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“I don’t know what’s happened. Everything else is here except the messages.” I toss my phone onto my bed and lean back against the headboard, pulling my knees against my chest. “You betrayed me,” I whisper so softly I almost thought I didn’t say it out loud.
“I did what I had to do, Dea. You can hate me all you want, but I will always do what I need to do to keep you safe.”
Silence. I don’t have a response right now, and I’m afraid that if I talk, I’ll say something I might regret. My phone’s light flicks off and we’re back in darkness, where we both belong. Knowing he’s beside me shouldn’t comfort me the way it does because I’m still angry, but when my eyes begin to drift closed and I start shuffling down the bed, I already know. My soul forgave him already; it’s my mind that won’t budge.
I pull the covers up to my chin, slipping farther into the silk sheets. “I—”
“—don’t talk.” His voice is strained. “Just—don’t. I’ll be back tomorrow.” He shifts off the bed and it’s not until he opens the door and light sneaks in that he turns around to say, “I trust Veronica, Saint. You need to, too.” Then he’s gone. I don’t know why, but his parting words bother me. They bother me enough to tear off my covers and run for my bedroom door. But when I pull it open, my eyes wild and my anger at peak point, he’s gone.
My feet hit the conveyer belt to the beat of “Without You” by The Kid LAROI. After tossing and turning last night, I successfully managed to get two hours of sleep. I went to bed angry. I woke up angry. It’s unlike me, and it’s messing with my balance. I pump the speed up to twelve, turning the music up louder with the remote. My arms swing, my legs ache, and the timer on the treadmill says 145:26. The longest run I’ve ever done.
I’m still angry.
Squeezing my fists, I change the song. “The Bleeding” Perfect. Angry music to match my angry mood. The treadmill stops and I tear out my AirPods, spi
“Girl, don’t hit me!” Ophelia raises her hands. Her hair is piled up on top of her head, her toned body filling a sports bra and yoga pants. She steps onto the treadmill beside mine. “You’ve been ru
I’m still catching my breath with both hands grasped on my knees as sweat falls from my forehead and onto the black belt.
“How’d you find the gym?” she adds.
Finally catching my breath, I grab my towel and swipe the sweat off my face. “It took me a while before walking outside.” The gym is right behind the pool. Built in a glass globe, giving you the feel of being in the middle of trees, while looking up at the sky.
“She built it for night gym sessions. You can see the stars some nights.”
I jump off, heading for my water bottle.
“Look, I don’t mean to pry, but we can all feel your energy and it’s setting Frankie off more than usual.”
“Setting her off?” I ask, leaning against a punching bag while tossing my towel around my neck. “How?”
Ophelia starts up her treadmill and begins a steady walk. “Well, for one, we are all sisters. Empaths on crack. The granddaughters of infamous witches that they forgot to burn, or in our case, hang. Or something like that. I read it in a quote and it’s so accurate.”
I stifle a laugh. My face almost cracks from the half-smile; it has been so long since I’ve felt like smiling. “I am in a bad mood. I agree,” I say, moving back to where the treadmills are lined, taking a seat on a wooden bench that’s built into the glass.
“Talk to Ophelia. Ophelia is a vault.”
I sigh, resting my head against the glass as the sweat continues to drip down my sternum. I remove my tank and toss it on top of my towel. “It’s Brantley. I’m not dealing well with the betrayal.”
“Ah,” Ophelia murmurs. She lifts her eyes to me. “Why did he do it?”
“Does that always have to matter?”
She turns the speed down on her treadmill before flicking it off. “I’m done for my exercise for this week.”
I chuckle again as she sits beside me. “Look, betrayal is hard, especially if you trusted someone as fiercely as I’m guessing you did him. But sometimes, especially in the world we live in and the world I’m guessing he lives in, things aren’t as simple as black and white. You have to allow some color.”
“He said he did it to protect me.”
“Then maybe take that for now. After you find out the whole story, then you can decide whether you’re going to be angry or not. Control your emotions now, you’ll have control forever.”
“And I’m cranky because I miss my brother and my pets.”
“Well,” Ophelia nudges me with her arm, “we can keep you distracted.”
I pick up my towel and throw it over my shoulder as we make our way out of the gym. Distraction could work; only, I’m still ru
Round and round the mulberry bush…
I smirked from the dark corner, hidden from her in plain sight. “Ah, this time it’s different, isn’t it?” I stood to my full height, making my way toward her slowly. It wasn’t until I was beneath the hanging single light bulb that she looked up at me, her eyes scrunched tightly.
I tapped the bulb. “Count to ten and you’ll wake.”
She didn’t look up at me. She refused. Curled in the corner with her knees pulled to her chest.
“Are you going to start counting?” Her hair was so white, it was unreal. She had always been spectacular. Like a rogue angel begging to be violated. Slowly, she tipped her head up to look at me, her lips quivered and her eyes quickly diverted back down to the ground. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“Well,” I said, moving toward her. I bent down, grazing the backs of my knuckles against her soft cheeks. “Because he simply can’t kill me here.”