Page 29 of Blood that Burns

CHAPTER EIGHT

MAGGIE

Bone-weary and slightly agitated, I sit in my sister’s room toying with the childish dress I’ve yet to part with. Every day since I jumped, a brand-new yellow dress and white bow were placed at the foot of my bed by some faceless creature while I slept. Likely the same girl who delivered my food those last few weeks.

Whether it was Marcellus’s way of giving me a piece of my past or simply doing what was easiest, I’m not sure. I never did ask about the yellow dress showing up day after day.

I hate yellow.

I hate what this dress represents. A young, naive, scared little girl who needs protecting.

I’m finally given a choice, and from this day forward, I’m done with this. That color has become a symbolic reference to my final days—before my leap from Widow’s Peak. Days I don’t want to remember.

My fingers pick at a string, yanking, unraveling... until the white embroidery along the hem pulls away from the yellow material. Something about that simple step has me desperate to rip the sleeves from my body. To tear the dress into shreds until I’m left in nothing but undergarments. A pile of torn buttery fabric lies at my knees. It needs to be gone.

I fall onto my back, the comfortable mattress of Marina’s bed breaking my fall. My chest heaves as adrenaline courses through my body. The need to take back control of my life and the reminder of those last days wreak havoc on my psyche.

I’ve thought about that day and the night before too many times over the last year. How Law held me, kissed me... pushed me away.

My eyes close and all I see, all I feel, are Law’s hands all over me. Running along my arms, up my back, fisting my hair in his hands, as our mouths collide and tongues war.

Bliss.

Rejection.

Then, the image of the last night with Marcellus breaks through. Our shared kiss and subsequent parting. Something I won’t share with anyone.

“Start talking.” Marina’s angry command pulls me out of my memory just before the hurt can seep in. I sit, staring into my sister’s haunted eyes. “You left me.”

I let the air expel from my lungs. “You know that’s not what happened, Marina.”

I jumped to save her. The Council was creeping in, and I knew Law could only save one of us. The decision was easy. I chose her.

“Yeah? Well, how about the part where you were making friends with a vampire, and you kept me in the dark? Or how about you tell me why you were going to ditch me to run off with Law.”

She’ll never understand how helpless I felt that day. How completely out of time we were. I didn’t tell her about Law because I couldn’t tip off the Council. The fewer people who knew our plan, the better odds we had at succeeding.

The best laid plans... never actually come to fruition. At least in my experience.

Sighing, I try to explain the best I can. “The plan was always to get you out too, but things took a turn. We were out of time. The Council had come for us.”

The tears begin to fall as flashbacks of that day assault me. The terror. The sadness. It’s too much.

“Lawrence thought that if it appeared as though I were dead, the Council would leave you alone. Without three, there was no threat to them.”

Our hope was that it would buy us time to secure a safehouse and prepare to move Marina there when the time was right. Then he’d help fake our deaths. If we were dead, the Council would stop coming for us.

“There were never three to begin with. Molly never survived, according to the records.”

Didn’t matter. The Council was curious about Law’s fascination. At that time, they were still trying to determine if there was a third or if three were even needed at all. I don’t tell her this because I’m trying to protect Law. Marina doesn’t know—at least to my knowledge—that the Council followed him to our doorstep.

“I know, but that wasn’t going to stop them. We thought if we faked my death and Lawrence went home and faked grief, it would do the trick.”

In reality, I’d be safely tucked away in some cabin he has in the middle of nowhere, while he tried to safely extract Marina.

“Yeah, well, I still ended up in the back of a damn van.”

It feels like she just roundhouse kicked me in the gut. It shouldn’t have been like that. When I jumped, Law should’ve changed his focus to protect Marina. Why didn’t he? That’s the most pressing question I have for him.