“You’re here now,” I say, trying to comfort him.
“A little too late,” he hisses, and I don’t say anything more. This is an internal battle he needs to deal with himself.
We remain quiet for several minutes, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I recount the minutes after I left the ballroom. Running through Law’s estate. Finding a way out of there and then . . . something niggles at the back of my mind, just out of reach.
“Marina . . . there’s something else,” Law says hesitantly, drawing my gaze upward. “When you were sleeping, you kept calling out to Maggie.”
I shudder, finally remembering the moments before I passed out.
“I saw her back at your place, right before I passed out,” I explain.
“Really? I thought—”
I shake my head. “No. It’s not like that. I didn’t actually see her. I saw her spirit.”
“Her spirit?” He chokes, sounding like something’s lodged in his throat.
It’s the only thing that makes sense. I scratch my head, trying to remember more, but come up blank. Everything happened so fast, and I’m having a hard time putting together the pieces. I don’t even remember falling.
Taking a deep breath, I try to make him understand. “Ever since I woke up in the cell, I’ve been periodically hearing Maggie’s voice in my head. Almost like she was guiding me.” Law frowns but allows me to continue. “I saw her ghost.”
He blanches. “So that’s it? You really think she’s dead?” he asks, voice pitching.
I find it peculiar how much this appears to bother him. What could possibly have him so worked up about my sister—a human—dying?
“I always thought she was alive,” I admit. “And although I have found out that strange things are possible in this world, the moment I started hearing Maggie’s voice in my head, I knew she was dead.”
I’ve had time to come to terms with it, but voicing it out loud stings. It’s the first time I’ve been able to talk about it with someone other than Dr. Tilney.
“You’re twins. Are you sure you can’t speak telepathically?”
“That’s not something she and I were able to do. We’re humans, Law.”
He slouches forward and his head droops. A look of anguish passes over his face and I don’t understand it.
“Law,” I say, placing my hand on his shoulder. “What’s going on?”
His eyes bounce from spot to spot, never meeting mine. “I knew her,” he says, finally looking at me. “Maggie. I knew her.”
Chapter Two
I purse my lips, trying and failing to see how what Law says is possible. “You knew Maggie?” My words are filled to the brim with skepticism, with an underlying hint of rage, if what he says is true. Why on earth am I just hearing about this now? I’ve spent plenty of time with Law to be filled in on any acquaintance he might have had with my sister.
He runs a hand down his face. “Hear me out?” he asks, putting both hands up. “You might not like what I’m about to tell you. But you were kept in the dark for good reasons.”
My brows raise in a what the hell expression and his frown furrows deeper. My feet itch to move, and I begin to fidget since I can’t get up and pace.
“Maggie and I had been planning her escape for over a year.” He practically spits out the words.
My head snaps up and my fidgeting halts.
“What?” I yell. “She knew you for an entire year?” The hurt floods my already tattered nerves.
“No,” he says so quietly, I almost don’t hear the words. “I’ve known Maggie for years. All those times she thought she was being followed . . . it was me, Marina. I’ve been watching you since you were kids.”
“What the hell?” I bellow, not meaning to speak it out loud, but failing to keep my suspicions to myself. “You? You were the monster?” His eyes drop to the bed, telling me I’m not wrong.
“It’s . . . complicated?” He says it like a question and my brow rises, nose crinkling.
“What’s complicated? Either you were or you weren’t, Law.”
He groans, running his hands down his face. “There’s a lot more to it. We were friends for a long time.”
My hands come up, halting his words. “Wait. Back up,” I demand, confusion and an impending headache threatening to make my head spin. “Start at the beginning.”
“Are you sure you want to do this now?” he asks, placing his hand delicately on my shoulder. “You look like you’re in pain.”
I shrug him off, hands coming to my temples to massage before the pounding has a chance to begin. I’m not okay, but I won’t allow him out of this conversation. It’s one we should’ve had a long time ago.
“I’m fine, Law, but I need you to start talking,” I say harshly, my tone leaving no room for misinterpretation. I’m pissed. I thought Maggie and I were in everything together. She let me believe the entire time that I was her person. And what? She was actually confiding in Law the whole time? “Why didn’t she tell me?” I yell, sitting up so that my back is propped up by the headboard.
The rising anger is something I can’t help. The months of devastation and loneliness finally break through the surface. The one person who had always had my back, the only person who understood me, was keeping things from me. Big things.
Every second I consider what that means has me wanting to lash out. It shouldn’t matter because she’s gone, but that truth might make it even worse. What else was she hiding? Betrayal roars to life.
“You were her monster?” I say. “You were the one she was scared of?”
His head shakes. “Maybe at first, but I never wanted to hurt her—either of you,” he corrects quickly. “I was trying to protect you. She was just scared because she didn’t know.”
“When did Maggie have this great epiphany that you were her savior?” My words are slung like a dagger, meant to pierce skin.
“I know you’re angry right now, Marina, but let me finish. You want answers, but you won’t let me give them to you.”
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
I sweep my hand through the air, motioning for him to continue. Anything I say right now is likely to raise his hackles even more and I don’t want to piss off a vampire. No matter how angry—and rightfully so—I am. It’s clear that we’re on two opposite sides of an invisible line and it’s going to take some time before either one of us crosses over.
“Throughout the years, Maggie and I talked. Once it was at the mall, another time the park, but she didn’t realize that I was the same person that stood at the foot of her bed at night.
I had never thought of Law as creepy, but the picture he was painting of himself was making him sound like some sort of vampire pedophile.
“It wasn’t like that,” he says, rolling his eyes.
“What, you can read my mind now?” I snap.
He laughs, but I don’t find anything about this conversation funny. My arms cross over my chest and I laser him with my best get the hell on with it look.