Chapter 136

Ava

“Chris, are you… drunk?”

Chris took a stumbling step forward, the bottle of brandy sloshing dark, sticky liquid all over his shoes. He narrowed his eyes at me and took another swig. “What does it look like?” he ground out through clenched teeth, his words slurred.

I stood there for a moment, gaping at the scene in front of me: Chris looked positively disheveled, quite possibly more drunk than I had ever seen him. His hair was a mess, strands falling into his face. His shirt was partially unbuttoned, his five o’clock shadow showing, dark circles ringing his eyes.

“What’s going on?” I whispered, striding up to him to catch him in case he fell. “Why are you so drunk?”

Before I could reach him, however, he took a shambling step backwards and lifted the brandy bottle, extending his index finger at me. “I know what you said. What you think of me.”

My eyebrows raised of their own accord. “What? What are you talking about?”

Chris scoffed and took another swig of brandy. “Elise told me everything. She told me what you said to her last night, Ava. That you think I’m…”

He paused, grimacing against the burn of the alcohol on his tongue. “...That I’m pathetic,” he finally finished.

There was a tense silence after that. No words would come; I could only stare at him, shocked and confused, as he continued to waver in front of me.

Pathetic? What the hell was he talking about?

“Chris, I—”

“If you really didn’t want me to pursue you, if you really thought I was such a loser for doing so, you should have just fucking said it,” he slurred angrily. “But no. You went around making it seem like you were just scared, that you needed to push me away for the Elders’ sake. All this time, you were secretly…”

He hiccuped, shaking his head. “All this time, you were secretly talking shit behind my back.”

I watched for a moment longer, transfixed, as Chris took another swig of brandy. It took me some time to finally formulate the words.

“Chris, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, don’t play stupid. Elise told me what you said to her last night.”

I couldn’t help but scoff. “What I said to her?” I retorted. “Chris, Elise threatened me last night—she told me that I needed to stay away from you, that there are ‘ways to get rid of those who would get in the way’. I never said anything of that sort.”

For a moment, Chris seemed disbelieving, still lifting the bottle to his lips. But when I just stood there, my hands on my hips and my eyes narrowed at him, he paused.

“You…”

“I’d never say anything like that,” I bit out. “I don’t think you’re ‘pathetic’, Chris. And I’m shocked you’d even believe her before coming to me.”

Chris’s face reddened slightly, and he dropped the bottle of brandy back to his side. “I… I thought…”

“Yeah,” I cut him off, taking a step closer. “You think a lot of things, but apparently you don’t know anything. Because I’m glad you’ve been pursuing me. I’m glad you didn’t give up. Because I love you.”

As soon as I uttered those words, I felt my heart spin out of control. My hand instinctively fluttered up to cover my lips, but it was too late; Chris was already grabbing my wrist, pulling me close against the hard planes of his chest.

“You love me?” he murmured. “You swear on everything that you love me, and that you didn’t say those things?”

I pursed my lips and looked away, my ears reddening. “I swear, Chris. I do love you. And I don’t think you’re pathetic.”

Suddenly, the bottle of brandy slipped from his fingers. His hand came up, cupping my cheek, and turned my face toward his. Before I could utter a word, or even so much as breathe, his lips were crashing against mine.

And we, too, were crashing.

The next moment I knew, Chris had lost his balance and tumbled to the grass with me in his arms—but we didn’t pull away from our searing kiss. If anything, it only grew more fervent, our movements frenzied as we began to tear at each other’s clothes.

“I love you,” I murmured, peppering kisses along his jaw and neck. “I love you, Chris. I do.”

“I love you too, Ava. Goddess, I love—”

Before Chris could finish that thought, the soft sound of footsteps in the grass made us jerk our heads up. I expected to see Leonard or Ophelia headed our way, having been awoken by the sound of our raised voices, but it wasn’t them.

“Ava—”

“Shh.” I pressed a finger to Chris’s lips, pointing—there, beneath the line of hedges at the back of my property, I could see it. A slightly hunched figure moving through the shadows.

A cloaked figure.

Chris followed my gaze, his eyes widening and his expression instantly sobering when he saw it. We exchanged a nervous glance—we knew the implications. The cloaked figure that the Omega girl had described.

Silently, I climbed off of Chris and helped him to his feet. We cautiously followed the line of hedges toward the back of the property, keeping low so as not to be seen, and carefully pushed the branches aside to see the figure’s cloak disappearing around a bend.

Chris eyed me cautiously. “Should we…?”

I nodded hastily. Chris didn’t need me to tell him again; waving for me to follow, he pushed the branches aside a little further and stepped through. I grabbed his hand, and together we crept off into the night in pursuit of the cloaked figure.

…

We didn’t stop until we reached the edge of the forest, always keeping a safe distance and sticking to the shadows while still keeping the figure in our line of sight. Every so often, the figure—surprisingly quick despite their hunched posture—would stop and whip their head around as though sensing they were being pursued, but we would always manage to leap behind a tree or a shrub and avoid detection.

“They’re heading into the forest,” Chris whispered, sober by now. “Right in the direction of…”

I gasped softly and pressed my fingers over my lips; they were headed straight toward where that other Omega girl’s body was found. Was it some sort of meeting place?

One last time, the figure glanced over their shoulder before stepping into the treeline. Keeping low, Chris and I darted across the field that led to where they had disappeared to, running quickly so as not to lose sight of them.

But by the time we made it, they were long gone. The forest was utterly silent—a warning in and of itself—but there was no movement of a cloak or the hushed sound of breathing.

Nothing. They had slipped away.

Chris cursed softly under his breath as he peered through the trees, clutching his hair. “Dammit. Where did they go?”

I pursed my lips and cast my gaze around the shadowy forest; it was a new moon tonight, meaning that the forest was completely pitch black. Even with my own heightened sight, I could barely see more than a few feet in front of me.

“Unless we want to end up like that Omega, we should probably head back,” I whispered, making a mental note to return in the morning to inspect the area.

Chris nodded, and together we turned to head back to my cottage. But it was as I stepped back toward the treeline that I felt something under my boot. Frowning, I picked my foot up and peered down, and I felt a soft gasp escape my lips.

There, pressed down into the dirt, was a small baggie containing pure white powder.