d been through, and I didn’t know the full extent of it. A visible wave of relief rolled over Fox, and he finally dragged his gaze off me to chug the rest of the water.

“When did you first shift?” I asked. He was a child , the youngest I’d ever heard about shifting was fifteen. Magic used to be trapped until a few years ago. When it returned, the rules that governed the Unnatural world were shredded to bits and nothing was expected anymore.

His gaze dropped, and his shoulders rose and fell. He wanted me to back off, so I bit back the other questions prodding my lips. Before I made another attempt at connecting, more footsteps padded across the tile.

“Why did you shift?” Griffin whispered, rushing up to Fox and into my line of sight. He couldn’t see me because of the kitchen island I leaned against. “Never mind. Did you check how we can get out of here on this floor?”

Fox shook his arm, and Griffin’s attention fell to me. He recoiled, grabbing Fox’s arm, eyes flitting over me. “Let’s go,” Griffin said, dragging Fox after him. Moments later, their door slammed shut.

I sighed, rubbing my temples. My thoughts raced more than ever now. Climbing to my feet, I stepped into the hallway, heading to Lucian’s office to scour his things.

The books were no longer in a disarray, scattered across the floor; they neatly lined the shelves. Plopping down in his desk chair, I moved the mouse and brought the large monitor of his computer to life. Drunk Maya had been onto something when she thought to search Lucian’s office.

Let’s see what information he kept.

Clicking on a few folders, I found . . . nothing. Until I got to his emails. A bit of an invasion of privacy, but that mattered very little in the grand scheme of things. After all, he’d manipulated my entire existence. I typed the bitch’s name in the subject line.

A few messages popped up, but one of them had a spreadsheet attached. Bingo . I found a phone number next to her name.

My heart pumped in my chest, hard enough that I feared someone would hear and barrel in. I grabbed Lucian’s landline but froze.

He said he would return with the information for me, so why hadn’t he just called her? I curled my fingers into the plastic as the beeping assaulting my ears.

If he tricked me again, which was entirely possible, what could I do? What if he was with her, helping her?

My fingers were dialing before I could form my next thought.

The call went through, and her familiar, deceptively soft voice came through. “Hello?”

I cleared my throat. “This is Rita Rios, Lucian Asher’s niece.” There was the barest moment of hesitation in my voice, but I caught myself. “Is Dr. Weber available?”

“What is the reason for this call?” The tone was decidedly chilled.

“Have you heard from Cyrus? Lucian was looking for him and asked me to call you.” Dammit, it all sounded too off, but her slight inhale at hearing Cyrus’s name gave me pause.

“I’ve been trying to contact him the last few days. He didn’t show up to our meeting. Do you know where he is?” Insistence fused her voice.

“No, but Lucian needs to meet with you.”

A pause on the other end. Meanwhile, I leaned on the edge of the chair, close to falling over.

“Yes, we need to meet. I can’t get through to Myron either. Something is wrong. I’ll get back to Lucian soon; tell him to expect a text from me soon through the usual number.”

“Wait!”

But there was only the dial tone.

Fuck.

I slammed the phone back into its cradle with a bit more force than I meant to. A crack fissured across the side. Oops. Well, he had to be one of the last beings on earth who still had one of these, so I was doing him a favor.

Nudging it into one of his drawers, I slammed it shut it, crushing the wires spilling out of the corner, and went back to searching his computer. Hopefully I could exhaust my running mind enough.