Eternal Promise: (The Cursed Series, Book 5)

by Kara Leigh Miller

  I leaned forward, waiting for him to continue. When he didn’t, I turned to follow his gaze. What was he looking at? I turned back to Abby, who didn’t seem the least bit fazed by Isach’s strange behavior.

  “He used a spell to be able to communicate telepathically with Whitney,” Abby said. “They’re trying to trap Felicity. They’ve been trying all weekend.”

  My gaze jerked back to Isach. He was helping them catch Felicity? Then why was he sneaking into Abby’s room? If Felicity was supposed to be watching him, shouldn’t he be out there somewhere, leading her toward Jax and Whitney and Colt? Wasn’t Isach being here going to lead Felicity directly to me and Abby?

  Finally, after what felt like hours, Isach blinked and refocused on me. “They got her.” He exhaled with visible relief. “They’re taking her back to the house to question her.”

  I should be relieved, too, but I had too many questions. Confusion clouded my thoughts.

  “I have to go.” Isach gave Abby a kiss and then moved toward her window.

  “Wait.” I grabbed his arm. “Why are they questioning her? I thought the plan was to just… get rid of her.”

  “They will, but we need to know what she knows and what she’s told my father,” he said.

  Mention of his father kicked my brain into overdrive. “Speaking of your father, why did you talk to him? That wasn’t what we’d agreed on. What did you tell him?”

  “Chloe, relax.” Isach smiled, and peace washed over me. “I need to get over to Trent’s so we can deal with this. If you want, come over, too, and I’ll tell you everything.”

  I nodded. “Do you have your car?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Meet us at the large tree near the end of the driveway. We’ll be out there in ten minutes,” I said.

  With a nod, Isach disappeared out the window. I knew he couldn’t make that jump like Trent did, so I assumed he used some sort of magic to get himself safely to the ground.

  I spun around to face Abby and grinned. “Told you he still loved you.”

  Abby laughed. “Why did you tell him to meet us? Mom and Dad are not going to let us out of the house now. It’s past curfew, and I’m pretty sure they’re both in bed already.”

  “I know.” I headed for the door. “Get dressed. We’re sneaking out.”

  WHEN WE ARRIVED AT Trent’s, I rushed inside to find Felicity tied to a kitchen chair that had been placed in the middle of the living room—all the other furniture had been pushed out of the way. Trent, Jax, Whitney, Wyatt, Colt, Karina, and Sean stood around her.

  Relief made my shoulders sag; everyone was all right. I hadn’t been able to shake the awful fear that maybe some of them had gotten injured.

  “Chloe? What’re you doing here?” Trent asked, shock flashing behind his eyes.

  “I snuck out and got a ride with him.” I hooked my thumb over my shoulder to indicate Isach, who walked in with Abby. “It’s a long story,” I added when Trent gave me a confused look.

  Trent wrapped me in a hug. “I really wish you hadn’t come,” he whispered. “Though, I’m really glad to see you again.”

  “I need answers,” I said, hugging him back briefly. “I won’t get in the way. Promise.” I released him and took his hand, lacing our fingers.

  Isach grabbed another chair from the kitchen and set it in front of Felicity. Then, he sat. “Okay, Felicity. It’s time to talk.”

  The way he spoke, the calming yet deadly lilt to his voice made me shudder. He’d spoken to me like that when he’d taken me and fed me to Hannah. I closed my eyes, but that did nothing to block out his voice. Trent was right—I wished I hadn’t come, either.

  “I answer to your father. Not you,” Felicity said with a childlike giggle. “Why don’t we bring him here and let him question me.” Her gaze wandered around the room, resting on me for an uncomfortably long amount of time. “I’m sure he’d really enjoy meeting your friends.”

  Whitney grabbed a handful of Felicity’s hair and yanked her head back. Felicity howled in pain, and I turned toward Trent, hiding my face against his chest.

  “Talk, or we’ll just kill you and be done with it,” Whitney said.

