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“She was quiet,” Vivienne continued. “But she’s always quiet. She ate. She went upstairs. Mel heard her moving around later.”

“And this morning?”

“Gone.”

I looked past her. Into the house. Girls stood everywhere. On the stairs. In doorways. Against walls. Nobody spoke. Melantha sat halfway up the staircase with her arms wrapped around her knees. Stacey stood near the kitchen. No curler. No yelling. No laughter. Nothing. They looked at me. Everybody single one. Waiting.

My chest tightened. Once… I would’ve known what to say. I would’ve walked into the middle of them and started fixing things. One girl at a time. Today… I had nothing.

“Hey.” Mel’s voice broke.

I looked at her.

“She’ll come back, won’t she?”

The answer rose automatically.

Of course she will.

The words I’d give them a hundred times.

Everything will be okay.

You’re safe.

We’ve got you.

I opened my mouth and nothing came out.

Vivienne’s fingers tightened around mine.

“We’re going to find her.”

Alaric.

His voice came from behind me.

Every head turned. He stood inside the doorway now. Rafe beside him. The house seemed smaller with them in it. Alaric looked at Mel. Then at the women gathered around us.

“We’re going to bring her home.”

Certainty.

Absolute.

For a second…I believed him. Maybe everyone did. Then his phone rang again. He turned away. The Revenant swallowed him whole.

“Show me her room,” I whispered.

Vivienne nodded. We climbed the stairs. Nobody followed.

The hallway was exactly as I remembered it. Same walls. Same doors. Same place Bethany had once sat with her back pressed against the plaster telling me nobody would ever want what was left of her.

My steps slowed.

There.

I could still see her.