“Get her out of here,” Quinton ordered.
Julian didn’t listen to me and he kept walking. As he walked out of the bathroom I noticed the blood and screamed. Blood was starting to spread out across the white tiled floor around my mother’s head. From achingly familiar eyes she stared out at nothing. This time her eyes really were vacant and dead.
Chapter Twenty-eight
“Why is she naked? Why are you carrying her around while she’s naked?”
“Where the fuck are her clothes? Put her down and get her some clothes, you fucking pervert.”
“Where are you taking her?”
“Why is she all wet?”
“What… What happened to her face? Who did that to her face? Julian, what the fuck is going on?”
I whimpered and pressed my battered face into Julian’s soft t-shirt. I didn’t want people looking at my battered face.
“Where are you taking her?”
“Where’s my Uncle?”
“Please, please, Julian,” I begged. “Take me back. Bring me back upstairs. I need to see her. I need… I just… I just need to see her.” I needed to see her dead.
“Shh…” he murmured. “Quiet, girl. I promise you, you do not want to go back up there and see that. Quint’s going to take care of everything. We’re going next door and I’m going to get you cleaned up.”
“She’s dead, isn’t she? When she hit her head, it killed her. We need to call the police, it was an accident. He didn’t mean to hurt her, he only wanted to keep her away from me. If not for Quinton, I’d be dead. Dead.”
“You’re not going anywhere with her until you tell me what in the fuck is going on,” Tyson yelled. “And where in the fuck is my Uncle?”
I slowly turned my head until I could see him. Tyson, my friend. I didn’t want him to yell. Thankfully, I’d stopped crying again. I was numb inside.
“My mother is dead,” I said in a quiet voice. I titled my head back and looked up at Julian. “She is dead, right?”
He stared down at me for a beat while his gentle eyes ran over my messed-up face. Compassion filled his eyes. “Yeah, honey, I think she’s dead.”
Dead. My mother was dead.
I nodded. Okay.
I already knew that, but now I had confirmation.
“Are you saying Quint killed Ariel’s mother?” Tyson shouted. “He wouldn’t do that. I know he does a lot of crazy shit, but he wouldn’t do that. Not to Ariel.”
“It was an accident,” I insisted, “and we need to call the police.”
“We can’t do that, honey,” Julian said in a gentle voice. “Quint’s going to take care of things here. But for now, we have to get you out of here. Someone want to get her a blanket or a towel or something to cover her up with? I don’t want to take her outside like this.”
I didn’t see why it mattered at this point.
I closed my eyes and rested my head back against Julian’s hard chest. They talked around me but I didn’t listen. I was naked in a room full of guys. Even the ones that didn’t seem to like me were here. My mother had tried to kill me and once again, my face was all messed-up. Quinton saved me. He stood between me and my mother and when she went to attack me again he stopped her. No one had ever stood between us before. No one had ever tried to stop the abuse. Quinton saved me. And my mother was dead because of it. My mother was dead and we weren’t calling the police. I didn’t understand why, but I had to trust them.
Something was draped over my body and then we were on the move again. I should have struggled and fought more to stay. I wanted to see my mother one mo
re time and I had an insane urge to hug Quinton and maybe never let him go.
The air changed, growing warmer, and I knew we were outside. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything. Having magic, what did it matter? Nothing mattered when my own mother had wanted me dead. What had I done to her to make her treat me in such a way? If my own mother couldn’t find it in her to love me it was highly likely no one else ever would.
“That’s it, honey,” Julian murmured, “you go right ahead and cry. Get it all out.”