I glared at him with all the fury I could muster.
“But you won’t, will you?” he continued. “Because having Trent’s baby is more important than anything else, isn’t it? You don’t really care about Abby.”
I slapped him across the face. Hard. I cried out as a stinging pain shot up my arm.
The room fell silent, and Abby stared up at me through tear stained eyes. Then, I was ripped away as Trent shoved me behind him, placing himself between me and Isach.
“You went too far, Zoya,” Trent said with a deadly snarl.
I flexed my fingers, but the sting lingered. My palm was beet red. Before I could tell Trent to relax, Jax, Wyatt, Colt, and Whitney flanked him on either side, creating a vampire shield in front of me.
“Stop it!” Abby shrieked.
I squeezed around the vampire wall and stood facing Abby. Isach’s accusation rang in my ears. You don’t really care about Abby. He was wrong—I did. But changing now meant giving up everything I wanted. Was I willing to do that for her?
Abby marched toward me, and I held my breath, fulling expecting her to smack me or scream at me. But she didn’t. Instead, she took hold of my hand and squared her shoulders. Then, she turned her attention to Isach.
“How dare you.” Her voice trembled. “Chloe has the chance to have the life she wants, and I would never take that away from her.”
Tears pooled in my eyes, and I gave her hand a squeeze.
“Did you seriously think I’d become a vampire before I had the chance to have kids?” Abby asked with genuine sincerity.
“Abby,” Isach said, his tone much softer than it had been moments ago. “I didn’t—”
“No.” She held up her hand to silence him. “You don’t get to guilt Chloe into giving up everything so that I can have it all. And you really don’t get to use me as an excuse to bully her.” She gave a hard shake of her head. “Without her, we wouldn’t even be together right now, and you wouldn’t have a way out of your coven. So, stop being a jerk and apologize. Now.”
I couldn’t stop the laugh that erupted. I clamped my lips shut, but a quick glance at Trent, Colt, and Jax showed they were trying not to laugh, either. I never expected Abby to come to my defense like that, nor had I ever heard her stand up for herself before, but I was incredibly proud of her.
“I’m sorry I hit you,” I said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
Maybe if I made the first move, Isach would follow, and we could all get back to what really mattered—figuring out how to deal with Rector now that his spy was dead.
Abby sliced a look at me and smiled.
“I’m sorry, too,” Isach said, dragging his hand through his hair. “I know you care about Abby, and I really don’t expect you to change before you’re ready.”
“Thank you.”
Awkward silence descended, and I shifted on my feet. As I’d been asking everyone else all night… Now what?
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:
Breaking Point
THE REST OF THE WEEK WAS tense. Abby cried every day on the way home from school. Pretending to be broken up with Isach was taking its toll on her, especially when he walked around ignoring all of us.
Two days after the Felicity incident, Isach even stopped texting Abby, and there hadn’t been anymore late night visits to her room. Abby had no idea if they were still pretending or not, and she was fast approaching her breaking point.
Of course, I couldn’t stop myself from drowning in guilt.
Like it or not, Isach was right. If I just changed now, we could put an end to the Zoya and the hold they had over Isach. He could leave, join Ivy’s coven, and be with Abby. But, selfishly, I was holding on tightly to our original plan, to the scenario where I’d get everything I ever wanted.
“You haven’t been able to get inside his head at all?” I asked Whitney as we walked toward the cafeteria on Friday.
“No. He has me completely blocked,” she said.
I groaned. What was going on? Not knowing was worse than anything. Was Rector still having Isach followed? I hadn’t seen anyone else lurking, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone watching him. Or all of us.
“It would be nice if he gave us some idea about what was going on,” I grumbled.
“Maybe it’s time we make him talk.” Whitney shrugged.
Yeah, because the last time we forced a Zoya to talk had worked so well. Jax wouldn’t hesitate to kill Isach, and I was beginning to wonder if Trent would be just as eager.
I walked into the cafeteria and headed straight for our table. Ellie, Nick, and Abby were already seated. I sat next to Abby, and as soon as I did, she nudged me with her elbow. I glanced at her.
She lowered her eyes, and I followed her gaze. She held a crumpled sheet of paper under the table. There was messy black writing scrawled across the paper.
I have info. Tonight. Everyone. Midnight.
My eyes widened, and I met her gaze. She nodded, and that was all the confirmation I needed—Isach was finally ready to talk to us.
Abby wadded the paper onto a ball and dropped it onto her tray; then she picked at her food as if nothing had happened. I wanted to ask her how she’d gotten that note, but now wasn’t the time.
“So, Whitney, I was wondering if you could help me with something.” I cleared my throat, propped my elbows on the table, and discreetly tapped the side of my head. Hopefully, she’d take the hint that I needed her to invade my mind for a minute.
“Sure, what?”
Isach has info and needs to meet all of us tonight at midnight.
“Can Abby and I come over tonight?” I asked aloud.
“Yeah, of course.” She nodded, head cocked with confusion.
I widened my eyes and rubbed my temples. “My head is killing me,”
