Page 83 of Darkness and Deceit
All three of us glance at Tanya. She shakes her head. “I didn’t see her on my rounds earlier, which I thought was odd.”
Vaughn turns to Kai. “Can you feel anything? Through the bond?”
Kai closes his eyes. For a second, everything stills. “She’s not close.”
“What does that mean?” I ask.
“It means she’s further out than she should be.” He grits his teeth. “Too far for the bond to be clear. But I can feel something.”
“Something?” Tanya asks.
Kai opens his eyes again. “Something wrong.”
Vaughn mutters a curse and paces to the window. “She wouldn’t just leave you.”
“She didn’t,” Kai says. “She went looking for answers.”
I stiffen. “The forest?”
He doesn’t answer.
He doesn’t have to.
I exchange a glance with Vaughn, and we both know.
“She’s not supposed to be out there alone,” Vaughn says tightly.
“She’s not supposed to be out there at all,” Tanya adds.
Kai’s hands curl into fists against the blanket. “She’s trying to help. Same way she always does. But she doesn’t know what she’s walking into.”
Vaughn steps toward the door. “Then we’d better go after her.”
“I’m coming,” Kai says immediately.
Tanya tuts. “Kai Clarke! You are in no condition?—”
“Try and stop me,” he growls.
I don’t say anything, but damn, there’s fire in him still. Burned, half-broken, and somehow still ready to charge straight into the woods after her.
Tanya opens her mouth, then sighs and turns to me instead. “Watch him. If he collapses halfway there, it’s on you.”
“Noted,” I say grimly.
We move fast after that because whatever Lilith has gotten herself into, we’re sure as hell not going to let her face it alone.
Twenty-Seven
LILITH
The further we venture,the worse the feeling in my gut gets.
Augustus’ glow flickers again, like even his magic is struggling under the pressure here. I step over another downed tree and that’s when the ground shifts under my boot. The earth cracks open like a yawn and, before I can even register what’s happening, I’m falling.
I scream, desperately reaching for something to grab onto, but it’s no use. I slam onto something hard and uneven and the breath punches out of me as I roll onto my side, coughing on dust.
“Lilith!”
