me.”
“Impossible,” Gideon says.
My eyes narrow. “Why?”
“I’m sorry for her.” He glances to Raven. “I really am, but it’s too dangerous. Even if we wanted to, the salts are gone, and—”
“Make more,” I say. “Your father left you the recipe in the armoire.” There’s little I don’t know about the mansion. After all, I spent years haunting this place.
“It’s not that simple. How much do you know about her, Cole? She might incinerate upon release, and we don’t have her coffin, or her body. You said yourself she isn’t on the grounds anywhere, so where is she? Freeing you was a lucky guess, do you understand? A one in a million chance.”
Raven taps her chin, eyes glittering with what might be a dozen unanswered questions. “We need more information.”
“No!” Dane and Gideon echo.
“Hey.” Maggie leans across the rug and pokes my knee. “If you live in France, why do you have an English accent?”
“Pardon?” What my accent and family origins have to do with rescuing Rosamond from The Void, I have no clue, but I answer just the same. “I was born in England. My family moved when I was eleven.”
“Brothers and sisters?”
“Only child.”
“Parents?”
“Away on a business tour.” I lob my answers back as though we’re matched at Wimbledon.
“Girlfriend?”
“No!” My face heats at my explosive response, but I can’t believe little Ms. Nosey Parker is asking me about my love life right now. What’s worse is admitting what a loser I am in front of the girl I most want to impress.
I hate Maggie! Or at least, the pitying look she wears while inspecting my face. Then, as if my silence suddenly explains everything, she stands. “All right, then. We can’t just leave Rosamond in there, can we?” I love Maggie! I want to applaud as she exits her seat and steps to Dane’s chair. “No one should be alone like that,” she says, settling in his lap.
I guess she means Rosamond, but she’s looking at me.
Solitude is a common theme among the people in this room. In my mind’s eye, the lonely, silver girl from The Void rematerializes. I can see her mournful eyes, her thin, pale shoulders as she turns toward me. The air is dank. Her prison smells like water and peat. Nothing but cold, damp stone and broken dreams.
Thoughts of her forever cursed make me ill all over again. “Someone has to help her.” I stand and face Gideon.
“No,” he says. “I won’t risk … ” His gaze cuts to Raven. “No.”
“For once, listen to me.”
He lifts his head, expression unyielding as ever.
“What I did to you was wrong. I deserved the punishment your father gave me, but I’m not the guy I was, and neither are you. There’s more to The Void than you know. Darkness lives there, monsters more lethal than Desiree, crueler than our fathers. I can’t damn anyone to that hell. If you truly understood, neither would you.”
He pauses, taps the gold coin on his desktop. “I will provide supplies and whatever information I can to help you get started, but no more than that.” The words fall hard, resounding like a judge’s gavel. Final. Resolute. He eases back into his seat. Raven’s lips part as if she’ll say something but doesn’t. “Come here, Rae.” Silent as her cat, she slides off the desk and into his lap.
They murmur together. Does she argue or agree? His arms wrap her like two bands of iron, and I don’t blame him a bit. Maddox isn’t stupid. He knows the risk involved in helping me. And if he had a clue what I’m really asking for, he’d throw me out and lock his woman safely away.
Which brings me to my next confusing question: why put the girl I care about most in danger for one I don’t even know? Yet, God forgive me, I would. Rosamond and I are connected by experience and something deeper. I’ve been where she is, been her .
Cole …
My fists tighten. Hang on, Rose. I’m coming for you.
When I first arrived in South
“Impossible,” Gideon says.
My eyes narrow. “Why?”
“I’m sorry for her.” He glances to Raven. “I really am, but it’s too dangerous. Even if we wanted to, the salts are gone, and—”
“Make more,” I say. “Your father left you the recipe in the armoire.” There’s little I don’t know about the mansion. After all, I spent years haunting this place.
“It’s not that simple. How much do you know about her, Cole? She might incinerate upon release, and we don’t have her coffin, or her body. You said yourself she isn’t on the grounds anywhere, so where is she? Freeing you was a lucky guess, do you understand? A one in a million chance.”
Raven taps her chin, eyes glittering with what might be a dozen unanswered questions. “We need more information.”
“No!” Dane and Gideon echo.
“Hey.” Maggie leans across the rug and pokes my knee. “If you live in France, why do you have an English accent?”
“Pardon?” What my accent and family origins have to do with rescuing Rosamond from The Void, I have no clue, but I answer just the same. “I was born in England. My family moved when I was eleven.”
“Brothers and sisters?”
“Only child.”
“Parents?”
“Away on a business tour.” I lob my answers back as though we’re matched at Wimbledon.
“Girlfriend?”
“No!” My face heats at my explosive response, but I can’t believe little Ms. Nosey Parker is asking me about my love life right now. What’s worse is admitting what a loser I am in front of the girl I most want to impress.
I hate Maggie! Or at least, the pitying look she wears while inspecting my face. Then, as if my silence suddenly explains everything, she stands. “All right, then. We can’t just leave Rosamond in there, can we?” I love Maggie! I want to applaud as she exits her seat and steps to Dane’s chair. “No one should be alone like that,” she says, settling in his lap.
I guess she means Rosamond, but she’s looking at me.
Solitude is a common theme among the people in this room. In my mind’s eye, the lonely, silver girl from The Void rematerializes. I can see her mournful eyes, her thin, pale shoulders as she turns toward me. The air is dank. Her prison smells like water and peat. Nothing but cold, damp stone and broken dreams.
Thoughts of her forever cursed make me ill all over again. “Someone has to help her.” I stand and face Gideon.
“No,” he says. “I won’t risk … ” His gaze cuts to Raven. “No.”
“For once, listen to me.”
He lifts his head, expression unyielding as ever.
“What I did to you was wrong. I deserved the punishment your father gave me, but I’m not the guy I was, and neither are you. There’s more to The Void than you know. Darkness lives there, monsters more lethal than Desiree, crueler than our fathers. I can’t damn anyone to that hell. If you truly understood, neither would you.”
He pauses, taps the gold coin on his desktop. “I will provide supplies and whatever information I can to help you get started, but no more than that.” The words fall hard, resounding like a judge’s gavel. Final. Resolute. He eases back into his seat. Raven’s lips part as if she’ll say something but doesn’t. “Come here, Rae.” Silent as her cat, she slides off the desk and into his lap.
They murmur together. Does she argue or agree? His arms wrap her like two bands of iron, and I don’t blame him a bit. Maddox isn’t stupid. He knows the risk involved in helping me. And if he had a clue what I’m really asking for, he’d throw me out and lock his woman safely away.
Which brings me to my next confusing question: why put the girl I care about most in danger for one I don’t even know? Yet, God forgive me, I would. Rosamond and I are connected by experience and something deeper. I’ve been where she is, been her .
Cole …
My fists tighten. Hang on, Rose. I’m coming for you.
When I first arrived in South
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