Chapter 15
Jade
After almost a week of Lucas sleeping on the floor, our guard finally brought another bed in. At this point, all I could think about was what sunlight felt like on my face again. One night I woke up to the smell of my mother’s roasted tofu and I felt a feeling of homesickness I had never felt before. I had fallen asleep with a tear-soaked pillow.
On the sixth day, the guard opened the door and allowed us to walk around the compound we were being held prisoner in. Damian hadn’t requested my presence again and I hadn’t tried to seek him out. After the last conversation I had about him, I was left unsettled. Lucas didn’t tell me any more of Damian’s plans and I didn’t ask. I didn’t think I could handle much more. All I felt was sick. Would I ever get the chance to get out? Was this it?
The guard stayed close behind us but I no longer cared if he heard what we spoke about. If he had a wolf, as I expected, then he had heard everything else we had spoken about anyways.
“I miss my parents,” I didn’t know where the thought came from but as of late, it felt soul-crushing. I missed them more than I had ever missed them before. I hadn’t missed them much on their trips because I had craved the peace of being alone. Now? With the thought of never seeing them again, I didn’t know how to navigate this new emotion.
“I never thought I would miss mine,” Lucas replied back quietly. He had been permitted a haircut earlier in the day and was now sporting short curlier hair. The scars on his neck were jagged and visible now. His eyes seemed to be clearer, not so sad. “I hated them once. That was why I went to live with other covens. My father didn’t understand, but he had never understood who I was growing up. He had never tried to understand. I assumed he hated me and I wished I would have gotten answers before Damian got to me.”
“How long has it been?” I couldn’t imagine wondering if my parents loved me or not. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they loved me more than anything else. They had showered me in copious amounts of love since I could remember. I had never felt like I needed to look for it anywhere else. That was why they were so confused over my love of partying and bad boys. I didn’t have any kind of emotional trauma that explained it.
“Ten years,”
I stumbled. “Ten years since you have seen your parents?”
He nodded and the sadness entered his eyes. “And my sister.”
“I don’t have any siblings,” I admitted.
“It is the worst and best thing that could have ever happened to me. See, my father loved my sister. She was everything I wasn’t. But she was also kind and considerate. She loved me fiercely, even though she probably shouldn’t have.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-five,” He chewed on the inside of his lip.
“You left when you were fifteen?” I couldn’t imagine leaving my parents now, much less when I was younger.
He shrugged like it was no big deal. I didn’t know what to say so we continued down the hallway in silence. After a few seconds, I realized we were walking in circles and we hadn’t passed by a single person. I turned to our guard and scowled. “What’s going on?”
“Damian thought it would be a good idea for you two to stretch your legs but didn’t want you to get any ideas about escape. He had your hallway glamoured. You can walk and walk and walk but you will never get anywhere and you will never see anyone else.”
Lucas snickered like he expected it.
Then it dawned on me. “If you are a witch, then why can’t you get out of here?”
The look on his face broke something inside of me. “When the wolf was forced on me, it took everything with it. It took my hope, my dreams, my passions, and it took my magic too.”
And it almost took your life.I couldn’t keep my eyes from dipping to the scarring on his neck.
“How do you think your family would react to you having a wolf now?”
His face looked pained. “They would be overjoyed.
