Chapter 14: Love?

The line went dead, and so did something inside me.

I was already moving before Xena could react, yanking open the study door, my mind racing through the connections. Xena's father, The dead servant and the poison and now Winora? What was she?

"Fenrir, wait!" Xena chased after me, her heels clicking against marble. "You can't just "

"Your father knows something." I didn't slow down. "And he just told you to run. That makes him either a target or a traitor."

"He's neither!" She grabbed my arm, forcing me to stop. "My father has served your family for forty years. He would never "

"Then why did he sound terrified?"

She had no answer.

We burst through the main doors into the underground garage. The sleek black cars sat in rows, their polished surfaces reflecting the harsh fluorescent lights. The servant's body had been found in one of them her father's Bentley. The irony wasn't lost on me.

Xena's phone buzzed. A text.

She read it as her face crumbled.

"He's gone." Her voice was hollow. "My father. His car is missing. His office has been cleared out."

"Running." I clenched my jaw. "That's as good as a confession."

"No." She shook her head, tears spilling. "You don't understand. He was scared, Fenrir. Someone was threatening him. I could hear it in his voice."

"Threatening him about what?"

"I don't off know!" She wiped her face. "But he warned me to get out. He was trying to protect me."

I stared at her. Twenty years of loyalty from her family and now this.

"You said. he told someone she's not what she seems." I stepped closer. "What did he mean?"

Xena's lip trembled What. "I don't know. But Fenrir... he said 'the girl is' before the line cut if he was about to say something important? Something that could save her?"

My chest tightened.

I pulled out my phone, dialing Sera.

"How is she?"

A pause. Then, "The convulsions have stopped

but her pulse is fading. You need to find that antidote."

"I'm working on it."

I hung up, turning back to Xena.

"You're coming with me."

"Where?"

"To find your father." I grabbed her wrist. "If he knows something about Winora, we need him alive."

We got in my car a matte black Range Rover with reinforced armor and bulletproof glass. The engine roared to life as I peeled out of the garage.

Xena gripped the door handle. "Where would he go?"

"You tell me."

She thought for a moment. "There's a safe house. In the hills. He keeps it off the books."

"Directions."

She gave them as I pushed the car faster. The city lights blurred past as the rain started to fall, streaking across the windshield.

"Why do you care so much?" Xena's voice was small. "She's just a contract."

"Don't."

"I'm serious." She turned to look at me. "You barely know her yet here you are, racing through the rain, threatening your oldest friend, going after your mother for a girl you've known for weeks."

I didn't answer.

"Unless..." Her eyes widened. "Fenrir. Do you love her?"

The word hit me like a fist to the chest.

Love???I didn't do love. I did duty, Honor and legacy. Love was for people who could afford to be weak.

"She's my responsibility."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one you're getting."

We drove in silence. The rain grew heavier, pounding against the roof. My phone buzzed again—Sera.

I answered.

"Fenrir, you need to get back here. Now."

"Why? What happened?"

A pause. Then, "She's awake and she's asking for you."

My heart stopped.

"Keep her calm. I'm on my way."

"Fenrir, there's something else." Sera's voice dropped. "She said something before she woke. Something about the poison."

"What did she say?"

"She said... 'your mother made it.'"

I nearly drove off the road.

"What?"

"She's asking for you. She won't say anything else until she sees you. Hurry."

I hung up, my mind reeling.

"Change of plans." I spun the wheel, tires screeching.

Xena grabbed the dashboard. "What are you doing?"

"Going back."

"But my father "

"Will have to wait." I floored the accelerator. "Winora is awake and she knows something."

We sped back toward the castle, rain lashing against the windows. My hands gripped the wheel so hard my knuckles went white.

hy did it feel like every answer was leading somewhere I didn't want to go?

We hit the castle gates at full speed. I didn't wait for the car to stop before I was out running through the rain, through the corridors toward my chambers.

I burst through the door as Winora sat up in my bed, pale and trembling, but Alive as her eyes found mine and something in them made my chest crack open.

She reached for me with a shaking hand and I took it.