There were two people living inside me, and I couldn’t resolve them, so I pushed the memory of Lela to the back, and wore my fake name in the forefront of my mind like a pathetic masquerade-turned-battle-banner, blazing in all of its lowly ferociousness. My trip to the Komnata had proved itself to be enlightening, if nothing else. I had always thought the Klovoda to be a single unit, bowing to Weston and following his every command. Instead… I found a group of people divided. Their Director had been killed, and none of them seemed to be particularly upset about it, though there was a lot of tension when Yas spoke as though she were in command, and Jack didn’t seem to like Weston at all. He didn’t even bother to mask his contempt of the Voda. I was sure that Dominic Kingsling had been the real reason that my pairs hadn’t initially allowed me to meet with the Klovoda, because none of the people inside that room had seemed to be a threat.
“Weston has informed us that you will be staying with him from now on,” Yas said, walking beside me as I made my way across the stone bridge back to the little boathouse.
I wished that she would stop talking. A hammer had taken up residence in my head ever since Jayden had returned my memories, and her cheerful voice was making it so much worse. I assumed that it was too much for my brain to cope with in such a short amount of time, because it certainly felt as though my brain were having a meltdown. I grunted in reply, unable to muster words.
“That’s good,” Yas decided out loud. “We would have had to find an apartment to put you in, or a family to place you with. We can’t have you and your brother floating around the way you are. You are both much better off with Weston.”
I opened my mouth to demand that she pick one of those alternatives, but managed to stop myself. I had bargained for the safety of my friends and family, so for the next eight months at least, I would go where Weston wanted me to go and not complain a whit. Unless he broke his end of the bargain, then all bets were off.
“Sure.” I gritted out the word as my head pounded away.
“Please return as soon as you’re feeling better,” she continued, her voice growing even more chipper. “There is much to discuss.”
Much to discuss? A stalker? A couple of homicides? The years of assault dealt to me by one of their human agents pretending to be my father? What they wanted from me? What I wanted from them?
“Better clear your schedule,” I muttered. “It’ll take a while.”
She laughed good-naturedly and I sighed, glad to be away from her as she waved us off from the boathouse and I trudged after a silent Weston. I felt bad for being rude, but I was seconds away from fainting, and I wasn’t sure I was far enough away from Maple Falls yet. Darkness had fallen, and I didn’t want to give the messenger any reason to make my head go boom.
I got into the back of Weston’s limo, trying to ignore the bloodstains on the seat as I laid my head against the window, wishing the cold glass would numb everything inside.
“When Kingsling kidnapped me,” I began, as Weston finished speaking with his driver and the car started to move, “you stormed into the house and demanded that he release me. I heard everything; I was in the basement.”
“Oh?” Weston blinked. “Why didn’t you make any sounds?”
“Didn’t trust you. Still don’t. But now that you know… why did you demand that he release me if you were planning on kidnapping me yourself?”
“First of all, this isn’t a kidnapping. This is an agreement. Second of all, I’m not going to lock you in a basement or arrange to have you snatched out of a club and provoked into an accident. And finally, I demanded that he release you because he went too far. Haven’t we already been over this?”
“Been over this? Do you mean the night you forced Silas to shoot me?”
He released a scoffing sort of laugh, his eyes settling on the bandages that still wrapped my hands. “I hadn’t been informed that you had lost the ability to heal yourself with your valcrick.”
“Even if I could have healed myself, I STILL GOT SHOT!” I refrained from shouting about the thing that was really upsetting me, because I wasn’t about to get into a battle with Weston about Silas.
“It had to happen.” Weston sounded tired. He slid down in his seat slightly, bunching his shoulders up as he turned to stare out of the window. “You don’t know Silas like I do. He was out for blood and he needed to get it one way or another.”
“He had already shot and killed Kingsling. Isn’t that blood enough?”
“It’s never enough for him. He would have killed Jayden for helping, and anyone else who stood in his way.”