He was wrong. So very, very wrong. There was still plenty to hide from. Like my feelings. And her. I’d never escape her. I couldn’t hide from her when she was alive. She was always there, like my shadow, ready to drag me down kicking and screaming by my hair. Now that she was dead, she haunted my mind and my dreams. I thought about her every day, the guilt never left me alone for very long.
I couldn’t talk about her yet. Not with Quinton. Not with anyone. I wasn’t ready.
Maybe he saw it, maybe he didn’t, either way he left it alone and went back to his original topic. “What did he do?” He demanded.
I sighed. Lying to him wouldn’t do me any good and I knew he’d be relentless until he got what he wanted.
“He got too pushy with me and it freaked me out a little.” I glared at him. “It’s your fault he’s like this. You need to fix whatever it is that you did to him so he will leave me alone.”
A wall slammed shut over his eyes, hiding his intense emotions from me. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized just how much he hadn’t been holding back from me.
“I can’t do that,” he said quietly. He watched me wearily, like he feared my reaction.
“Why not,” I demanded to know. I hoped he was kidding.
“It’s the Love Potion, babe.” He rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly. “I figured it was my safest bet when it came to dealing with him. You didn’t like it when I made him sick so I found a way to ensure he wouldn’t hurt you anymore. I don’t know how to stop it, or how to reverse it. Honestly, I didn’t think you’d care so long as I didn’t hurt him.”
“Love…” I sputtered. “Love potion? What love potion?”
“Just something I whipped up to keep you safe. Now he’ll never hurt you because he’s in love with you.”
This was so wrong I didn’t have words for it.
Thankfully, I found some.
“Quinton, he wasn’t going to hurt me. He’s just some stupid bully who decided to pick on the new girl. In time, he would have gotten bored with it and moved on to the next person. You should have left him alone. Instead, you turned into a crazy person and did terrible things to him. I mean, seriously? Would you want to be in love with someone because someone else forced you to? I know I wouldn’t. That’s so messed up.”
Everything Quinton did was messed up in some way.
“Maybe it is messed up,” he admitted. “Maybe I’m messed up. But, Ariel, I can’t help it. It’s the only way I know how to be. And I’m not gonna change. I tried it before when I got Tyson. I tried to be different. I tried to be better and I missed something important because of it, something that almost wrecked my family.”
“Annabell,” I whispered, understanding him completely.
His eyes narrowed dangerously and he moved closer to me. His forehead brushed mine as he tilted his head down and growled, “How do you know that name?”
This was one of those times where honesty was my best option but I didn’t want to throw my sources under the bus.
“Ariel,” he demanded in a rough voice, “answer me.”
“The twins told me about her,” I mumbled, hating to give them up. I hoped Quinton didn’t go home and give them shit for it.
“Fuck,” he swore harshly. His arms fell away from the wall and he stepped back. “You should never have heard about her. I didn’t want you to know about her. Fuck, Ty’s gonna be so upset when he hears you know this story.”
I could only imagine they wouldn’t want me to know about her and what Quinton had done to her face.
The Salt and Pepper twins had told me about Annabell and they’d also told me about what Quinton had done to the beautiful girl’s face. Addison had said Quinton made an example out of Annabell to let the other covens know who they were dealing with when it came to him, to them. And it was, like most things with Quinton, extreme.
Quinton had concocted some special potion and mixed it in with her facewash. I have no idea what it was he’d used but whatever it was had been potent because it had ruined half her face.
The ruined half of her face was covered in horrific burns. Even half her mouth had been burnt, frozen for the rest of her days in a melted frown. I know this because I dreamed of her and my dreams always meant something. I couldn’t always figure out the meaning but I knew, I just knew, the face I’d seen in my dream had really been hers.
And she looked that way because of Quinton.
His eyes were wide and filled with fear. What was he afraid of? Not me? Maybe my reaction to him? I didn’t know but I’d never seen him look afraid before. It was worrisome.
“Quinton-”
He closed his eyes tightly and whispered, “Please don’t be afraid of me now. Please, please, Ariel, do not think I would ever do something like that to you. None of the guys would ever do any-”