Just fuckingno.
My heartbeat crawled into my ears before every tether in my body snapped back to my wife, whom he thought was in Maine.
"We have to go," I said, taking hold of her arm, when another hit shook the plaster above us, and I halted, my eyes bouncing between the fire escape and the bedroom door. If they were on the roof, they would have a clear shot at us when we tried to break free.
A muffled scream died in the distance when the sound of boots came stomping up the staircase.
"Stay here," I said calmly, keeping my voice under control. "I need to make sure it is safe."
"But what if it's not?"
A door flew open across the hall. Blade.
"Daphne. Stay! I fucking mean it."
Daph's eyes narrowed, but she nodded, allowing her touch to drop slowly from my skin. I glanced at the freckle on her neck. The way her fingers curled into her palms and shot her a grin before heading for the door.
"I love you," she said again through an uneven breath, and I paused. "And if you see Wolfe, tell him I love him, too. I mean, tell him I am pissed, but I love him."
My chest bent, the curve of my ribs piercing my insides.
"Forever," I winked, turning the doorknob.
"Foralways," she repeated, and I caught it in my lungs… letting the door close behind me.
thirty-nine
Daphne: Dark, Violent Things
I blinked in the quiet of Thay’s room, noticing the crumpled sheets, a pile of dirty t-shirts, and hundreds of newly sketched images of me taped onto the plaster. Thay didn’t do messy. He was constantly lining things up and creating structure, unless his internal world was on fire. If you caught his boots in the middle of the floor, you could almost always predict a storm heading your way. But this time, it was me. My being in Maine had broken him, messy sheets and all.
The thought barely settled before something slammed against the door, and I jumped, stumbling back toward the window when another thud jolted the floorboards. My heart raced, flooding my mouth with silver as I scrambled for the gun on the bedside table.
The weight of it hit me harder than the noise.
How I had survived in this world without ever pulling a trigger was beyond me. Still, it didn’t feel right in my hands. Maybe it was because Thay had always held the gun.
SLAM.
My head jerked north toward the unsettling screech of something dragging above when another sound hit. This time closer. Too close.
Bang!
I fell on my face, calling out the only name my mouth knew how to form.
And then I saw it.
My eyes caught on the edge of a familiar tattoo beneath the doorway.
“Thay?” I mouthed again, but this time for a different reason. “Thayor.”
Something fractured behind my eyes, and before I could stop myself, I reached for the doorknob and swung it wide.
“Thay!” I cried out, tossing my hands over my mouth when everything sputtered, breaking the smear of red on the floor into strange, jagged pulses. Nothing felt real.
Pulse.
Blade’s door swayed in the absence of wind.