Flash after flash.
Jace, you sway aww the dragons?
I could hear her little drawl pleading with me so clearly that it was like she was right there, whispering in my ear.
My heart hammered in my chest. This bam, bam, bam I could feel all the way to my soul.
I squeezed my eyes closed against the assault and tried to convince myself they were fine.
Safe.
Tried to remind myself of what I’d done. How deeply I’d fucked up.
It didn’t matter.
Bailey’s little voice was there.
Mommy and Bailey and Jacie.
Wrapping and winding and prodding.
I didn’t know how to go on. How I was going to survive from here. Because nothing had ever hurt more than this.
Losing both of them.
Who knew the love of your life could grow into something bigger? That it could magnify and compound and become this vast, stunning need that glowed at the center of you.
What made it worse was this sticky feeling that skated my skin, crawled over me like a disease, drenching me in sweat.
I tried to force myself to drive to Ian’s place.
Instead, I was flipping my car around and heading back toward that tiny town. Pushing harder on the accelerator.
Drawn.
Drawn back to where I shouldn’t go.
I sped through the city and hit the road that led back to Broadshire Rim.
My mind was already back there at that massive house.
Our sanctuary.
The place where our dreams had been made and crushed in what had felt like the same moment.
All those memories collided, pushing and pulling and screaming out for reclamation.
Hurry.
That word sounded through my mind like the clanging of a gong.
I gunned the accelerator, sweat dripping from my temples.
What the fuck was happening to me?
Maybe this was what it was like to have my sanity slip right through my hands, dripping through my fingers like the finest sand, spilling all over the ground.
A frenzy around me.
Spurring me on.
Driving me faster.
Harder.
I skidded around the last turn and barreled down the dirt road that ran the back edge of the town. I forced myself to slow as I drew closer to the old house.
I wasn’t welcome.
It didn’t stop the devotion that burst in my blood. This feeling that wouldn’t let me go.
Moonlight clung just over the line of towering trees that hugged the narrow lane, stretched thin and tossing the night into a thousand pulsing shadows.
It didn’t matter that everything was still.
Silent.
I could feel the energy.
Throbbing.
Thick and foreboding.
Screaming through the bottled hush that held fast to the air.
Cutting my lights, I slowly started to ease the car down the drive. I came to a stop halfway down the lane.
Swallowing hard, I reached into the glove box and pulled out my gun, ensured it was loaded before I stepped out into the humid night and tucked it into my jeans at the small of my back.
The soles of my shoes crunched beneath me as I hastened through the night. The barest shot of relief hit me when I saw Felix’s cruiser parked at the circular drive in front of the porch.
I should turn around.
Go.
But that feeling wouldn’t release me.
All around, bugs trilled and branches rustled.
The quietest howl that screamed.
Unsettled.
Distressed.
I swallowed around the lump that grew heavy at the base of my throat and eased around Felix’s car.
I peered up at the house.
All the windows were blacked out. The thickest kind of night echoed back.
There was something about it that felt off.
Wrong.
Like the peace of the place had been stripped from the walls.
Anxiety pulsed. Mixed with the driving, pulsing urge to race across the porch and bust down the door.
The door.
It struck me right then, and my gaze flew that way when I realized what it was that had made everything feel off.
It was darkened, obscured by the sway of the shadows that moved across the covered porch. But when I looked closely, I could see that it was sitting open a crack.
Terror cinched down across my chest.
A vise.
Constricting.
Without another thought, I was moving, trying to keep my footsteps as quiet as possible as I crept up the porch steps and across the planks.
I craned my ear, listening.
Silence echoed back.
A dark kind of silence. Something grim and wicked and evil riding on the dense, dense night. Like I could taste it, pull it into the well of my lungs.
Violence skated my skin and twisted through my insides.
I’d told Faith I would do whatever it took to keep her and Bailey safe.
I’d meant it.
I’d never meant it more than right then when I realized I could scent it.
Malice.
Rage seeped from my flesh and dripped from my pores. I’d take out anything, anyone, who would hurt them.
I eased open the door another inch, cringing as it creaked on its hinges. I bit down on my lip like it might keep the sound contained.
The only thing there was the stilled vacancy of the room.
I stepped inside, eyes rushing around to take in the stillness.
Where the fuck was Felix?
Terror rode my spine.
What if I was too late? What if Felix hadn’t been enough to protect them?
Heart slamming against my ribs, I inched deeper into the darkened house, the old antiques big and imposing, as imposing as the silence that reverberated back.
Quieting my feet, I eased up the sweeping staircase, moving as fast as I could without making a sound.
I went straight for Bailey’s door.
Somehow, I already knew it’d be sitting wide open, her bed empty, covers a mess where they’d been dragged to the floor.
Sweat drenched my forehead and dripped down my back.
No.
No. No. No.
Blinking through the staggering pain, I pushed right back out, and did the same to Faith’s room, eyes sweeping the place, knowing it would be the same.
Emptiness bled through the door. Pooled on the floor. The picture frame that had remained on her nightstand had been shattered on the floor.
I started to rush out, to run for the door, to grab for my phone as I did.
Then I heard it.
A rustle from upstairs.
A small bang.
A barely heard moan.
But it hit my spirit so loudly I could have sworn Faith was screaming it in my ear.
I need you, Jace. I need you in a way I’ve never needed anyone.
Little fingers digging into my neck.
You sway aww the dragons?
Pulse crashing through my veins, I eased up the narrow staircase that led to the third floor, not knowing what to expect but preparing for the worst. I paused only long enough to send Mack a text.
Me: Get to Faith’s now. Bring backup.
I inched the rest of the way up the steps, cringing every time the old wood groaned, praying I could make it up without being noticed.
If the girls and Felix weren’t alone up there, it would be me against who knew how many. The last thing I wanted for them to know was that I was coming.
The banging grew louder the higher I got, and I eased up into the open space of the rambling third-floor above.
Dust and boxes and old furniture sat everywhere. It’d been cluttered the last time I’d been up here, but since then, it’d been torn apart.
Ransacked.
The barest light glowed from a corner at the very back, and my heart clanged, the desperate clawing of the beast when I found Faith huddled on a worn couch on the other side of the expansive room, rocking Bailey in her arms.
Her expression was terror-stricken, her energy bowed and twisted and tied. Stuck on this moment.
Life in the hands of the bastard who raged in front of her, gun clenched in his hand.
Felix.
What the fuck was happening?
Confusion spun while horror climbed into my spirit.
Felix.
My mind flashed with all the threats. The fact someone had been able to get in and out without being noticed. Almost like they belonged.
Felix.
He’d been right there under our noses this whole time.
Watching her.
Waiting.
Motherfucker.
How could I have let this happen?
That lead had been nothing but bait to lure me away. And I’d left Faith right in the palm of his hand.