''You know how they came up with the word Lunatic?'' he asked.
I shook my head, feeling like I probably didn't want to know the answer. His lips pulled up on one side in a mischievous, lopsided grin.
He stepped closer. ''Because all of the worst m...
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When I woke, I was pissed off.
My head ached, my neck throbbed, and my blood rushed hot in my veins. I was 99% sure that I still had a concussion from when Owein bashed my head into a table and now I was almost certain it was back. Alice Galloway was certainly not very thoughtful- which, I suppose, I should've seen coming.
My hand went to my head, cradling the pulsating skull. She must have hit me with the butt of her gun from behind me because no part of me remembered the impact. There was a wet substance at the top of my forehead. When I pulled my fingers away, they were stained red. Blood.
Finally grasping that I was in an unfamiliar location, I checked my pocket for my phone (no such luck) and looked around me. There were tall, chain-link fences surrounding me on all sides even above me. It looked as if I'd woken up inside a warehouse. Inside of a cage.
Now I was even more pissed off.
"Really?" I yelled out loud to nobody in particular. "A cage?"
There was no response. Obviously. I was alone in wherever the hell I was. My first assumption seemed correct. I was in a warehouse somewhere. There were large, metal crates surrounding me with God knows what on the inside of them. I wondered when I'd see Owein come out from behind them. Undoubtedly, Alice was working under his orders but I had no idea why.
Why would he go through the trouble of nabbing me in the woods? He could have just waited till I got home from school. How did he know I'd be in the woods? What could he possibly gain from this little stunt?
My head throbbed where the hunter had hit me. Vaguely, I wondered what time it was. The small window I could see from the cage showed a lowering sun. It would be dark soon and surely someone would realize I was missing. But, and the next thought made my skin crawl, what if it was too late?
"Eloise DeVue," a voice sang, testing my name on its tongue, "I do question your mother's choices in names."
The voice was unfamiliar yet I knew I'd heard it before. I couldn't see the source but I felt him.
"I question my mother's choices in a lot of things. Especially fiances."
There was a pulse- no, a thumping of electricity coursing through my veins that alerted me to his presence. I could liken the feeling to that of when I was around Tucker. Only this time, it felt horrible. The electricity only seemed to sting and not invigorate me. The feeling was familiar and when I saw the face of the voice; I knew why.
"She did always have terrible taste in men," my father said, stepping out from behind one of the crates.
He was a tall, lean man with dark, russet-colored hair and gray eyes. Eyes that I knew if I looked closely at them would be the same shape and size of Harry's and mine. This was the first moment that I'd really had to look at him, but as he stepped toward the cage, I realized I already knew his face. He was the one in my visions- the one telling me to jump into the abyss. He was somehow the creature beckoning me closer and the pull I felt toward the tree.
