Whose Bed Have Your Claws Been Under: Chapter 24

I waited with Paige as her parents strode over to join us, not sure how I felt. Part of me wanted to rage at them while another part of me only felt sadness. I knew why they’d taken her away, but that did nothing to stop my anger from blooming inside me.

“Paige,” Francine said, her voice fluttering, her hands outstretched to her daughter as if she’d snatch her away once more. This time, they’d make sure we never saw each other again.

I hadn’t seen Francine and Franklin in ten years, but they didn’t look much different from when I’d been invited to dinner often and when I’d felt welcome enough to stroll inside their house after school and raid the cookie jar sitting on the kitchen counter.

Their faces tightened as they stopped in front of us.

“You need to leave with us right now,” Francine said, turning her pleading gaze to Paige. “Please. He’ll hurt you.”

Paige leaned into my side. “Darrow would never do anything like that. You’re the ones who hurt me. How could you take me from Petrified Woods when you knew how much he meant to me?”

“He’ll turn you to stone,” Franklin hissed, his hand spiking in my direction. “Look at him. He’s a medusa. A monster.”

“The only monsters here are you two,” Paige said. Her voice broke. “I can’t believe you did that to me. To Darrow. I loved him, and you stole me from him.”

My heart surged to hear her standing up for me, to hear of her love. She was sticking up for us.

“He’s a hideous beast,” Francine snarled. “Look at his hair.” Her finger snapped out to flick one of the strands, and the rest responded to my anger, flaring out around my head. She gasped. “It’s alive! He has snakes on his head, and his skin’s the color of ashes. Never look into his eyes. They’ll turn on you and it will be over!”

“Come with us. Please,” Franklin said, his voice leveling. “Leave him here with the other monsters.”

Paige lifted her chin. “I won’t. I’m an adult. I make my own decisions, and I’m staying with Darrow.”

Francine turned her sharp eyes my way, impaling me on the spot. “How many?” she barked.

“Excuse me?” Paige asked, her confused gaze shooting from me to her parents.

Lead solidified in my gut. Like an airplane spiraling toward the ground, there was no stopping me from crashing.

“How many?” Franklin cried. “Or is it too many to count by now?”

“Seventeen,” I said, my voice dull. I knew very well what they meant.

“And now you’re going to make it eighteen,” Francine said, her voice lifting to a shriek. “Twenty if we continue to stand in your way, am I correct?”

“What are they talking about?” Paige asked, a whimper coming through in her voice.

I stared at the ground. If I didn’t, I’d release the wrath boiling inside me on them. The ground beneath my feet shifted, flexing as it turned to stone.

“Look,” Francine cried, reeling backward, away from the rock forming beneath her feet. “Look! He’s doing it before our very eyes.” She rushed forward and yanked on Paige’s arm, but my love remained standing beside me.

Would she stay with me if she knew what I’d done?

“I’ve learned to control it,” I said stiffly.

“It doesn’t appear that way to me,” Franklin said.

“

make it happen,” I said, pleading for them to understand. “It’s not the other way around.”

Franklin stomped closer, his face so ruddy, I thought he’d explode. “Seventeen doesn’t show any control at all. Look at the ground. Your hands are clenched. You’re a hideous monster about to rampage through everything in sight.”

“Please,” Paige said to me. “What are they talking about?”

“He’s turned seventeen people to stone with one look in his eyes,” Francine said with a sneer. “He’s a horrible beast. You’ll be next, Paige. Mark my words.”

“You turned seventeen people to stone?” Paige asked, her shoulders curling forward. “

?”

I couldn’t bear the accusation in her eyes.

While she gaped at me, I pivoted on my heel and stalked along the path winding around the castle.

When I hit the end of the building, I turned toward the back of the castle and bolted.