Catastrophic Attraction - Eve Langlais Page 0,76
was hurt and confused. I might have gone in a little too strong. She collapsed. Became catatonic since that day. She’ll eat and move if commanded, but she won’t speak or act of her own volition.”
“I’m going to assume you didn’t mean for that to happen?”
“Of course not,” he barked. “I barely touched her. It’s as if her mind had some kind of fault line and I triggered it with my command to stop.”
“Did Darius blame you for what happened?”
He shook his head. “I saved him. And me. Maybe even Charlie, too.”
“You were justified in your actions, yet your guilt still has you visiting.”
He sighed. “I can’t help but feel as if I somehow failed her. I keep hoping that I can get past that barrier in her head and give her the life she deserved.”
“It’s been seven years, though.”
“And? I made her the way she is. I owe it to her to at least try.” His bleak expression caused a pang in her heart.
“What happened to her was unfortunate but not your fault.”
“Are you telling me if something bad happened to Cam, and you were involved, you wouldn’t take it personally?”
“Now you sound like my brother.” Her turn to finally admit something. “You suffer one kind of guilt; Cam suffers another. See, he blames himself for me getting hurt.”
“Hurt how?” he asked cautiously.
“The way some bad people like to hurt children,” was her soft admission. “He feels such guilt he didn’t act in time. And then spent the rest of his life overcompensating.”
“With overprotectiveness,” Roark mused aloud. “A big difference, though. You didn’t blame him for your pain.”
“No, but I did for his constant reminders. Every time he ran to my aid or stepped in front of me, I remembered how I couldn’t save myself. How I allowed myself to be hurt.”
“You didn’t allow it. You were a child,” he hissed.
“I was. But I hesitated when it came time for me to fight. Cam paid for my mistake. You also hesitated, and it cost you. Now we’re both overcompensating in different ways to atone for a guilt we can’t shake.”
“And this is why you’re a lady of my court. Wise beyond your years.” There was no mockery in his words, just a gentle sadness.
“You said something about trying to get inside your sister’s head. Can you read her mind at all?”
His lips pressed into a line, and he played with his food.
“What is it?”
“I can’t read it.”
“But…”
“But I can feel her anger whenever I get close. She practically seethes with it. And not just because of our father. She hates me because I killed Theona. Her plan was to have Theona strike me down because she thought if I died or went away, then she could be queen.”
“That’s not how it works.”
“Not in Eden. Not with my people. But in her mind, it made perfect sense. Whoever planted the idea made it feel believable to her.” He stood from the table, shrugging off the melancholy conversation, regaining the brashness that made him stand out. “Are you ready, my knife-toting lady, to go dress shopping?”
“I’d rather be camping in the Wasteland.”
Turned out she wasn’t exaggerating.
Chapter 20
Clothes shopping took on a whole new amusing meaning when Casey grumbled during the whole process. She truly didn’t like the idea of shopping for a dress. Even less the fact that once they found a simple black, floor-length gown, it needed modifications.
“I don’t see what’s wrong with it,” she whined as she twirled for Tanzie, another of Darius’s crew, who proved handy with a needle and glue.
Tanzie answered as she pinned a few more tucks. “You can’t attend an Enclave ball in an off-the-rack, mass-marketed gown. You’d be laughed out of there within minutes.”
“So you’re going to glue rocks to it?” Casey said, eyeing the bins of polished stone with a dubious air.
Roark tried not to snicker. “You will dazzle.”
“I won’t be able to run.”
“I’ll make sure you can,” Tanzie promised, marking a line on the skirt that went fairly high on the thigh.
“What happens at this ball thing anyhow?” Casey grumbled as she twirled to show off the emerging results.
“Pompous Enclave people will pretend they’re above the event and everyone else,” Tanzie claimed through a mouthful of pins. “Don’t move.” She took the sewing stapler to the fabric and created some pleats where she trimmed the fabric.
“So why have this ball?”
“Because how else will they show off how important they are?” Roark declared. “There will also be dancing.”
“I don’t dance,” Casey said flatly.
“Then