A Slave to Broken Hearts (A Slave to Love Sequel)

Chapter 84: Family

Blade POV

"Ace is here," Leo said, poking his head past my bedroom door.

For him to knock and bother me, especially at this hour when he was supposed to have left already, meant the situation must have been especially dire, which is why I had let him in at all, but to hear those specific words come out of his mouth?

It was way fucking worse than I had imagined.

Why in the goddamn world would he be here? Kiana was supposed to be out with him tonight, so why the fuck was he here to see me? Kiana wasn't even with him, I couldn't feel her anywhere nearby, so what gives? Did they not go out tonight at all or had her plan actually worked?

"So?" I didn't dare lift my eyes from my book. As far as Leo knew, Ace and I were on the outs, and that was how I had to continue to act, even though it took every ounce of restraint not to run downstairs, demand to know if Kiana was okay, and maybe toss him into a wall before demanding for him to tell me the truth of what the fuck was going on lately.

"He said he needs to talk to you, that it's important."

I snorted, flipping a page of my book that I hadn't actually read, eyes still down like I didn't give a damn, even though I'd never been so invested in going downstairs to answer the door in my life.

"It's about Kiana."

My head whipped up at once, that all too familiar cold noose of fear squeezing tight around my ribs and throat. At least this gave me the perfect reason to investigate, even Leo knew I wouldn't dare ignore the possibility of something to do with her, especially after her sickness, so it wouldn't be strange for me to go down and talk to Ace now.

I got up, tugging a shirt on as I wordlessly passed him to meet Ace downstairs at the front door. His face was inscrutable and it took every effort to keep putting one foot calmly in front of the other.

What if something had happened to Kiana? Was she found out? What if he was behind this and realized Kiana was onto him? Would he hurt her? Imprison her over it? Make her forget about it, forget about me? Or maybe she'd gone missing? My tattoo was the same, I'd been obsessively checking it since we parted, antsy and restless and waiting for her to summon me, but hoping she wouldn't because there was no good reason for her to summon me and I didn't want her to end up in a situation where she needed to use that emergency fallback. 

"Care for a walk?" he said, gesturing to the surrounding trees of the property. 

"Why the fuck are you here?" Why did he want to talk alone was the better question. He wasn't dressed for work like he normally was and I could smell Kiana on him, strong enough that he must have just seen her. Whether that was a good sign or not, I had no fucking clue, but at least I didn't smell blood or anything else that might mean she was hurt. Or worse. Not that that counted for anything, but I clung to it before I lost what little semblance of control I had left.

"It's about Kiana and it's important," he said, arm dropping by his side, his other hand tucked into the front pocket of his jeans. He was uncomfortable and stiff, but trying to look casual. Whether it was because of what he had to tell me or because of how shitty things were between us, I couldn't guess and I didn't care too. "I wouldn't bother you otherwise."

"You could have called. Or texted."

"I very much doubt you would have answered if I did call and this wasn't something I wanted to tell you over text."

"Then we can talk right here," I said, folding my arms. Ace had been one of the few people on this miserable earth to earn my complete and utter trust, but right now, I couldn't afford to believe that anymore. It was just as likely that this was a trap to remove me by getting me alone away from my house and prying eyes, be it him or someone pretending to be him, figuring I would go more willingly with a familiar face. It smelled like him, but that didn't mean shit to me anymore.

Kiana had disqualified Eliza already with the help of an incognito witch and a handy truth spell, which meant Ace was the next major suspect. He was much harder to deal with as he had more contacts in the witch community and could recognize any number of them, and pointed questions might raise his suspicions, or that of whoever was watching us. We had to tread more carefully now, rely on witches and truth spells only when absolutely necessary, and focus on more subtle ways of finding things out. I just hoped Kiana hadn't tipped her hand too soon or been found out already somehow, that our plan hadn't backfired already.