“No,” Kieran said immediately. “I don’t.”
He didn’t look away from the river.
“She’s alive.”
“How do you know?”
For half a second, Kieran almost smiled.
“Because she’s not allowed to die,” he said.
Kieran and I met eyes.
Just for a moment, the shields weren’t there.
I saw the fear.
And something else — sharp, desperate, buried deep.
Then his walls slammed back into place.
Ash watched Sy disappear into the night towards the river.
For a moment I thought he might argue again. Might defy Kieran. That he would follow the river anyway.
Instead, he rolled his shoulders once, hard — like he was locking something inside himself — and turned.
Kieran didn’t follow immediately.
He stood at the edge of the trees, staring toward the river cutting through the dark.
The water roared somewhere beyond the brush — relentless. Unforgiving.
His fingers flexed at his sides.
Then his face shuttered.
He turned back to the highway.
“Let’s move.”
Chapter 21
Seph
I waited a long time before leaving the house. By the time I crawled out, dusk had settled in properly — the kind of half-light where everything feels uncertain.
The first thing I did was cross the room and pick up the wallet Andre had dropped.
When I opened it, the picture was right there.
Andre, Mia and their mother stood in front of a lake house, sunlight catching on the water behind them. Mia was grinning, missing one of her front teeth, Andre’s arm slung around her shoulders like he didn’t plan on letting go, their mother caught mid-laugh.
I ran my fingers over it before checking the cash.
A couple of hundred dollars sat folded inside.
I turned the notes over in my hand for a moment, then took a few and left the rest where it was.
