Page 104 of Poet & Protector

In the backseat, Cosette giggled.

I smiled back then blew my nose.

We didn’t talk during the drive to the Bane compound. Sabine turned the radio to a news station and kept the volume low. She knew any kind of music might snag an emotion and drag me down a dark hole.

I felt her eyes on me when I pulled my phone out, but I trusted that my brain was functioning soundly enough to send a simple message to Mason.

Me: Whatever you need.

I immediately put my phone away again.

We dropped Cosette off. She didn’t say anything as she left the car, but she turned and gave a quick wave before she went inside her house.

“Where to?” Sabine.

“The Burnout,” I told her.

I didn’t know when, or if, I’d hear from Mason, but I had a feeling I couldn’t shake.

She cast me a sidelong glance as she put the car into drive. “If you want to drown your sorrows, I don’t blame you, but it’s maybe not the best idea?”

“We’re not going to the bar,” I replied.

I was tempted to visit the Bunker, where I’d find a bulwark of support. But this wasn’t my struggle alone and it was rooted in very sensitive, very personal issues. If Mason wanted us to go there together and talk with friends, we would, but that wasn’t a decision I would make without him.

We exited the compound and started down the winding switchback.

“You’re going to the clearing?”

Sabine had visited the clearing a few times. She knew how special it was to me, and now to Mason and me. She also knew never to come without an invitation.

“Yes.”

She didn’t say anything else, but I sensed her approval. About halfway through the drive, my phone buzzed and my stomach dropped.

I pulled out my phone as dread needled my gut.

Mason: Our clearing. Leaving school now.

My eyes began to burn. He needed to be in our place as much as I did. I’d suspected he would, but seeing his message settled some of the restlessness inside me.

I fought the temptation to calculate exactly how much time had passed since I’d left Mason in the commons. Sabine was right: stacking up all the possibilities of what could have happened was a mistake.

Sabine parked in a turnout along the gravel road that led to the Burnout.

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“Mason’s on his way,” I told her. “But I would like you to come. I was hoping…”

She tilted her head, studying my face. I worried what I wanted to ask was too much.

Understanding filled her eyes. “Of course. If Mason wants to talk to me…yes.”

My throat tightened. “Thank you.”

She nodded.

We left the car and walked away from the road until we were in the thick of the forest. We shifted into wolf form and ran the rest of the way to the clearing.