Shadow's Kiss (Monstrous Hearts: Fleur's Story)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Dario didn't return that night. Fleur tried not to give in to her nerves while the nocturnal hours crawled by, but it was hard. Everything seemed ominously quiet. Even the ocean sounded muffled and weak.

Only one thing broke the tedium of staying awake. At nearly two in the morning, Fleur heard Savannah getting her brains fucked out next door. The walls were as thin as she'd expected, and she could hear both the other girl's moaning and the distinctive rhythm of a squeaking mattress. Fleur was pretty sure it wasn't Ethan, since they'd had another argument before dark, and she knew it wasn't Dario. For one thing, he wouldn't finish so quickly. For another, he wouldn't do that if he had come back to see her. She knew it in her gut.

By sunrise, her eyes felt dry and puffy from sleeplessness. Her hands picked the ends of her hair into an even frizzier state while other people in the hotel woke up and started making noise. She had really thought he'd be back by now. If this was what caring for someone felt like, then love was more crushing than the worst bout of anger or depression she'd ever had.

It didn't get any better as the day wore on. Her mind slipped and slid between two worries while she walked along the grounds and nearby trails to give herself something to do. Either he had succeeded and hadn't come back, or he was in trouble. Both ideas squeezed the breath out of her. He'd promised to return, and she had believed him. But being wrong about that was still easier to take than the other possibility. What if he was hurt or had somehow been turned back into a tree? The mere idea made her want to throw up. It felt impossible to calm down and remind herself that he had hours of traveling to do even if he was completely fine.

The only thing that kept her from outright panicking was promising herself that if he hadn't returned by tonight, then she could at least get help from Alice in finding him, and probably get help from Colton in killing Balbus or whoever had caught him. She hated feeling so helpless. It made every bad habit of hers itch to come out and consume her. She wanted to hide in her room. She wanted to disappear into a videogame and pretend the rest of the world didn't matter. Yet her heart continued to ache with every beat, insisting that there was no way to ignore this. It had changed too much. She had changed too much.

The wine tasting was at one in the afternoon. Her brain felt fried as she walked over to the hidden garden, which looked like four brick walls covered in ivy. A sign about the wine tasting had been placed beside the wooden door, and she already heard voices going at full speed. There was no way she could look interested, but she did manage to mutter something in response to one of the hotel staff greeting her on the way in.

A long wooden table waited in the middle of rose bushes and other cultivated plants bursting with colorful flowers. Strands of lights hung overhead, giving the area a warm glow despite the overcast day. Twelve place settings of burlap and linen had been set out but were unmarked, leaving it up to guests to pick their seats.

Fiona already sat next to Jed and Maria at one end of the table, so Fleur joined them, receiving a chorus of hellos before the conversations continued. Maria seemed bright and bubbly again, speaking to the woman next to her about the beauty of the beach and how different it was from the Gulf Coast. Jed had just asked Fiona about her favorite type of wine.

"Zinfandel," she said, with a smile. "Like everything else, I love my wine bold and strong. But I'll never say no to a good oaked chardonnay."

Fleur stopped listening almost immediately. She couldn't drink wine yet, so there was no reason to pretend to be interested. Instead, she glanced to her right after catching a flicker of movement from the corner of her eye, heart jumping at the possibility that Dario had arrived. The brief hope deflated when she saw it was Savannah and Ethan settling in the chairs next to hers. Luckily, they both ignored her. Unluckily, they already bitched at each other.