The Silence

Chapter 8

Adriel

Hours later, Kaden was still crying, and everyone who had seen the photos was deeply unsettled. Kaden had never told anyone what happened that day, but Quinn somehow knew, and had painted it with such detail that I half expected the paintings to float off the canvases.

Lysander, for once, had nothing evil to say. I thought he looked a bit shaken as well.

My current mission was to find Quinn, apologize to her for leaving her at an ice-cream shop, then freak out at her because of her paintings. Lucas had assigned a bunch of others to help.

I was on my way to check her bedroom, with Lucas tailing me breathlessly and trying to gasp out coherent sentences. I paid no attention, figuring he could tell me when I stopped freaking out, which would only be when Quinn offered some perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this.

"Adriel!" Lucas snapped out. "Just listen for a sec! We should look at her notebooks! Sketchbooks! Whatever they are. I saw drawings in them, maybe---"

"We can't touch those, Lucas, she goes nuts, just . . . oh, hey."

Quinn stood in the middle of the hallway, her whole face glowing with a reproachful light. I swallowed. "Hey, Quinn. I, um, I wanted to say sorry. For leaving you alone. I really am. And I'm thankful for, you know, helping me get my mate. Finding her for me. I know, I must sound terrible right now, but anyway, I'm sorry for being so stupid and thank-you for leading me to Bree."

Quinn jerked her head in a brief nod. Relieved, I let out a breath just as Lucas elbowed me aside.

It would take a day to explain the kind of conversation they had, because it was a lot of yelling on Lucas's part, and a lot of exaggeratedly innocent expressions and furious scribbling on hers. Quinn had the typical "I don't know what you're talking about" response to the situation and it pissed Lucas off big-time. Finally, Quinn shook her head violently and ran down the hall, making a sharp left turn into her bedroom.

We ran after her and found her sticking out of the closet. 

Lucas was breathing loud, angry breaths, but I'd remained silent, still guilty for abandoning her. I was able to watch Quinn calmly, unlike Lucas who no doubt wanted to destroy everything within the vicinity. 

Quinn opened one of the suitcases and rummaged through one of the many sketchbooks she kept. It was thin, with not many pages in it. She slammed the case shut, locked it, and ram back to us. Or rather, she ran right past Lucas who gave her a look of great indignation as she thrust the book at me.

"I brought you home after Adriel left you, and you go to him?" he demanded with a genuinely offended look.

Quinn flashed a piece of paper. He apologized but you just yelled at me for no reason.

Lucas growled under his breath, then froze.

A feeling of dread pooled to life inside me, and I had a pretty good idea of who had just entered the room uninvited.

"Alpha, nice to see you here. We were just in the middle of something," I said in a low tone, not bothering to face him. I'd see nothing but hatred and danger in Lysander. I was tired of it.

"I suggest you forget what you're doing and start getting ready for the Pack meeting in seven days. Get the human presentable, and the sorceress as well."

Castilla hated Pack meetings. That was going to be a chore.

"Very well. I will get right on it," I said with icy formality. Lucas shot me a wide-eyed pleading look that very clearly begged me to stop treading close to the line. But I could hardly care anymore if Lysander cut me down from behind. He didn't though, and I listened to the sound of his retreating footsteps with something like relief in my heart.