The hug Cassie gave me almost snapped my spine. She looked up at Jacqueline who nodded at her. From her backpack, Cassie pulled out a palm-sized present wrapped in emerald green paper. There was an envelope stuck to it with the word Blue written on it in Kai’s handwriting.
My hands laced behind my back. Jacqueline cleared her throat.
“I don’t want it,” I said.
“Too bad!” Cassie said. She grabbed my hand and shoved the present into it. “I’ve been carrying it around for a week. It’s eating me alive to know what’s in there.”
I just stood there in the middle of the living room with everyone staring at me. My body turned towards the fireplace. It was hotter than sin right now in Australia, but Basil had spelled the house to be wintry cold so we could have the fire going.
Diana latched onto my shoulder when I made a move towards the fire. “Don’t you dare!”
“I can’t do this,” I said.
“I’ll do it for you.”
Sophie stopped her from snatching the present from me. “Stop it,” Sophie said. “She doesn’t want to do this.”
A low growl built in Max’s chest. Here we go. With everything that was happening, I had managed to avoid Max as much as possible. The fourth year students had their graduation while I was still recuperating. It would be strange to go back to school without him there. “Never figured you for a chicken,” he said. Then again, sometimes distance wasn’t bad.
“Shut up!” Charles said. “She doesn’t want to open it. Mind your own business.”
My little knight in furry armour. Not so little anymore. In my head, I kept thinking if I had a kid, I would want him to be just like Charles. My airways started closing.
Charles took a swipe at Max. “Now look what you’ve done!” He lunged at his older brother only to be caught in the golden circle of Shayla’s magic.
“Both of you will be the death of me one day,” she sighed.
I looked around the room. Every one of them stared back at me. When all was said and done, Kai and I were too closely intertwined. If I wanted to extricate him from my life, I would have to carve all of them out too. Was I prepared to do that?
A voice in my head said it would more likely be the other way around. Eugenia was right. For a while now, I had felt something pressing down on me. Lucifer was making preparations. I wouldn’t likely survive them. So what was I so scared of right now?
Ripping off the wrapping paper revealed what I had dreaded. Another ring box. “Open it,” I told Cassie as I handed it back to her. She glanced at me dumbfounded.
I ripped the lip of the envelope to pieces trying to get at the note inside. Sophie’s hiss had me paying attention again. Cassie held the ring box at me with the lid open. The biggest motherflipping sapphire I had ever seen winked back at me.
“Goodness,” Odette whispered.
I opened the note:
Alessia,
Let’s play a game. How long can you keep this ring off your finger?
I will always come for you. No matter what.
Love, Kai.
Right. I knew what I had to do. The only way to stop this was to kill him.
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