  “You know I’m stronger than you,” Isach said. Everything about his demeanor was calm, as if torturing people for information was no big deal. For him, maybe it wasn’t. “And you know I can make you talk, but that won’t be very pleasant, so why don’t you just cooperate?”

  Felicity smiled, the gesture taunting and evil, almost like she was having fun.

  “Why did my father send you to follow me?” Isach asked.

  I held my breath—this was the moment of truth. If Rector suspected something, we needed to know. But would he tell someone as unstable as Felicity? I doubted that.

  “He knows you’re involved with someone. Her.” Felicity jutted her chin in Abby’s direction, and all at once, everyone turned to look at her.

  Abby stood frozen, eyes wide.

  “Daddy dearest wanted to know who she was and why you were spending so much time with her,” Felicity said. “He was very upset that you didn’t bring her home to meet your coven.”

  “I don’t know where he—or you—got your information, but she doesn’t mean a thing to me. She’s just something to pass the time.” Isach shrugged.

  I reached out and took Abby’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, praying she knew Isach didn’t mean what he’d just said.

  He must have told her everything when he’d been in her room earlier, so surely, she knew this was an act, a way to take the focus off her. Although, I didn’t understand why he needed to do that. If the plan was to get rid of Felicity permanently, then what did it matter what she knew? She wouldn’t be alive long enough to report back to Rector.

  “In fact, I told her a few days ago that she was starting to bore me.” Isach waved his hand dismissively. “Now, tell me the real reason you’re following me.”

  Felicty’s gaze landed on Colt. “Hello, Colton. Have you missed me?” She pouted. “I know Dante was quite upset when you stole his toy.” Her eyes darted to Karina, then shifted back to Colt.

  “Does Dante know I’m here?” Colt asked, hands clenched into fists at his sides.

  “No.” Felicity sighed. “He became rather upset with me when I told him I was planning to rejoin my coven. We haven’t spoken recently.”

  “You know Rector is never going to let you come back to the coven,” Isach said. “He’s just using you, Felicity. You betrayed him once. He’ll never trust you again.”

  Felicity’s head snapped forward, and her eyes sparked with glee. “Does Daddy know you’re slumming it with these filthy Halstead vampires?”

  “No, and he’s never going to find out,” Jax said.

  Before I could blink, Jax snapped Felicity’s neck. Her head slumped forward. I stifled a scream.

  “There. Problem solved. You’re welcome,” Jax said before he stormed out of the house.

  Everything around me was silent for only a moment before everyone started talking all at once. Still holding Abby’s hand, I tugged her backward, away from the chaos.

  I couldn’t tear my gaze from Felicity. I’d never seen a dead body before. Slowly, my stomach started to churn. Bile rose in the back of my throat, and sweat broke out across my forehead. I was going to be sick.

  Releasing Abby’s hand, I cupped my hand over my mouth and inhaled slowly through my nose. I needed air. Spinning around, I raced outside and down the porch steps. I stopped, bent over, and placed my hands on my knees, sucking in as much fresh air as fast as I could.

  “Are you all right?” Jax asked.

  I gasped at the sound of his voice and straightened. “You killed her,” I said.

  “Isn’t that what you wanted? You agreed to it, remember?” He stood near the far end of the porch, arms crossed.

  “Yeah, but…”

  “But what?” Jax stalked toward me. “She knew who we were. She knew about Abby. Chances are she knew abou
t you, too. She had to die. It was the only way to protect you.”

  “But now we’ll never know what she told Rector.” Tears pooled in my eyes.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Jax took a few more steps toward me, and I backed up. He stopped. “You’re afraid of me right now?” Pain laced his words. “C’mon, Chloe. Seriously?”

  I swallowed hard as the first few tears slipped down my face. “You killed her, and you didn’t even flinch.”

  He laughed bitterly. “She is not the first person I’ve killed. I’m a vampire, remember?”

  I couldn’t wrap my mind around what he was saying. How could he kill someone so easily and without any remorse?

  Jax shook his head. “It was you or her, and you should know by now that I will always choose you.”

  My heart splintered, and I wiped my cheeks. “Jax.” I sighed his name as if it were a prayer, and in the next moment, he was in front of me, close enough to kiss.

