Stormbringer (Dreamwalker Book 1) by Erinn Harper

Author:Erinn Harper [Harper, Erinn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ink & Incense Press
Published: 2024-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

16

THRENODY

The morning after I had slept with Rowan, I woke to find him missing.

Sleep clung to my eyes—swollen from a night of crying—as I sat upright and gave the room a long, bleary look. The mattress was cool where Rowan’s body had lain, so I figured he’d been absent for some time. Everything in the room appeared to be in its usual place, save for our communal money stash, which sat on the table instead of on the shelves where it belonged.

Anxiety stabbed at my gut as I launched myself up from bed and scrambled over to the small box. The lid was open, and the contents were missing. All missing. Panicking, I then searched through my belongings and found, to my despair, that Rowan had raided my personal stash, as well. Not a single coin had been left behind.

Within minutes, I was sick to my stomach. I did not bother changing out of my nightwear before sprinting downstairs, where I searched high and low for Rowan. Rita and Charlie, both visibly alarmed by my distress, assured me they had not seen him since the previous day. Rita tried to offer me breakfast, but my appetite had left me in a rush—much like Rowan himself, I thought miserably.

I returned to my room and paced for a good several minutes while waiting for some tea to boil and brew. I scalded my tongue on liquid too hot to drink, distracted as I was by my predicament. I abandoned the beverage and instead contemplated how I might scour the Pit in search of Rowan. Maybe I could stop him from spending all our money on his dangerous new addiction. It was a fatuous notion, considering I hadn’t the slightest inkling where he had gone. Besides, he’d been absent for at least an hour or two. Whatever he intended to do, he’d probably already done it.

That was when I realized he likely wouldn’t be coming home. There was no other explanation for him taking off with all our money. He had slept with me to placate me, to keep me blissfully unaware while he purged our room of the cash he thirsted for. I was sure of it now. He had used my infatuation with him to his advantage and left me looking like a fool.

No wonder sleeping with him had felt so wrong. Rowan—the Rowan I had first met, anyway—would never have been brazen enough to lie with me like that. He would have treated me tenderly, even awkwardly. How he had handled me last night felt more like a one-night stand than a gentle exploration of our feelings for one another.

I was losing him to his addiction, and I was powerless to stop it.

So I was shocked when, later that evening, Rowan returned to the room. He barged in, slammed the door, and tossed his wallet on the table with the exasperated energy of a man who’d suffered a long, draining day at work. And when he finally noticed me lounging in the corner, he simply said, “You’re still here.

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