The faint hum under my skin sharpens and tingles as I move deeper through the trees, like it knows I’m getting closer.
I reach the spot of the coordinates and stop, peering around into the still, quiet woods. There’s nothing, no movement, no sound beyond the wind threading through the trees.
“You’re fucking kidding me.” I turn in a circle. “I drove all the way out here, and you can’t even be waiting for me?”
The electricity under my skin crackles.
“Reese?” I call out, louder this time. “I actually come to you this time, and you don’t even have the fucking decency to—”
Something moves.
It’s not in front of me. It’s below me. Shadows swim around my feet like liquid dark, sliding over the ground. They twist, coil,surge upward before I can react.
“Shit!”
They wrap around me, fast. Too fucking fast. They’re around my arms, my torso, pinning me in place even as I struggle against them. They’re not crushing me, but they’re holding me so I can’t move, can’t break free.
Then they’re around my throat.
My breath cuts off instantly as they wrap around tightly. Not enough to kill me, just enough to remind me exactly how easy it would be if they wanted to.
“Miss me?” I choke out because apparently I’m incapable of shutting the fuck up even while being strangled.
A figure steps out from behind a tree a few yards in front of me, as though he’s been there this entire time. Something stupid and traitorous inside my chest swells at the sight of him, adding too much pressure from the inside while I’m being crushed from the out.
I forgot how much darker he looks.
“I want to know who did it.”
No greeting, no hesitation. Just those seven words in a voice that sounds more dangerous than it ever has before.
The shadows ease, barely, but enough that I can breathe again. I suck in air, coughing once before I force myself upright against the hold they still have on me.
“Not even a hello? I died, Reese. You could at least pretend to care.”
His gaze doesn’t soften. If anything, it gets colder.
“Who?” he repeats.
I grin because I’m an idiot. “Pass.”
The shadows around my throat briefly tighten again. A warning. The lightheadedness lingers even after they let up.
“Cason,” he growls.
Suddenly, surviving seven years without hearing him say myname feels like a miracle, like I deserve a gold medal or some shit. Because I forgot just how strongly my name on his lips affects me.
Fuck. No. I’m supposed to be fucking fighting him.
“What’s the matter, Reese? Pissed you didn’t get to do it yourself? Shouldn’t have let me go, huh?”
His jaw ticks.
Good. Be mad.
“Besides,” I add. “I’m pretty sure I can handle myself now.”
My fingers twitch from where they’re pinned to my sides, and electricity sparks. The current surges through me, up my arms, and into the shadows wrapped around me. And…
