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Micah tosses the knife to Ezra, gripping his bone weapon.

His preferred weapon.

“Protect the girls. If he comes near here, end him. Don’t fuck up again, Ezra.”

I shake my head at Micah. “Don’t leave me again,” I whisper. “Please.”

He presses a kiss to my head. “I’ve got to go help James. Ezra will watch over you. I’ll be back in five minutes, baby. I promise…”

“I promise…” So many broken promises.

I blow out a breath, watching as the love of my life walks away. Again.

The others’ eyes burn into me while my body still processes what I saw—how close I was to being in Nigel’s clutches.

“What do you think he wants?” Serena asks, sobbing.

“I don’t know,” Naomi says. “Ezra, did we do this to him? Did we cause this?”

“Fuck that,” Ezra barks. “He’s batshit fucking crazy. I’m not taking the blame for this.”

Ezra and Naomi bicker for a few minutes, but I barely listen.

“I told you to quit helping him,” she accuses him. “I told you about the way he looked at me.” Eventually, Naomi huffs, and Ezra rises and starts to chop wood, enjoying the knife a little too much considering it was the cause of his amputation. “Don’t worry, Naomi. If he comes near you, I’ll kill him. London, are you okay?” Ezra asks, his voice sounding like it’s in an echo chamber.

The bile lingering in my throat finally rises, and I keel over and vomit the remnants of whatever rodent Micah shoved into my mouth last night, unable to answer him. I cough for a solid five minutes.

A soft hand finally jolts me. Micah rubs my back, then pulls my braid away from my face as I finish the last of my heaving. I didn’t hear him come back…

“Where’s Jade?” Thomas growls, shaking me to my very core. “Where the fuck is she, Ezra?”

Ezra stops chopping, a defensive look in his eyes, gripping his knife and looking just as confused as I am. “I don’t know where the fuck she is. I thought she was with you.”

Thomas takes a menacing step toward him, utterly unbothered by the knife. “What did you do with her?”

Ezra steps up. “Nothing, man. She’s not fucking here, and I haven’t fucking seen her.”

“Jade?” Thomas calls out frantically. “Jade, where are you?”

James stands and cups his hands around his mouth, yelling her name even louder.

My head spins, and I keel over again. Micah hands me a bottle of water. “Jade’s missing, London. You’ve got to pull yourself together.”

I pull my head up, my world completely uneven as his words register, and my stomach tightens all over again as I take tiny sips from the bottle. Micah’s dark eyes are drawn in as he helps me up.

I was alone too… for hours. The message was sent to me. So why didn’t Nigel take me when he had the chance? Unless…

Jade was always the target.

“She was just with me,” Thomas says, visibly shaking. “She was only a minute away from me. I was gathering the last of the wood, and she said she was heading right back here. What was I fucking thinking, letting her go by herself?” I’ve never seen this level of emotion radiate from this big guy, including when he woke up and realized he no longer had a hand.

He begins pacing, unsettling the earth around him.

“She can’t be far. I’ll find her,” Micah says. “I’ll find Nigel, too, and end this.”

“I’m coming with you,” Thomas tells him, stopping in his tracks.

“Me too,” James says next, his jaw tight.