He closes his fist this time, the force of the blow taking me by surprise. Stars dance across my vision as my body sways. The skin across my cheek feels damp, the tissue beneath my eye already swelling. Fresh blood pools in my mouth, and I catch Jameson scrubbing his hand clean again.
I wait until he’s done, until the moment he thinks he’s rid himself of all traces of me, and then I spit.
Scarlet flies from my lips, splattering his face. It collects in his light brown strands, dripping down his face, his neck. For one glorious second, I revel in the shocked horror consuming him before those hollow eyes find mine.
“Shit,” I breathe.Maybe that wasn’t the best idea.
The chains binding my wrists rattle as I instinctively try to pull away.
“Stop.”
Jameson halts, nostrils flaring as slow, deliberate footsteps echo from the far end of the room. My gaze shoots to the dark doors across the church basement.No. It can’t be.
But then he’s there—my nightmares brought to life—and Iwish, for one terrible moment, that Jameson had knocked me out. That I could rewind time and dig the knife a little deeper across my forearms or swallowed the seed from theCerebra odollamblossom I once held in my palm.
Anything to avoid this.
Because I know Silas is looking for me. He’s out there, right now, hunting. And as much as I want to believe he’ll burst through those doors and slay the monsters at my feet, the truth is—he’s not here.
Not now.
Time has run out.
The beasts are stalking toward me, intent on revenge, and I’m alone. With no way to stop them from tearing me apart.
45
SILAS
“You sure about this?” I growl as the seven of us prowl up to the administration building.
“Yes,” Noctis replies, body humming with pent-up energy. It’s the same manic vibrations he gets when he’s closing in on a secret. Not that it matters. The cathedral was empty except for Evie’s busted phone.
“The whole thing is pretty fucked,” Erik chimes in. “I’ll admit my ego gets the best of me sometimes, but the dean thinking he can just drop into Evie’s life now and claim fatherhood is next level delusional.”
Mavros grunts in agreement as we push through the door into the lobby. A blonde-haired receptionist quirks a brow at us, then nods.
“The dean is down the hall, to the right, and all the way back,” he says, unfazed. “Just follow Sloane’s tears.”
Eric and I exchange a look before he shrugs and starts forward. The doors open, revealing a dark-haired girl with puffy eyes and a pink-tipped nose. A box of meager belongings is clutched in her arms as she stalks past us, desperately trying to stop the tears when she catches sight of mybrothers.
Dominic, Bane, and Adrian offer to help, and for a moment, something nearly tangible passes between them, like a force drawing them together. But the woman—who I assume is Sloane—politely declines, leaving us with a quiet “good luck” as she walks away.
I turn to the open office door where Dean Whitehouser fidgets behind his desk. Erik hisses a warning, but I stride forward until I’m looming over him.
“Silas,” Erik warns under his breath, but I ignore him.
“Do you know who we are?” I ask, my tone calm but steel-edged. The dean nods frantically, eyes wide.
“Good,” Mavros says, cracking his knuckles. “When did you last see Evie?”
The dean’s gaze sweeps through us once more before settling on me. “Oh, you’re the biker gang Trisha warned me about.”
“Club,” Noctis corrects. “Biker club.”
Low chuckles sound from my brothers, but I’m not amused. “When?”
“Right after I spoke with her,” the dean says. “I planned it as a nice surprise. I was going to tell her Roy stopped paying tuition, but that her real father has sway with the university—her real father being me.” He winks as if something he’s said is clever, but the ghost of a smile fades when he meets my glare.
