For some reason that knowledge gave her confidence and strength.
She threw him a feral grin and lunged at him, using his own knee as a platform to spring up on, to deliver a deafening crack to his face with her left knee cap.
Eden jumped off of him just as he collapsed on the ground with a thud.
Barely out of breath, she turned and ran down the corridor. She was almost there. Almost there.
And then he appeared.
Sliding to a stop, Eden’s whole being flinched at the sight of Noah guarding the door. Her hunger screamed.
“Eden.” He held up his hands just as his mother had. “Stop.”
“I locked your mother in the basement,” she told him coldly, her fingers sliding down and brushing the handle of the dagger. Noah’s eyes flared at the sight of his mother’s weapon on her and she saw the brief flicker of panic in them. She snorted. “Don’t worry, she’s fine. I compelled her to let me go.”
Noah’s jaw dropped, an expression unfamiliar with his face. “You what?”
She shifted uneasily. “I compelled her.”
He shook his head. “Not possible.”
She shrugged, ignoring the disquiet that settled around her at the awed and slightly wary look he was now giving her. “What can I tell you.”
Immediately, Noah’s gaze drifted down so their eyes weren’t locked. Smart boy. Eden growled, “Let me go, Noah.”
Instead of acquiescing he walked slowly towards her. Eden refused to back up. “I can’t, Eden. Please just take a minute and think. You know we’re not trying to hurt you.”
A bitter scoff huffed out of her. “Oh yeah, I really got that when you murdered Stellan.”
“Romany is being punished for that. Everyone had direct orders not to hurt Stellan, Eden. It was never supposed to happen.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Eden-”
“STOP SAYING MY NAME!” she screamed. It was a mistake. She heard the sounds of footsteps from upstairs and from the back of the house. She panicked.
One minute the dagger was in the pouch, the next it was in Noah’s stomach. He bowed a little as the weapon plunged into his belly, his eyes flaring in shock as they collided with Eden’s. The violet in them darkened to purple with disbelief.
Eden felt his warm blood trickle onto her hand and she gazed into his eyes with horror. What had she done? Oh my God, what did I do? She choked on a sob as she tugged the blade back out, the dagger slipping from her hands to the floor. It seemed to last forever that moment with Noah in the hallway. Two friends turned betrayers.
It was only seconds.
“I’m a monster, Noah,” she whispered.
Seeing his shock dissipating and his strength return, Eden knew she couldn’t hang around any longer.
He was just reaching for her with bloody fingers when she blew right past him and out of the door.
Chapter Twenty
Running From You… or Me?
Eden was faster than even she had realized. She successfully escaped the rented house, running around the neighborhood in circles for a while to throw off the warriors who had taken off after her. She wasn’t familiar with the town but she saw a sign that said Denton and knew it was just a town over from Salton. Surmising that the warriors would head over to the bus depot first to check on her, Eden decided to use the energy she had left and follow the highway back to Salton. She wasn’t going home. They would be watching. Anyway she didn’t think she could bear to look at the place where Stellan’s life had been taken.
Running through the woods was therapeutic in a way. Each pound of her foot and tremor through her leg somehow stomped the guilt, the grief and her hunger into the background. Her muscles were burning, like a screw that had been turned too tight, but she relished it. She even relished the swelling agony of Emma’s too small boots.
By the time Eden made it back to Salton and into town, she was sweating more than she had ever sweated in her life. She also looked insane in the pyjama bottoms and t-shirt. Ignoring the bewildered stares from passers-by, Eden headed to Charlotte’s, a thrift store Celine had refused to let her go into. It was bad enough Eden was obsessed with black, but at least it was designer black. It killed Celine if Eden bought something that cost less than a hundred bucks. She hated it when Eden wore t-shirts she got online for cheap.