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“The river. Tristan will give us passage from Sea and Serpentine. It’s a twelve-hundred-mile river, and there are a ton of offshoots. We can get to Earth and Emerald without an issue.”
She’d had an ongoing fling with a selkie guard, and they’d meet up in Portland. Strictly a friends-with-benefits situation. If I wasn’t so tense, I’d laugh that her sexcapades would end up being my way out of this godsforsaken place. The confidence in her tone was strong, and I would always trust her. She’d thought of running away before, apparently, but that was a conversation for another time.
After a few moments of silence, I released a tight breath. “Don’t drag Mom and Abbey into this. Just leave them a note.”
“No shit,” Adora said. “Do I need to tell you don’t let Markus follow you?”
“He won’t, but thanks for being a smartass.”
She huffed a laugh. “I love you, Danni.”
I yanked Elias’s nightstand drawer open, taking Ysa’s truck keys and stuffing them in my pocket. A notebook sat neatly tucked under a book, and I picked it up, ripping a piece of paper from it, taking the pen beside it. “I love you too. Be safe, okay? I’ll meet you in the alley next to The Salty Siren.”
“See you soon, sis.”
The line went dead. I glanced at the time. Ten after midnight. Emotion clogged my throat again. Water filled my eyes, hovering on the brim, threatening to spill over.
I put the pen to paper and didn’t let myself think about it. To hurt about it. The words wrote themselves. I didn’t have to make it long and drawn out. There was no reason to. If Elias cared, he’d be here with me. Not . . . wherever he was.
The note was simple. It was the truth. My truth, and my goodbye.
With one last look at our room, I turned to the door, refusing to let the tears fall. Wiping beneath my eyelids, I straightened my back, tossing my backpack over my shoulder. Nova treaded lightly by my side.
The ink was still wet on the page when we snuck out the side door.
The guards near the garage wouldn’t question their future queen when she said she was going for a night climb to watch the sunrise. They wouldn’t stop me as I left the main property. They wouldn’t think to watch me veer off that road so I could get on the path leading to Portland.
And they didn’t.
With the vehicle lights turned off, I sped away, glancing in the rearview mirror as the estate got smaller. Nova hunkered in the back of the truck, looking between me and the house, then she threw her head back, letting out a deafening howl.
Something inside me fractured when she did.
Maybe it was my soul.
There was nothing left of my heart to break.
CHAPTER 24
Elias
Apiercing howl rent the air, so deep and raw, I felt it in my bones.
Dannika’s wolf called to me in the distance, but it echoed through the forest, bouncing its painful cry off the conifers. I spun in a circle, trying to determine the direction I needed to run toward.
Toward Danni.
Toward my future.
I was lost. I tried to call out, but my voice failed me.
Another howl, but this one was clearer, and I took off to follow it. She needed me. I was faster than any other species of supernatural. It was a gift. Damp earth squashed beneath my boots as they pounded into the ground, flinging mud as I ran.
There she was. Standing in a clearing, unmoving. Bloody tears fell from her face, and I panicked. She was injured. Markus came out from the trees, a wicked, leering grin on his face. He tossed a dagger in front of him, catching it by the hilt. Teasing as he dragged it over her skin. And still, she was frozen. I was going to kill him. This time, she’d let me.
But the earth held me, wrapping claw-like tendrils around my legs, pulling me down. I threw my wrist out, conjuring a blade. Aiming for Markus, I hurled it with perfect precision. It sailed in slow motion; the moonlight gleaming off the steel. Then he laughed, his form evaporating and turning into Danni. My face fell, and the knife landed true, right in her heart.
The pain of watching her death tore through me, and my body jolted. I sat upright, taking in my dark surroundings. Papers were scattered all over the desktop. I hadn’t slept in days, and now it’d finally caught up to me. I’d fallen asleep writing out what I wanted to say. I scrubbed my hands down my face, feeling the spot on my forehead that had been resting against the desk for entirely too long.
