Page 192 of Nightshade

“What? What is it?”

“Remy may have found my father. In the mortal realm.”

“Remy?” As expected, the tone of his voice sounded far from thrilled.

“He offered to find him and apparently crossed planes to investigate where I live. My father left something behind for me. A sign. Remy brought it back for me.”

The uncomfortable silence prompted me to dare a peek back at him.

“You tasked Remy with finding your father, after I told you I would assist?”

“This was way before. When I mended his wound, to show his gratitude, he offered to do something nice in return. I didn’t know he was going to go all out.”

Lips peeled back in disgust, he made an unappreciative sound in his throat. “I wish you would’ve come to me. Remy may seem relatively harmless, but he’s still Fallen.”

“Yeah, well, I wish I would’ve gone to you, too. He apparently went through my things.”

“What things?”

“Personal things.”

“I’ll be having a chat with Remy,” he said through clenched teeth.

In a beat of urgency, I lurched toward him. “No! No, wait. Please. He’s apparently following a lead. Please just let him do this. I know he’s a complete ass, but if he can track down my dad … then …”

“Then, what?”

“It may make staying here with you easier. If I know he’s okay.”

The tic of his jaw told me he was pissed, but the way he remained quiet through it all gave me a small bit of hope. “You would stay, knowing your father could very well be alive on the other side?”

“Yes. As long as he’s not in harm’s way.”

Jaw shifting, as he seemed to be literally chewing on the thought. “Very well. I’ll not intervene. But you are not to go near Remy at any point.”

“And what if he does track down my father? Will you at least allow me to visit him? To see him once more?”

“No.” That single word, so matter of fact, struck me like a slap to the face. There was no compromise in his tone. No intentions of bending in the slightest.

“Wait. What?”

“The Pentacrux will find you. They will track you down. And they will try to kill you.” His jaw shifted. “And there will be nothing I can do from here.”

“Haven’t they been hunting me my whole life?”

“Perhaps. But what happened before no longer matters. My memory has been restored. Therefore, they won’t be coming near you.”

“So, what happens when the blood moon is over and no one has been slaughtered.”

“I don’t know. That didn’t happen the last time.” Towering over me, he cupped my face, gently rubbing his thumb over my cheek. “But I can assure you, history will not repeat itself. I will do everything in my power to assure that. Everything. And you will have to trust me.”

58

Farryn

This is so stupid.

Those four little words played on repeat inside my head, as I tiptoed down what seemed like a never-ending corridor of the cathedral’s west wing—the only place I hadn’t yet searched in my quest to find Remy. I held up a lantern I’d grabbed from one of the brackets in the stairwell, the flicker of the flame against the wall giving me the creeps. Old, wooden floor boards groaned beneath my bare feet, their cold surface sending a chill up my back.