Page 26 of Noctis

I hung up and sat there breathing hard for the best part of a minute. The force of everything I was feeling had made me forget I wasn’t alone until Caligo moved closer and positioned himself in my line of sight.

“Did you stick around to say I told you so?”

He tilted his head to one side and studied me.

“What?” I said, suddenly self-conscious beneath his scrutiny.

“So sad,” he said. “Don’t be sad.”

I gave a humorless laugh. “Right. I’ll just stop. I won’t care that Tyler and I were together for two years, or that Remy and I have been friends for most of our lives. Apparently, their betrayal is my fault because life has been shit lately and I couldn’t smile through the tears.”

Caligo’s head tilted farther. “The humans betrayed you. They conspired behind your back. The humans should be punished.”

“I’m a human.”

“You’re―”

A knock on the door cut off whatever he’d been about to say. By the time I shoved the phone beneath my pillow, Caligo had already blinked out of existence.

Or had he merely made himself invisible? Was he still standing there, watching everything unfold?

I took a couple of deep breaths before calling, “Come in.”

If someone had come looking for the phone, I’d deny all knowledge of it. Despite the jokes I’d made, this place wasn’t a prison, so I doubted anyone would search my room.

A smiling Dr. Logan Collins poked his head around the door before pushing it fully open. “Were you talking to someone?”

“Just… thinking aloud.”

He stepped inside and gave the room a cursory glance, as though he half expected to find someone hiding behind the curtains. If only he knew what had really been standing beside me moments earlier.

“I’m the bearer of good news.”

“Yeah?” I did my best to sound enthusiastic.

“I heard your meeting this morning went well.”

“You tell me.”

“It did,” he said. “We’re no longer concerned you intend to harm yourself.”

“Tyler lied.” That made perfect sense now. He’d been so determined to get me out of the way that he’d been willing to say whatever it took, leaving him and Remy free to fuck without worrying that I might interrupt them.

Logan smiled again. “So you can go home whenever you want.”

I didn’t return his smile.

He frowned. “I thought that was what you wanted.”

It had been—before I made the call. Now I’d given Tyler two days to leave my house, and the thought of seeing either him or Remy made my stomach churn. Much of my determination to escape had also stemmed from my fear of Caligo, who no longer seemed like a threat.

Obviously, I couldn’t explain any of that to Logan.

“I’ve been thinking about things,” I said instead.

He raised an eyebrow. “Things?”

“My dependence on alcohol.”