  “I’m sorry I frightened you.” He hesitantly trailed the back of his hand down the side of my face, and my body trembled. “She was dangerous, and now she’s not. But think about it.” His gaze grew intense. “If she had told Rector about you, or that Isach was hanging out with us, Rector and his entire coven would’ve attacked by now.”

  I simply stared back at him, unsure what to say and too afraid to move—not because I thought he’d hurt me, but because I wasn’t sure what I’d do when I finally did move. I’d either kiss him or smack him, and neither option was smart.

  “Please don’t be afraid of me,” he said, his tone pained.

  “I’m not,” I whispered.

  “Chloe!” Trent’s frantic voice boomed from somewhere on the porch.

  I whipped around, heart in my throat. “I’m right here,” I said.

  He rushed toward me and yanked me into his arms. “No one had any idea where you went. One minute you were standing there, and then you weren’t.”

  “I needed some air, and then I—” I spun back around, but Jax was gone. Disappointment landed in my gut. I rubbed my temples in an effort to hold off the impending headache.

  “Then what?” Trent asked.

  “I got sick,” I lied.

  In my head, I could hear Jax’s voice whispering about how I was a terrible liar. An involuntary smile pulled at the corner of my mouth, and I quickly hid it.

  “I knew the plan was to get rid of her, but I didn’t think I’d have to see it,” I said.

  “I’m sorry.” Trent once again enveloped me in a hug and rested his chin on the top of my head. “I have no idea why Jax did that.”

  To protect me. But I kept that thought to myself. “So, now what?” I asked.

  “Sean is going to take care of her body.” Trent released me, then took my hand. “Let’s go back inside.”

  I hesitated, my feet rooted to the ground. There was no way I could go back in there and see Felicity’s dead body. The image of her like that would haunt me forever.

  “She’s gone,” he said.

  After another moment, I forced myself to go back inside. Abby sat on one of the couches, face buried in her hands. Isach sat next to her, his arm wrapped around her protectively. At least something good came from tonight—Abby and Isach were back together. We never should’ve snuck out of the house, but I’d been desperate for answers. I still was.

  “So, now that she’s gone, what happens next? Rector will realize she’s missing,” I said, cutting through the otherwise silent room.

  “I’ll tell him she ran off,” Isach said.

  “And then what?” I pinned him with a hard stare. “We still don’t know what she told your father, but we do know he knows about Abby.”

  I nearly gagged saying those words—Abby didn’t deserve to be caught up in this mess. She was innocent.

  “Which is why I have to keep pretending Abby and I aren’t together.” Isach’s voice was low and sad. “At least until all of this is over.”

  My jaw dropped. Based on the timeline I had in my head—four and a half months until the wedding, nine months for a pregnancy, then two months after that until Trent changed me…

  “That’s going to be months. You can’t do that to her. It’s not fair,” I said.

  Isach stood and approached me, his green eyes fiery. “You think I don’t know that? I never wanted any of this, Chloe, but what other choice do I have? I won’t let my father touch her, and if that means I need to walk away for a while, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

  I clenched my teeth and balled my hands into fists. “What do you think’s going to happen when your father finds out Felicity is dead? He’s going to react. Then what?”

  “I’ll deal with my father,” Isach said, his words clipped.

  “How?” I demanded.

  If it was as simple as Isach “dealing with his father,” we wouldn’t be in this mess right now.

  “If you think this is so unfair, and if you don’t trust me to deal with things, then why don’t you do something about it?” Isach got in my face, but I didn’t budge. He wasn’t going to intimidate me. “You’re the key to all of this, Chloe. If you’d just change, we could end this right here, right now.”

  I glared at him with all the fury I could muster.

  “But you won’t, will you?” he continued. “Because having Trent’s baby is more important than anything else, isn’t it? You don’t really care about Abby.”

  I slapped him across the face. Hard. I cried out as a stinging pain shot up my arm.

  The room fell silent, and Abby stared up at me through tear stained eyes. Then, I was ripped away as Trent shoved me behind him, placing himself between me and Isach.

