Page 5 of Break Her Heart
* * *
We had formed a shell of a plan, but Adar wanted to wait until sunset to ensure no one in town saw us. We had a giant target on our backs now that everyone knew we were witches. I was fine with waiting, because something else had been bothering me for days now.
I needed to see Shadow.
The sun hung high in the sky now, but it did nothing to chase cold away as I slipped through the pines. I wanted to come alone. And I almost convinced myself to slip out when Adar wasn’t looking, but if he found me gone, the little bit of progress we had made would have been for nothing. With him came Jonah, one of Papa’s oldest friends, who used his magic to get us here faster. It was the logical choice. I would have been miserable riding for hours from the coven’s safe house to our home in the middle of winter. But still, I’d rather be alone.
Jonah brought us to the woods. He worried that if we spelled ourselves straight to our home, someone would be on the road and see us. He decided to let us visit our home alone and wait in the woods to take us back.
As we walked, my mind constantly replayed what had happened last night-tricking August, the trap we formed with our witches hiding under a cloaking spell, and August almost stopping me.
“How many witches died last night?” I asked, breaking the long silence between me and Adar.
“Three. None if your lover hadn’t shown up.”
I tensed at those words. There was no love in those eyes. Not anymore.
Adar sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
But it wasn’t like he was wrong.
“I went to him before,” I admitted. “Planned to kill him for what he let happen. But I couldn’t.”
Adar nodded, and I was sure he had something he wanted to say, but he stopped himself.
The smell of smoke hit me before I saw it, curling in the back of my throat like a scream I couldn’t swallow. Our home was a pile of ashes. Where once there were windows glowing with candlelight, now only scorched timbers jutted like broken bones from the earth. And the barn—oh gods.
I ran through the yard. My breath came fast, shallow, and panicked, clouding the freezing air like smoke. The world blurred, grief coating it in static. I could still see Papa on the porch, laughing at something Mama said. I could still hear the creak of the barn doors, the soft huff of Shadow greeting me. Gone. All of it was gone.
“B! Wait!”
Smoke still filled the air, clinging to my clothes, my hair, my skin. How could someone do this? Did they leave the horses to burn? I dropped to my knees on the far end where Shadow’s stall once stood, my fingers digging through the blackened debris like I could uncover a miracle. Ash clung to my hands, and sparksflickered with every desperate movement. Would I find anything to know if he was in here? Bones? Hair?
“No, no, no, no, no.” The word was barely a whisper, ripped from the hollow pit in my chest as I clawed through the rubble. My fingers closed around something half-buried beneath the ash—a warped metal halter buckle, still warm from the smoldering ground.
My breath hitched. I pushed deeper into the rubble, my heart thudding in my ears. What if he had been trapped? What if he had cried out for me while I was off chasing vengeance?
I could feel the panic clawing at my throat, my vision swimming with tears and smoke. The silence around me was unbearable. The absence of hoofbeats, of familiar snorts, of the quiet sounds that had always told me I wasn’t alone.
He couldn’t be gone. Not Shadow. Not him.
Hands grabbed my shoulders.
“B, we need to go. There is nothing left.”
“How could someone do this? This—this is beyond cruel!”
A twig snapped to my right. I jumped to my feet. It had to be him. He never stayed away. He knew I would come for him. I saw nothing through the trees but took a step forward. Before I could move again, Adar jerked me back toward him.
“What are you doing? It’s got to be him! I have to go to him!”
“Shh!” Adar scanned the woods.
A figure stepped out from behind a tree, draped in a deep green cloak that blended with the forest shadows. My heart leapt into my throat.
August.
I stumbled back instinctively, but Adar stepped in front of me, his arm across my chest as he reached for his sword. The tension in his body was rigid, every muscle ready to strike.
