Page 200 of Infernal Bonds

“Please believe me!”

Patricia looked down at the open Bible in her lap. “‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.’ Do you know who the thief is?”

I clenched my teeth together.

“You’re a thief, Raelynn. A thief of life, joy, and peace of mind. You’ve killed those who cared about you and destroyed any possible future they would have without your corrupt influence.”

I turned to look for Cyn, hoping he’d say something to put a stop to her, but my stomach sank when I saw nothing but swirling fog where he once stood.

52

PURPOSE

ZEKE

“Do you honestly believe a demon would stay when I speak His truth?”

“He didn’t leave because of that,” Rae snapped, turning. Her parents were gone now, leaving only her aunt Patricia sitting with the Bible in her lap.

“Why then?” Her aunt tapped her lips. “Oh. Could it be that he doesn’t actually care about you? Maybe he knows you’ll ruin him. Hah. Imagine that. A creature of the damned capable of sane thought.”

Rae flinched.

The nastiness spilling from Rae’s aunt’s mouth made my stomach twist into knots. I’d overheard her on the phone when Rae’s grandmother died, but she’d sounded nothing like the cruel woman speaking now.

Is that what Rae endured for years after her parents died?

I wanted to go to her, but every time I stepped forward, an unseen force pressed against me, trapping me in the fog at the edges of her dream.

I couldn’t interact with her or call out to her.

Her nightmare seemed content with forcing me to witness her emotional abuse in real time.

Why weren’t her parents saying anything?

I’d heard her tell Cyn she didn’t want to hear them say it was her fault. Was that the reason they didn’t speak? Her mind wouldn’t allow it?

Cyn.

He’d been there with her.

She’d chosen him to be by her side while she faced her trauma.

He wasn’t wrong about why she chose him, but I believed there was more to it. More than her mind was ready for.

Rae didn’t know Cyn’s true feelings for her.

If she knew just how much her absence was driving him out of his mind—and not because of Bondrot—she wouldn’t be able to say he didn’t love her. His emotions were painted all over the walls and floor of his room, exposing to everyone how much she affected him.

Last night, I’d heard him crying in his sleep before he called her name and pressed his face against me. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him cry. I wouldn’t say anything to him since he probably didn’t even know it happened.

But it reinforced what I’d always known—he needed her. Just as she needed him now.

But her aunt’s words were landing hard. I saw it in the way Rae held herself.

She believed Cyn didn’t care and had abandoned her.

“I hate you,” Rae muttered under her breath.