Page 62 of Dark Night of the Soul

I saw it then. The contained fury crawling up his neck. His eyes went flat green.

“The third time to make it hurt.”

He inhaled once.

Slow. Measured.

A warrior’s breath before battle.

“Who,” he said. Not a question.

Not are you okay.

Not where.

Not when.

Who.

I blinked hard. “A guard. I don’t—”

“That’s fine,” he said.

He unfolded from the doorway. One step forward. Then another. Not toward me—past me. To the window. He checked the street without looking like he was checking it.

“Because if Silas finds him,” he continued, voice eerily even, “it won’t be quick.”

My pulse stuttered.

“And if I find him,” he added, turning back to me at last, eyes gone black with promise, “there won’t be enough left to identify.”

Silence snapped tight between us.

I should have been afraid of that. Instead, something in my chest eased a fraction. Because I believed him.

Somewhere along the way, I decided I didn’t want him to go after the man who’d hurt me.

I needed him to.

Chapter 22 | Kincade

Time passed in fragments. Stretching into forever.

Her breathing stayed steady. She pulled her feet up and clutched her knees to her chest, folding in on herself. Resting her chin there. Her mind moving through a thousand different thoughts as she tried—and failed—to shut them down.

I stayed at the window. Peering through the edge of the curtain at the street bathed in early evening light. Wondering what the fuck we were going to do next.

I couldn’t move us even if I wanted to.

Silas said three days. It had been two already. Three days and then if he hadn’t sent a message on the burner phone, move.

They weren’t looking for me. They were looking for her.

Hell, both of us.

The building had survived three fires, a riot, and a century of neglect. No one ever looked twice at it which was why Silas had chosen it.

Movement on the street caught my attention. An elongated shadow.