Page 130 of Delirium
They could be, but Ophelia wasn’t someone who wouldn’t answer her phone, no matter what. She knew how paranoid all of us were. She knew how worried I was, and she wouldn’t have done that, not right now. Maybe if we were talking about Ophelia from one year ago, yeah—maybe. But not today. She wouldn’t do this.
God, what if something happened to them? To her, the kids, Zoe?
“Storm, stop trying to murder the couch with your stare,” Atlas said. “Get moving. We need to get there and see what’s happening.”
“Right, right,” I murmured, moving around on autopilot. She had to be okay. They had to be okay.
I didn’t know what I would do if anything happened to them, to my Sunshine, our kids. I had no… I had no reason to go on if they weren’t here.
“Storm!” Atlas bellowed from the front door, his eyes filled with worry, his face pulled taut. I knew he had thoughts similar to mine, he just didn’t want to voice them. “Come on, man, now’s not the time to fall apart.”
“Right, I’m coming,” I murmured, taking the keys for my bike from the bowl on the coffee table. I couldn’t help but see her in every single part of this house. She started hanging our pictures on the walls, the little things she loved, her books… She was living again, truly living, not just existing, and to even think about someone taking it all away from us made my blood boil.
I rushed out of the house, meeting Atlas next to his bike, where mine was parked as well. Just as I was about to sit on the bike, my phone started ringing.
“Shit,” I mumbled, fumbling with my keys and my helmet, trying to take my phone from the front pocket of my jacket.
But the name on the screen wasn’t the one I wanted to see, and the hope I had of her calling me was squashed as fast as it came.
“Cillian,” I barked as I picked up the phone. “Now’s not the—”
“Where’s Ophelia?” he blasted through the line, his voice wavering, breaking, filled with emotions I couldn’t quite place. “Storm, it’s fucking important. Is she with you?”
“N-no,” I stammered. “She isn’t answering. She went with Zoe to the mall, but they’re not—”
“Fuck!” he yelled out. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Something crashed in the background. “We need to find her. Now, Storm!”
“I’m going there, but—”
“I hacked into Tristan’s computer, Storm, and it’s bad. It’s so fucking bad,” he cried out. “I didn’t know. I swear to you I didn’t know.”
“Kill, calm down,” I murmured, but my words held no power. His distress was seeping into me. “What are you talking about? What about Tristan?”
“Tristan was working with her, with Belladonna,” Cillian said, freezing the blood in my veins. “Maybe not at first, but later… Those days he was gone, when he wasn’t answering, he was with her, sharing everything we did, every single plan, locations, everything I trusted him with.”
“Cillian, are you telling me that Tristan was the mole all this time?”
“Not all this time,” he stated. “Not until he found out who she was. Fuck, this is all fucked up.”
I breathed through my nose, trying to keep my emotions at bay. It was obvious he hated this, that his own brother betrayed us in such a way. He didn’t need me to tell him it was bad. But the fury coiling in my gut was too hard to ignore. Tristan Nightingale was a dead man. I didn’t care if it caused another war with Cillian and Kieran, he was dead.
I’d fucking kill him myself.
“I’m so sorry, Storm,” Cillian apologized, obviously crying. “I didn’t know. Kieran didn’t know either. Maya is here with us and she’s desperately trying to reach Ophelia.”
“Kill, calm down, man. I need you to tell me everything. Who is Belladonna? Why would Tristan work with her?”
“Because…” he started. “Because Belladonna is our sister, Storm. Belladonna is Ava.”
Ava?“As in Ava who you wanted to kill Ophelia over? Ava who died?”
“That Ava,” Cillian murmured.
“I’m going to murder her myself,” Maya shouted from the background.
“Maya,” Kieran scolded. “That’s my sister.”
“Fuck off, Kieran,” she belted. “I don’t care if she’s the Virgin Mary. That bitch is going to die.”
