Chapter 85

HAZEL

Looking at his face it was like I forgot every word in the vocabulary. He was so close to me yet it felt like a stranger’s eyes that I looked into. His fingers softly graced the skin around my temple but his touch wasn’t one that I recognized. Now when I looked at him he was soft and caring, his eyes bled with the emotions that I thought he was incapable of feeling and they swam in the humanity that he suppressed for the longest time.

I didn’t see the monster that took me—played with me and broke me apart. The light coming in through the door lit up behind him and the last fog from Zade’s disappearance was fanning out in the room.

“He can come back,” I said and slowly turned my head away from his touch.

My hands pressed against the cold floor and I started to stand.

“I hope he does,” Darian said in a warning and grabbed my hand as he helped me up.

“Where do you think he went?”

Darian paused for a beat and shook his head.

“I don’t