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Chapter 14
Kaden
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six days.
A week.
Day eight of Saige being gone, and we were all losing it.
Niall had only slept in our room twice. Every spare second he had was spent in the library.
Theo threw himself into training. He was either at practice, the gym, or running along the trails in the forest.
Sai went through the motions of his daily life, but a blank look haunted his eyes. He wasn’t really here.
I didn’t have a routine here yet, so I bounced between the three of them. It was the only way to ensure any of them slept or ate or showered.
Hannah, Daniel, and Malik knew something was wrong. They knew Saige was gone, but we didn’t tell them anything else, which sent Hannah into a downward spiral. She demanded to know where Saige was and what happened, but we decided to keep tight-lipped.
Saige might trust her and their other friends, but we didn’t.
Not when it came to her safety and well-being.
The only people we completely trusted were ourselves.
“This is the finished pile?” I asked Niall as I sat across from him in the restricted room where he’d taken up residence.
“Yes.”
These past days taught me a lot about each of the guys. I got used to dealing with them at their worst, which would hopefully pay off one day when we could get to know each other under normal circumstances.
They were my brothers. We were just as connected to one another as we were to Saige, but without her, things felt wrong. I had no time to reflect on that.
Breaking down or closing myself off would do absolutely nothing to help her. I had to put my own comfort aside and force my way in with them to chisel out my own place in the group.
“Anything to update me on?” I was joining in late today since I went to rugby practice with Sai and Theo.
Niall rubbed the heels of his palms into his eyes. “I feel like I'm this close to the answer. I can sense it, but I haven’t figured it out.”
“Can I read over your notes?”
He slid the notebook over and dropped his head to the desk. Hopefully, he would take a power nap while I read.
One thing I learned within hours of working with him, Niall was one of the most meticulous people I’d ever met. His notes were so detailed and organized, they even had footnotes to connect information he found from different sources. He was brilliant, but didn’t flash that around like most obviously smart people.
It made catching up incredibly easy. I read through the past two days, stunned by how much material he’d reviewed—at least seven grimoires and three historical texts.
By the time I reached the last page, I understood. He was so close. The solution was right there, just out of reach. I reread, starting further back this time.
