Verum (The Nocte Trilogy 2)

“No, not Sabine,” I rasp, wiping my mouth and backing away. “I’m fine. I promise.”

I’m lying. I’m not fine.

But he can’t know that.

I spin around and flee, running for the house, running away from Dare. He lets me go, surprisingly. I glance over my shoulder when I’m bounding out the garden gates and he’s standing limply, watching me with a strange expression.

I don’t slow down until I reach the house.

I creep into my room and when I do, I imagine Finn waiting for me in the chair by the window, sitting in the dark.

Because that’s what he would do if he were here.

He turns on the lamp.

If he were real.

“Where have you been?” he asks me quietly, judgment in his pale blue eyes.

“Out,” I tell him. “I don’t feel well.”

“Did something happen?” he asks, cocking his head. “Did he do something to you?”

Annoyance fills me up. “Why would you assume he did something?” I demand, yanking my nightgown out of a dresser drawer. “You’re imagining things. I just don’t feel well.”

He stares at me doubtfully. “I’m imagining things? Cal, this is getting dangerous. I don’t know what you’re up to, but it’s not good.”

I exhale a shaky breath, hating the way my lungs feel sick.

“I don’t want you here tonight,” I answer. And he’s instantly gone, the chair vacant and dark, and I’m alone.

I turn my back, heading straight to the bathroom to change.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

All I know is, something is going on with me, something I don’t understand. Something I don’t want.

I run the water for a long time, splashing my face, cooling me down.

It doesn’t help, and my dreams don’t either.

I toss and turn in my bed, unable to wake even though I want to. My breathing quickens and I feel like I’m right on the cusp of…something.

Dare whispers. “Keep going. You’re almost there. You can do this.”

I don’t know if I can.

I’m floating in an ocean of insanity. It’s just ahead of me, so close I can touch it. But even though it shines and glimmers, it has glistening fangs and I know it will shred me.

“I’m scared,” I whisper, gripping Dare’s hands.

“You should be,” he answers and his words impale me. “But it’s ok. I’m here. You’re not alone, Cal.”

But I feel like it.

I’m alone.

I’m bobbing in a dark ocean and the lies surround me.