Then he hissed.
“Enough, the pair of you!” I snapped. “This isn’t helping. Seph is out there. And the longer we stand here arguing, the worse it gets for her.”
“What if those soldiers caught her?” Ash asked, voice splintering.
“They didn’t,” I said – too fast.
No one said anything for a second.
Kieran’s jaw tightened. “We won’t blunder in blind. We split up. Two track the soldiers. Two go along the river.”
He glanced toward the highway. “I’ll follow them. Get eyes on what we’re dealing with. Then I can warn Elliot.”
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll take the forest path along the river toward Telluride.” The routes to my old stomping ground were already mapping themselves in my head. “Sy — head the other way. Toward Whitford.”
Sy growled, his body coiled tightly. His gaze hadn’t moved from Kieran’s face.
Kieran turned to Ash. “You’re with me. Your air can cover us.”
Ash’s glare was instant. “I want the river.”
“You can’t,” Kieran didn’t blink.
“She’d go that way. It’s cover. It’s water. It’s—”
“It’s predictable,” Kieran cut in. “And if those soldiers have her, I can’t take them alone.” His eyes locked onto Ash’s. “I need your air.”
Silence stretched tight between them.
Ash’s hands flexed at his sides. His jaw ground once, hard — like he was swallowing fire.
“And if not for me,” Kieran said, quieter now, steel threaded through it, “then do it for her. You know she’d want that.”
Ash swallowed. The fight drained out of him, leaving something stripped raw in its place.
“Believe me,” Kieran said softly. “I don’t want anything to happen to Seph.”
He looked away for a fraction of a second — like he didn’t trust his face to hold.
“I care about her too,” he added. “I always did.”
I snorted before I could stop myself.
Kieran’s gaze snapped to me, sharp as a blade.
“Got something to say, Dev?”
“No,” I said flatly. “Not now. Not while she’s missing.”
Kieran held my stare a second longer than necessary. Then he nodded once.
“Okay. We meet back at the compound in three days.”
Sy didn’t respond.
He turned and limped off, already moving as if the pain were an inconvenience rather than a warning. His body was trying to kick-start its healing — muscle knitting, breath evening out — but the damage was still there.
“You don’t think—” Ash began in a low voice.
