Something Darker; Chapter 14

I'm half asleep when I hear my door creak open. I assume it's Jax, his mother, or his sister, so I don't bother turning over. There's a whispered exchange of words. I swear I can make out four voices.

I turn my head to look over my shoulder. I jerk up to a sitting position out of surprise. The movement is much too fast and pain lances up my side as I inhale in pain. Ignoring the pain, I pull the covers down and go to stand up.

Before I actually can though, Micah stands in front of me, a hand on my shoulder, pushing me back down. "Don't even try," he warns.

I glare up at him. "You shouldn't have come."

"V, you need to rest. Now is not the time to argue. We can decide who's right later. Now get some more rest," he says.

I bat his hand off of my shoulder. "Don't tell me what to do," I snap, pushing off the bed, so I'm standing.

Gaitan walks up. He motions to the bed. "Let me see."

"I'm-"

"Fine? Yeah, sit," he orders.

I turn my glare on him.

He doesn't even flinch. "You know that doesn't bother me." He flicks his eyes pointedly to the bed, "Sit."

I slowly sink down to sit on the bed, then pull my shirt up enough to show the cut on my side, covered by the bandages. Gaitan sits next to me and pulls the bandage up to look at the wound. He studies it for a second before touching the skin around it. He begins to apply pressure and I wince. He pulls the bandage back down over the wound and stands.

"I'll be back," he says walking back towards the door. "Feel free to duke it out while I'm gone."

The door clicks shut. I sit silently, refusing to be the first to speak.

Micah finally sighs. "Why? Why would you just take off? It was stupid and reckless."

I look up at him. "I didn't want you to get dragged into this. I can handle it by myself anyway."

Micah looks at me. "Really? So you call laying in bed with a wound that's becoming infected 'handling' it?"

I huff and look away.

Micah drops to the bed beside me. "Violet. I've been worried sick. I heard from Lord Calus that you were in the area, and I came as fast as I could. Then, the other day I got this feeling that something was wrong. I heard about what happened in the village and I just knew. I knew you were hurt or worse. I was out of my mind in terror that I wouldn't find you in time or that I wouldn't even see you again. I'm not saying that you should have let me come along. I just wish you had let me know; there's more than one way to help someone, you know."

I drop my gaze to my hands. "I know. I just- . . . I didn't even know how to deal with this. I wanted answers, but I was scared of what I might find. I might not be scared of it like I was back then, but it still worries me, and I didn't want to you get pulled into anything I did. I don't think I could live with myself if something happened to you and it was my fault."

"You're my sister. I'm always going to worry about you. Whether you want me to or not. But as to whether or not I get pulled into something, that's my choice. You want answers and so do I. If I were to just sit by and do nothing and something happened to you. . . I. . . I don't know what I'd do."

I glance up at the door. I'm sure Gaitan would hear all of this from Micah, but I wanted to tell Micah what I had found about Mother in private. "Micah, I. . . found something in my digging. It- it connected Mother to this," I say holding up my arms, Shadow Marks fully visible due to my inability to cloak myself in this state.

"I know. I saw it too," he says.

Silence fills the air. While it feels oddly nice to have Micah on the same page again, it leaves me wondering where to go from here. There was still so much I didn't know. I wasn't sure where this journey would take me, but I was fairly certain we wouldn't be finishing it together.

I let myself fall against him, my head resting on his shoulder. He rests his head on mine.

"V, please don't shut me out. You're the only family that really matters to me."

"Don't let Uncle Vernon hear you say that. I don't think he could handle that kind of rejection," I tease.

Micah chuckles before we lapse back into silence.