Page 56 of Chasing the Night
Chapter Eighteen
Tangled Web
Chalice
I wasn’t interested in being Atticus’ extractor, and I didn’t give a single fuck about dancing through the shadows for him. I wanted to run, as far as my legs could take me, but what then? I’d be in the wilderness for a while and then left to the mercy of new strangers, in a new town.
“Have you ever tried to leave?” I asked Messiah while I swept out the jail. It had been three days since I’d seen him at the surgery, and from the looks of it, he still hadn’t slept.
“No,” he flatly answered.
“They say you have men everywhere. A grapevine of—”
“They say. People say a lot of things. And more than a few have died for words that should have never been spoken.”
My thoughts were swept away with his warning. I had so many things I wanted to ask him. I needed to hear it again. I needed to know that I had understood correctly. Atticus had done that to Demetri. He tried to kill him all because of the Sip Room incident. All because of my dumb decision to defy him.
“You’re not going anywhere. You are Krypt now. You are his,” Messiah whispered.
“Fuck you! And fuck him!” I cried, letting the broom fall to the floor.
“Be as angry as you want. I didn’t force you to crawl back to the Villa after he tossed you. It is a choice each of us made on our own. In one way or another,” Messiah quietly reflected. He poured a bit of Cognac into a cup and scooted it across the table in my general direction. The bottle he kept for himself, sipping the expensive brew while his gaze openly challenged me to a debate on the matter.
“You said it was a test, to see if I’d get back up… you said…” I seethed.
“Indeed. It was a test to see if you’d get back up and walk away or follow him home like another of his lost pets.”
Anger boiled hot within me, compounded by the stickiness of the afternoon and my labors. It wasn’t his fault Reverie had coaxed me. The universe itself had conspired against me. Dealing one hand after the other of shit I should have folded instead of playing out.
“Speaking of pets, how’s the Kantor boy?” Messiah smiled. “I have to admit, I miss the way your eyes light up when he’s around.”
I glared at him and pretended not to have much interest in Keif, or him for that matter. Instead, I picked up the broom and started for the corner where it belonged. Messiah met me halfway and claimed it with a tug. It clattered to the floor near the corner, and he took me by the shoulders.
“He knows I will protect you, Chalice. He will test you soon, and when he does, I need you to leave no doubt that you indeed have something to offer House Krypt.” His eyes implored me, and his jaw set ever so subtly.
“If he found a way to trade off Reverie, he will find a union for me, if that is how he chooses to discard of his…daughters.” I sighed.
“No. He won’t. You’re not Reverie. Chalice, right now, if he can’t have you, no one will. It’s a curiosity that has festered into a dark obsession, I can see it when he looks at you. Even Isabella sees it. She called him on it earlier this week.”
My stomach knotted, and my mouth suddenly filled with saliva. Atticus wanted to fuck me? Atticus Krypt… My hand flew to my mouth, and I fought against the rising bile.
“What will she do to me?” I asked, suddenly alarmed by the fact that Isabella was more aware of his attentions than I. What if she thought I somehow invited his attention or entertained him in some way? Each thought caused another bout of nausea.
He didn’t answer me right away, but I saw the flinch in the corner of his eye. It scared the fuck out of me. The only thing that had ever broken that cool reserve was the night I whispered brazenly into his ear of not choosing. The fear of me disappointing or somehow alerting Atticus’ attention to myself had left him with simple one-word responses. I’d rather have had them right now than the piercing silence between us.
“Does she think I covet her husband, Messiah?” I pointedly asked again.
“I don’t think so. I think, right now, she believes he has an unhealthy interest in you, but she doesn’t see any proof of returned affections from you. She would have acted by now if she did…”
“Acted…” I repeated, suddenly feeling as if I couldn’t breathe. “What do you mean acted?”
In my mind, I saw images of Demetri with his chest laid bare and Ender’s tools sticking out of him. Tears filled my eyes.
“I would never entertain her husband… I… She has to know that!” I babbled.
“She does know that,” A confident, regal voice called from the doorway. I didn’t need to look, I knew it was Isabella. “Messiah uses colorful language that is often misinterpreted.”
Her arms wrapped around my shoulders as gentle as a wing and she pulled me to her for a lengthy embrace.