Page 175
The entire night, there’d been no peace.
Just me holding Elena in my arms while she slept, her head on my chest where she was nestled into my side.
My eyes open and staring at the ghosts playing on the ceiling while I listened to her breathing and for any untoward sounds from the exterior.
It’d been quiet the rest of the night.
No trace of anything.
“A thousand different tracks through here,” Silas rumbled as he studied the ground.
Uncountable foot-carved trails confounded the forest.
Hikers trekking all over the place, most originating from the grassy patches along the river that were good for picnics before they weaved out into the nethermost parts of the forest.
My boots crashing against them last night as I’d hunted had done a good number on them, too.
A maze of footprints in every shape and size mixed together in a convoluted web.
“But our offender’s is in there,” Phoenix snarled, voice edged in razors.
“And you didn’t see anything?” Silas asked again as he lifted his attention to Brody who fumed across from him.
The four of us were in a circle trying to make sense of the few clues that we had found.
Brody’s hands were on his hips, and the lighter pieces of his brown hair glinted against the rays of sunlight piercing through the trees.
His jaw stubbled with dark hair, face drawn and haggard considering he’d been up the entire night, too.
Rather than a single additional guard, Silas had sent four so they could take shifts, but all had chosen to stand guard throughout the night instead.
Elena was their family.
A sister. Maybe not by blood but written on their hearts.
Not close to the way she was written on mine, though. Scored like a perfect, agonizing dream.
Could barely stand still next to Silas considering the sin I’d committed yesterday evening.
Guilt stamped all over me.
Body vibrating and twitching through the shame and the fury that hummed through my veins with each harsh, violent beat.
Silas didn’t take it as anything but my care for his sister, though. No reason to believe that I would betray him that way.
I didn’t know how the fuck I was supposed to look my best friend in the eye and pretend like I wasn’t just another perpetrator.
“Not a fucking thing, and I’m fuckin’ sorry for that.” Brody’s head shook as if he were to blame. “Pyke and I took turns doing loops around the outskirts of the property, but we’d been trying to keep concealed so we didn’t freak out the neighbors. Figured the last thing we needed was the sheriff to roll up on us, thinking we’re trespassers.”
His thick throat bobbed in regret.
Was weird to look at him that way. For years, he’d been this gangly kid.
Silas’s baby brother.
When he was eighteen, he’d become a Crimson Crows Prospect, even though Silas had tried to derail the attempt.
Not wanting his brother to become a part of this life.
