Page 155 of Weight of Guilt

Her eyes opened slowly. “Well then.”

Nash smiled. “Yeah.”

Behind them, Tank sneezed.

Wren laughed and rested her forehead briefly against Nash’s.

For once, Nash didn’t feel like running from whatever came next.

Chapter

Seventy-One

TEN YEARS AGO

Christian knew the car had stopped moving because the bumps beneath him disappeared.

Everything went quiet.

He lay still in the back seat with the cloth still covering his head.

“Can I take this off now?” he asked.

No one answered.

Christian swallowed.

He wanted Marlowe or Wren. He even wanted Nora, although Nora would probably fuss at him for going into the woods when he wasn’t supposed to.

He wouldn’t care. He’d let her fuss all she wanted if that meant she’d come get him.

A door opened. Then another.

“Come on.” A hand closed around Christian’s arm.

He pulled back. “I want to go home.”

“You are going home.”

Christian frowned beneath the hood. “No, I’m not.”

Glowworm Guy tugged him forward, and Christian stumbled out of the car.

Gravel dug into his bare feet. He almost fell, but the hand caught him.

“Careful.”

Christian’s heart beat faster.

He tried to listen for something that might tell him where he was.

Cars. Music. People.

Anything.

But all he heard were crickets and the crunch of their footsteps.

“Where are we?” he asked.