“But?” Heidi said.
I sighed. “But if Blake dies, then so does Chris, and if Blake did do these things to keep Chris alive, then he was only doing what he needed to. The same thing any of us would do.”
Zoe eyed me. “I feel like there’s another but coming.”
“There is.” Feeling the prickly sensation of incoming Luxen, I glanced around as I lowered my voice, not knowing if Daemon was in the backyard next door. “But if he’d caused what happened to Kat to Luc or any of you, I’d want him dead. I just don’t know how to feel about this.”
Heidi nodded as she sat back, her gaze dropping to where she held Emery’s hand. “Things used to be so much easier.”
Understatement of the year right there.
Movement snagged my attention, and I glanced back at the house. Grayson stood in the narrow pathway that led to the front yard. My heart skipped a beat.
“Excuse me,” I murmured, jumping to my feet. I hurried over to him. “Do you know where Luc is?”
His cool gaze flicked across my face before settling an inch above my head. “He’s in the library. I thought you’d like to know that he’s getting ready to talk to Blake.”
I couldn’t believe Luc was going to try to talk to Blake without me. I also couldn’t believe that Grayson was telling me this.
Stomach twisting, I started to take off in a dead run but managed to stop myself. I turned back to the girls. “I have to go.”
Curiosity marked their expressions, but I faced Grayson. “Thank you.”
Grayson lowered his gaze, and I don’t know why I did what I did next, but I touched him. I reached out and took ahold of his hand. His skin was warm, which was at such odds with everything else about him. I squeezed it. That was all I did, but his entire body seemed to jolt as if I’d shocked him. His eyes widened as his entire body stiffened.
“Sit with them. Talk to them,” I said, letting go of his hand before he passed out. “I know they’d like that.”
Icy-blue eyes met mine. “You sure about that?”
Well …
“I’m sure Emery would love to talk to you,” I said, and then I grinned.
Only the corners of his lips curved up, but it was something. “You’d better hurry.”* * *I found Luc less than two minutes later, having run as fast as I could to the old library. He’d been on the first floor, speaking to Cekiah as I all but burst through the front doors.
“Yes, I promise I’m only going to talk to him,” Luc was saying as I skidded to a halt, a sheet of hair falling across half of my face. He glanced over at me, an eyebrow arched as I shoved the hair back from my face.
Our gazes connected, and for one heart-stopping moment, I thought he was going to ignore me. That he’d pretend that I wasn’t there, and I didn’t know what I’d do. Actually, I did. I would be pissed. I’d probably make a scene, and then I’d go hide and cry like a mature person.
“Correction.” He turned back to Cekiah. “We will not hurt a single hair on Blake’s head. We just want to talk to him.”
A rough breath punched out of my lungs.
Cekiah glanced at me, lips pursed. What felt like a whole minute passed before she said, “You guys have half an hour. That’s it. You know where to find him.”
I watched Cekiah walk back through open double doors that led to the main part of the library. From where I stood, I could see rows of books. Slowly, I shifted my gaze to Luc. He looked the same as he had when I’d seen him walk up the driveway, the same as he’d been before he’d left. The intriguing and stunning lines and planes of his face were all familiar, as was the breadth of his shoulders and the lean tautness of his body. Those eyes were still shockingly beautiful, a shade so bright that it looked like jewels has been placed there.
Something was different, though, as he stared back at me.
“I’m guessing someone alerted you to what I was doing.”
“I’ll never tell,” I tried to tease, but it fell as flat as a board in the space between us. I wanted to talk to him about what I knew was bothering him, but now was not the time. “We didn’t talk this morning like you’d said we would.”
Luc said nothing.
I took a shallow breath. “You’re going to talk to Blake.”
He nodded.
“Did you think that maybe I would want to be here?” I asked, fully realizing that my voice was nowhere near as level as I wanted it to sound.
“I did.”
My brows lifted. “And?”
“And I figured since God only knows what Blake is going to say, I decided it probably wasn’t a good idea for you to be there.”