Chapter 198. Disbelief
Maisie
I was on my knees in front of the toilet, heaving until there was nothing left but bile and tears.
My throat burned. My hands shook as I gripped the cold porcelain, silent sobs wracking through me. I had locked the door behind me the moment I stumbled inside, too afraid that if I saw their faces, I would break completely.
A heavy fist pounded against the door.
"Maisie." It was Mercer’s voice. "Open the door."
Another knock, harder this time.
"Five seconds," Soren said from the other side, his voice tight. "If you’re not out here in five seconds, I’m breaking it down."
I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing the back of my hand against my mouth to muffle the sound of my breathing. My stomach was still twisting violently, but it had nothing to do with what I’d eaten.
It had everything to do with what I now knew.
I forced myself to my feet on shaky legs, gurgled some water, splashed some on my face, and unlocked the door.
The moment it opened, all four of them were there.
Soren stood closest, jaw tight, violet eyes scanning me from head to toe like he was checking for injuries. Mercer had his arms crossed, but his fingers were digging into his biceps. Quinn’s usual lazy expression was gone, replaced by something sharper, more alert. Jericho’s amber eyes were darker than I’d ever seen them.
"What happened?" Jericho demanded. His voice was calm, but I could hear the edge underneath it. "You vanished into thin fucking air. You can’t just fucking disappear without telling anyone."
I opened my mouth.
The truth sat right there on my tongue.
The dreams. The woman. The rift. The bodies by the rock. Margaret’s plan. Samhain. The crown. The fact that they were all going to die because of me. That I was the reason the gate would open. That I was the catalyst for everything falling apart.
I wanted to tell them. I wanted to spill every horrifying detail so they could help me figure out how to stop it.
But I couldn’t find the right words.
"I—I had a nightmare," I started, voice unsteady. "The same one I’ve been having since we got here. There’s this woman, and she’s running, and there’s a rift in the sky, and her mates—they die. They die right there by this... this weird rock. And I—I woke up tonight in the woods. Near that mountain. The one with the cliff. The one you said was just a cliff."
I saw Soren’s brow furrow, but I kept going, the words tumbling out faster now.
"I didn’t think it was real. I thought it was just—just dreams. But it’s not. It’s not just dreams. The ruby in the crown—it’s not from here. It’s from somewhere else. And I can open it. The gate. Because my father—he was from a bloodline. Keepers, they’re called. From another world. And I’m—I’m one too. Margaret’s been looking for me since I was a child. She wants me to open it. On Samhain. She’s going to kill the Queen and—"
My throat closed up. I swallowed hard. "If it opens—if I open it, then they’ll come through. The things from the other side. And you—you’ll—"
I couldn’t finish.
The room had gone completely silent.
Soren let out a long, tired sigh and dragged a hand down his face. "I told you not to drink the damned booze, Adams."
Quinlan grasped my cheeks, twisting my head left and right. Then he glanced over at Mercer. "You’re sure the healer’s remedy wasn’t laced with hallucinogens?"
"I am not hallucinating—"
Jericho leaned in, squinting at me. Then he cupped my chin and drew down my lower eyelid. "Her pupils are dilated. Did you take something? Special herbs maybe?"
"Are you asking if I smoked weed?!"
Soren’s gaze lowered to the floor. "What the fuck happened to your feet?"
"I just told you! I was sleeping... and then... I woke up—"
Mercer dropped to his haunches in front of me, grabbing my ankle and turning it to the side with a scowl. "Goddess, wildcat. You went for a stroll through a briar patch or what?"
"I was in the mountains—"
Jericho dropped to his knees behind me, his warm hands trailing the patch of skin I’d injured when I got smacked in the back of my thigh by a tree branch. "You couldn’t have put shoes on or thicker clothes for your little adventure? Look at this. You’re bleeding all over the floor."
"Did you hear nothing I said? If the gate opens—"
Quinlan picked me up under the arms without warning like I was a damned toddler. "Sit. Before you pass out."
He paused and sniffed me. His head snapped up. "Why do you smell like Bastian?"
My cheeks heated and I averted by gaze, getting slightly distracted from my train of thoughts. "I... ran into him on my way back—"
"And he touched you," Soren muttered, glaring at my wrists, my chest, like he knew where Bastian’s skin had touched me. "Clearly, I’m going to need to sever his hands from his body so he learns the meaning of boundaries."
Quinlan nodded in agreement as he set me down on the bed. "And his cock as well."
Jericho walked into the bathroom and grabbed a towel. He dropped onto one knee, Quinlan scooting over him, and he began wiping the dirt and crusted blood from my feet. "Maybe nail it to the front doors. Will make quite the sight by morning."
Soren took my hand and I bit back an angry curse when he ripped out a piece of branch I hadn’t noticed earlier from my finger.
"Could you all please stop for five seconds?" I shouted at them as they all started moving around the room like I’d announced I had a headache, not that their lives were in danger. "Why aren’t you listening to me? Margaret is going to—"
"Shhh." Quinlan patted the top of my head. "We’ll talk about your very vivid nightmare in the morning. After you’ve slept off whatever this is."
I didn’t know why I even bothered trying. Of course they didn’t believe me.
Who would?
And maybe it was right there that the thought came to mind first. Or maybe it was in the days that followed, fueled by my desperation to prove I wasn’t insane and with so little time to find out what Margaret’s plan was and save my mates.
The sense of impending doom held me in a choke hold.
And three days later, I found myself back there.
Behind that shelf at Greymoor.
In the center of a circle.