Page 126

“Let’s just think about it for a couple of days. Stay. You might change your mind,” Cyrus says, but I shake my head.

“No, my mind is already made up. I don’t want this life. I just want to go home where I belong. I don’t belong here. Please, you said you would take me home.”

“Addie…”

“No, Cyrus! I have been a prisoner long enough now. I won’t be yours too,” I tell him, my voice breaking. “Just take me home.”

“Can you wait till after the trial? It’s only a few weeks away at most.”

“Trial?”

“Yes, Sam will go to trial by the council. You may have to give evidence against him.”

I shake my head. “No!” I tell him, shaking my head and stepping back.

I can’t do that—tell a bunch of strangers what happened.

“They already know.”

“No, I won’t do it. I just want to go home and forget it ever happened, so take me home,” I tell him, refusing.

“Go pack then,” he says, looking away.

“Really?” I ask, a little surprised that this won’t turn into an argument.

“Yes, I will take you home until you are ready to come back,” he says.

I have no intentions of coming back here. I just want my life back.

I rush from the kitchen, heading upstairs. I grab my suitcase from the walk-in and start tossing my clothes in it. Eli walks in after a few minutes, looking down at me on the floor next to my bag.

“Are you really leaving?” he says, and I say nothing, just look down at my bag, using my hair as a veil. I can feel his hurt through the bond.

“You can continue to work at the office.”

I go to tell him no, but he holds up a finger, telling me to let him finish.

“You need to work. We won’t be there. We have to fix the damage done here. Just promise to come home. Mates aren’t meant to be apart, Addie. I will organize your job back, but please answer our calls, and we will come to get you when you are ready to come back. I know you need time to figure things out, but you will have to come home eventually.”

I nod, not bothering to argue with him because he might force me to stay. Then I remember the cell he has downstairs and the photos of my father and sister.

“Did you kill my father? Did you know I was your mate before you ran into me in the elevator?” I ask.

Eli seems shocked by my question, and Cyrus walks in, sitting on the end of the bed, helping me fold the things I have just chucked in the suitcase.

“We didn’t know you before seeing you in the elevator. We did meet your sister when she was younger,” Eli answers.

“My father?” I ask.

Eli doesn’t answer; instead, he looks at Cyrus.

“We didn’t know they were going to kill him. We liked your father and considered him a friend,” Cyrus answers.

“What do you mean you didn’t know they were going to kill him?”

So they did have something to do with his death.

“The supernatural council asked us to get your father and bring him in. If we had known they were going to kill him, we never would have agreed,” Cyrus says.