Page 35 of Thunder with a Chance of Lovestruck
Drest grunted.
Rachael stopped screaming and went eerily quiet in his arms.
Torid released them both but stayed close.
Drest kissed Rachael’s forehead. “Hon, I need you to go upstairs with Amice and Torid. Go on up and sit with Astria, okay? I’ll handle this.”
“H-how?” she breathed. “He did this?”
Drest glanced at Amice.
She nodded, giving one last horrified look at Nile’s workshop before easing Rachael from him. “Let’s go upstairs.”
Rachael clung to her.
Drest met Amice’s gaze. “I need you to call this in for me. Can you do that?”
“No,” said Henry quickly. “She can’t. The Nightshade Clan will execute Nile for this.”
Good.
Drest kept that thought to himself.
Rachael stood there, clearly in shock as she stared at Drest. “How could he do something like this?”
Out of the corner of Drest’s eye, he noticed Henry staring into the room with something close to admiration on his face. As if seeing what his uncle had done filled him with pride. When Henry noticed Drest looking at him, he schooled his face quickly.
“Henry, this has to be reported,” said Drest. “I don’t know what they’ll end up doing to him, but I know this can’t be swept under the rug.”
Amice touched Drest’s arm lightly. “I’ll call. Should I use the number you gave us to use in the event of an emergency?”
He shook his head and told her the number to call.
She repeated it back to him and then guided Rachael up the stairs.
Torid followed close behind but not before looking toward Nile and narrowing his yellow gaze. It was easy to see the goblin didn’t care for the man.
Neither did Drest.
“Is baaaa-ddd,” hissed Torid. “Bile is…baaaa-ddd.”
Drest nearly laughed at the goblin’s screw-up of Nile’s name. Bile fit all right. “Yes, Torid. He’s been bad. I’ll handle it.”
“Lock Bile away?” he asked, tipping his head, his expression blank.
“I honestly don’t know what they’ll do to him,” confessed Drest.
Torid nodded. “Need to locks him awa—aay. Wants to hurt my Astria. I love…Astria. Wants to keep the other.”
“Keep?” asked Drest before gasping. “You’re talking about Rachael, aren’t you?”
Torid nodded again.
“I will never let him near her again,” swore Drest, meaning every word of it.
PartII
“How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects!” —Mary Shelley,Frankenstein, 1818
