Destroyed Read Free Page B

want to fall in love with you. With my eyes open this time.”
    He smiled. I sighed in relief. He believed me. What I said was entirely untrue; my heart belonged to Puck. But this is what it would take to make sure Kai came back to the Guardians. He would probably hate Puck and me after this, but that was better than him spending the rest of his life with Destroyers.
    Kai pulled out a stack of pictures and flipped through them. “What about Puck?” he asked.
    I sat up straighter and my heart beat faster. It was one thing to convince him that I wanted to love him; it was quite another to convince him that I didn’t love Puck. He would see right through me. Instead of looking him in the eye, I looked over his head to the Nostalgia rose sitting on the table.
    “What about him?” I asked.
    “I have spies among the Guardians too, and they’ve been keeping an eye on you.”
    I scowled. I suppose I should’ve expected it, but it still made me angry. Anger came quickly now. Stupid Destroyer energy.
    He handed me the pictures and I flipped through them. They’d all been taken in the last few weeks, and in every single one Puck and I were kissing. The hair on my arms stood up and I shivered. My eyes pricked with tears. I missed him so much. This would be impossible.
    I cleared my throat to stop the tears and think of an excuse. My hand trembled a little when I handed the pictures back to him. I couldn’t let him see that I wanted to hang onto them.
    “He’s a good kisser. So what? I didn’t think you were coming back.”
    He stood up and set the pictures on a table. “What’s he going to think about you being here with me?”
    “Do you think I care?” I flipped my hair over my shoulder, trying to be casual. But my hands still shook.
    “Yes, I do.”
    I held his gaze. “It shouldn’t matter, I’m here now.”
    He scowled at the pictures and turned toward the door.
    “Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes. Come on in when you are ready.”
    I didn’t want to go back into that house. I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to go back to Vegas and to Puck.
    I inventoried the roses. Kai had found some unique varieties: A leaping Salmon, Korresia, Cinderella, and Fox Trot. I could easily blend a few of them with the ones in the garden and get some interesting blooms. Eventually, I made way to the table by the door. The one with the pictures. Sorrow settled in my stomach. Out of the fifteen pictures he had, I remembered every single kiss.
    I cut a few blooms off of a Dark Night and put them in a vase. They were a deep velvety red with a golden undertone. They no longer had the influence of my Grandmother, but I could put my own energy into them. The roses used to be the only thing that protected me. They were the reason my mother couldn’t get to me. But now, I could protect myself better than the roses could. I grabbed the pictures Kai left and the vase, hurried into the house and escaped to my room before either of them saw me.
    I set the vase down on my dresser. My room had been cleaned, but not fixed. There was a hole in the wall and the floor was still gouged from when I barricaded the door. All so I could hide from the man that was now making me dinner.
    I had called dad weekly while he was in the hospital. I always kept the conversation light. On the phone, I could pretend that he was not the man who beat me on a regular basis, kept me locked up, nearly put a knife in my stomach, and killed my only friend, Ruth. But would I ever be able to look him in the eye?
    It was time to go face the two men whom I both loved and feared. But first, I needed to hide the pictures. I opened the bottom drawer of my dresser. It had several long skirts from my days of no pants. I hid the pictures underneath and pushed them back into the corner.
    I entered the kitchen, which smelled of garlic and chicken. Kai and my dad already sat at the table. Kai smiled. The faded wood table looked like it was about to fall apart. Why, in