  “You went too far, Zoya,” Trent said with a deadly snarl.

  I flexed my fingers, but the sting lingered. My palm was beet red. Before I could tell Trent to relax, Jax, Wyatt, Colt, and Whitney flanked him on either side, creating a vampire shield in front of me.

  “Stop it!” Abby shrieked.

  I squeezed around the vampire wall and stood facing Abby. Isach’s accusation rang in my ears. You don’t really care about Abby. He was wrong—I did. But changing now meant giving up everything I wanted. Was I willing to do that for her?

  Abby marched toward me, and I held my breath, fulling expecting her to smack me or scream at me. But she didn’t. Instead, she took hold of my hand and squared her shoulders. Then, she turned her attention to Isach.

  “How dare you.” Her voice trembled. “Chloe has the chance to have the life she wants, and I would never take that away from her.”

  Tears pooled in my eyes, and I gave her hand a squeeze.

  “Did you seriously think I’d become a vampire before I had the chance to have kids?” Abby asked with genuine sincerity.

  “Abby,” Isach said, his tone much softer than it had been moments ago. “I didn’t—”

  “No.” She held up her hand to silence him. “You don’t get to guilt Chloe into giving up everything so that I can have it all. And you really don’t get to use me as an excuse to bully her.” She gave a hard shake of her head. “Without her, we wouldn’t even be together right now, and you wouldn’t have a way out of your coven. So, stop being a jerk and apologize. Now.”

  I couldn’t stop the laugh that erupted. I clamped my lips shut, but a quick glance at Trent, Colt, and Jax showed they were trying not to laugh, either. I never expected Abby to come to my defense like that, nor had I ever heard her stand up for herself before, but I was incredibly proud of her.

  “I’m sorry I hit you,” I said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

  Maybe if I made the first move, Isach would follow, and we could all get back to what really mattered—figuring out how to deal with Rector now that his spy was dead.

  Abby sliced a look at me and smiled.

  “I’m sorry, too,” Isach said, dragging his hand through his hair. “I know you care about Abby, and I really don’t expect you to change before you’re ready.”

  “T
hank you.”

  Awkward silence descended, and I shifted on my feet. As I’d been asking everyone else all night… Now what?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:

  Breaking Point

  THE REST OF THE WEEK WAS tense. Abby cried every day on the way home from school. Pretending to be broken up with Isach was taking its toll on her, especially when he walked around ignoring all of us.

  Two days after the Felicity incident, Isach even stopped texting Abby, and there hadn’t been anymore late night visits to her room. Abby had no idea if they were still pretending or not, and she was fast approaching her breaking point.

  Of course, I couldn’t stop myself from drowning in guilt.

  Like it or not, Isach was right. If I just changed now, we could put an end to the Zoya and the hold they had over Isach. He could leave, join Ivy’s coven, and be with Abby. But, selfishly, I was holding on tightly to our original plan, to the scenario where I’d get everything I ever wanted.

  “You haven’t been able to get inside his head at all?” I asked Whitney as we walked toward the cafeteria on Friday.

  “No. He has me completely blocked,” she said.

  I groaned. What was going on? Not knowing was worse than anything. Was Rector still having Isach followed? I hadn’t seen anyone else lurking, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone watching him. Or all of us.

  “It would be nice if he gave us some idea about what was going on,” I grumbled.

  “Maybe it’s time we make him talk.” Whitney shrugged.

  Yeah, because the last time we forced a Zoya to talk had worked so well. Jax wouldn’t hesitate to kill Isach, and I was beginning to wonder if Trent would be just as eager.

  I walked into the cafeteria and headed straight for our table. Ellie, Nick, and Abby were already seated. I sat next to Abby, and as soon as I did, she nudged me with her elbow. I glanced at her.

  She lowered her eyes, and I followed her gaze. She held a crumpled sheet of paper under the table. There was messy black writing scrawled across the paper.

  I have info. Tonight. Everyone. Midnight.

  My eyes widened, and I met her gaze. She nodded, and that was all the confirmation I needed—Isach was finally ready to talk to us.