Rebellion

Chapter Sixteen: Edward

Chapter Sixteen: Edward

            Luna returned to the inn distraught, her emotions displayed plainly on her face for the first time since I’d met her.

            “Did you find him?” I asked when we were alone, away from the main room and eavesdropping ears.

            “Yes,” she said shortly, not offering anything more.

            I studied her carefully, taking in the slump of her shoulders, the angle of her neck as her head drooped, the fatigue evident in every line of her body.

            I resisted the urge to touch her cheek. “How is he?”

            She laughed bitterly before turning her hollow gaze on me. “Would I be this upset if he were well?”

            My heart plummeted.

            “He’s not…” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence.

            “No, he’s not dead,” she said, dispelling the worst of my fears with a wave of her hand.

            “Then what?” I asked, wondering what could be bad enough to make Luna look so shaken.

            She eyed me for a moment, measuring me for something before she replied. “How long has he been using?” she asked quietly.

            “Using what?” I asked, not following her at all.

            She pinned me with another hard look before sighing and turning away. “I guess I can’t blame you for not noticing.”

            “Luna, what are you talking about?” I asked. I moved around to see her face, and my heart broke at her look of utter helplessness. “Where did you find him?” I asked gently.

            “In an opium den,” she said softly. “He reeked of the smoke.”

            I felt faint for a moment. Luke, on opium? I couldn’t reconcile the thoughts.

            Sure, he liked drinking, and I’d seen him with more women than I could count, but he’d never turned to drugs.

            At least, not in my presence.

            “Maybe it wasn’t what you thought it was—” I started.

            She closed her eyes tightly. “He was stretched out on his back, entirely out of it when I got there. The man who owns the den told me he’d been there for a couple of hours.”

            I winced. It didn’t look good, but surely there was another explanation. “Maybe—”

            “Edward, we can’t keep making excuses for him,” she said quietly. “He’s been doing this for years.”

            I felt like all the air had escaped from my chest. “Impossible,” I said, shaking my head. “Someone would have noticed. You can’t hide something like that—”

            “But he did,” she said, pain coloring her voice as she shook slightly. “He hid it from all of us.”

            “Luna, surely there’s a mistake.”

            She shook her head slowly. “I saw the memories,” she said, wrapping her arms around her middle.

            I thought in that moment that I had never seen anything more broken.