Elise had not heard from Layla in days. Resisting the urge to show up at the Clarice made her anxious enough to go to Jamie’s apartment instead, hoping she was hiding out there.
Jamie shrugged in the doorway of his apartment. “Sorry, kiddo. I haven’t seen her in days—”
A cat’s hiss sounded from behind him, followed by a curse. Elise gasped and shoved past Jamie. She found Layla almost instantly, her focus locking on her small form by the window. “Layla—”
“I can’t talk right now, Saint, I’m busy fighting the devil,” Layla hissed. She tried to walk away, but Elise cornered her.
“I know what I did upset you, but you promised me we were in this together,” Elise said sharply.
Layla glared. “That was before you went behind my back—”
“She took my sister. You have to understand—”
“Well, I don’t! I don’t understand anything now.” Layla almost shouted.
There was a haunted look to her eyes that Elise had not noticed before. She took a few steps back and sat on the couch, gesturing for Layla to sit. “Talk to me.”
“There have been some developments since Valeriya died.”
Elise sat back and nodded, encouraging Layla. By the time she finished, Layla was twisting her fingers in her lap. Even Elise had no idea what to make of the news.
“The news, while extremely mystifying, is not what I was asking for.” Elise placed a gentle hand on Layla’s knee, feeling her tension melt away beneath her touch. “I want you to talk to me about how you’re feeling.”
“I’m not sure how I feel. I just feel…empty.” A shadow passed over Layla’s eyes, and she pulled away. When Elise’s hands closed over empty air, she almost regretted her own tenderness. “Valeriya was the closest thing I had to a mother since my own died.” Layla paused. “Before her, when we were best friends, you were the only one who knew how to ground me. I’m not sure how to live anymore.” She said it so nonchalantly, but Elise saw the hard-edged sadness in her eyes. She wondered, if forgiveness was tangible, would it spring up between them right now, like a field of flowers, waiting to be picked and fawned over? Or would it be like a bridge, finally falling into place over the abyss that had existed between them for five years?
Old, familiar emotions rushed in so hard and fast, Elise couldn’t stop the tears that rose in her eyes. “You are,” she whispered.
Layla’s brow wrinkled. “What?”
“You said we were best friends. But you are my best friend,” Elise said quietly.
Layla fell silent for a moment. Her teeth dug into her lower lip and she looked away as her smile faded. “You’re only saying that because you have no one right now.”
Hurt lanced through Elise’s heart. She looked down, swallowing. “I’m sorry.”
Layla drew closer, her shoulder bumping against Elise’s until she looked up. “Remember when I said a reaper’s fears and desires don’t just disappear when they turn?”
Elise nodded.
“Well…I miss a lot from my old life. I miss not being looked at like I’m a monster. I miss even the mundane things, like getting excited about a home-cooked meal and inviting people to share it with. But most of all—” Layla took in a deep, shuddering breath and locked eyes with Elise. “I miss my sympathy.”
Elise’s heartbeat quickened. “Reaperhood didn’t take that from you,” she whispered.
“No, but time spent with the darkness did.” Layla tilted her head to the side and her expression turned cold. “I cannot live in the dark anymore.” She looked away.
Elise understood the reference to her going behind Layla’s back. She touched Layla’s hand and nodded. “I won’t apologize for killing Valeriya, Layla. But as long as I have you, I promise, I will never harbor secrets against you again.”
Layla’s jaw went tight, and when she looked at Elise again, her gaze was full of sorrow.
Elise’s voice hardened. “Do I have you?”
Elise felt no sense of home when she returned to her family’s estate. But Mr. Saint stood on the stairs with Sterling next to him. She stopped, cold, in the middle of the pathway leading to the house.
Her father spun something small and shiny in his hands while he sneered down at her. “My pearl has come back to me.”
He looked awful. Bruises lined his neck and eyes, still slightly swollen over a week after the attack. Elise swallowed as Sterling’s lips curled. “You’re still wreaking havoc, aren’t you?” he spat.
“Where is Josi?” Elise demanded.
Her father lifted a brow. “I see that collaborating with an ancient reaper worked in my favor. You’ve killed her for me.” He gestured to the estate around them. “I did all of this for us. It hurts to know that my own family would have a hand in my downfall. Josephine will not be happy to know you hurt me, Elise. How do you think she’ll feel when she returns to a broken home?” His voice went hard as he closed his fingers over the metal. Josi’s ring.
“Where is she!” Elise tried to step forward, but Sterling intercepted her with a hand on his gun, body braced in front of the hallway. “And where is my mother?” Elise demanded.
Mr. Saint’s calmness told Elise all that she needed to know. He wanted Elise to snap. He wanted her to come running back to him with no other options so she was forced to kneel before him and beg him for help. “They’re safe. They have always been safe here, in my city.”
“Where—”
“You don’t get to know that yet, Elise. You still owe me,” Tobias Saint muttered fiercely.
Elise no longer saw her father, but a man made into a monster. The defiance in his eyes while he threatened her made her feel sick.
Elise blinked back tears and wiped her hands over her face. The Saint ring on her finger felt tight all of a sudden, and her chest ached—she couldn’t breathe. “You—you’ve ruined everything—”
“I ruined everything?” Her father looked incredulous. “You truly know nothing.” Tobias Saint gave her a smug smile. “I did not kill the Harlem reaper clan leader. You did. A threat against Josi made you go crazy and now you’ve driven a wedge between you and your only ally. That Quinn girl will never fully trust you again. Now…me trusting Stephen Wayne…” He tilted his head to the side and sighed. “That might have been a misjudgment on my part. But we live and we learn. Right, Elise? You can learn from your mistakes, right?” Mr. Saint’s expectant gaze bored into her.
Elise’s heart thudded so hard in her chest, she thought she would collapse. Her focus slipped. All she could think about was Josi and Layla. The two beings who she had pinned everything onto. Everything she had done had been for them and she had still let them down.
“My Josephine would never do this to me,” her father said. He frowned at his daughter. “Oh, Elise. You’re a member of this empire, but you still don’t get it.”
Elise recoiled. Her chest constricted and she backed away from her father, glowering. He wanted a pawn—to weaponize her devotion. Elise would be condemned to ruination if she accepted his cruelty. To love boundlessly, as a girl who the world intended to devour, was an act of defiance. She would not stay in the darkness with him. No matter how perfect she made herself, she could not fix him, nor could she reverse the scars he inflicted.
“No,” Elise muttered.
“Pardon me?” he asked.
“I want no part of it.” Elise ripped her family ring off and threw it at her father’s chest. “I hope all your goddamn Saints fall.”
Seething, she turned, and tore out of the yard before her father could properly react to her denunciation. Fury clutched her throat and heart with scorching fingers. She welcomed the jagged blade of her feelings, reveling in the roar of her pulse in her ears.
With moonlight guiding her path and pure determination driving her forward, Elise Saint left the Saint estate.
And she did not look back.