Page 116 of Hunted By Fae
I hope she spared him.
I hope he made it to the light lands.
I hope I make it, too.
I hope Tess makes it back with me.
Maybe I hope too much.
I sink into the wooden wall of the bar with those thoughts, a lull that’s kneading into me. The more my thoughts drift, the more my back slouches, the more my eyes shut.
But my lashes only just touch down when a thunderous crash shudders the whole shack.
I jolt upright, stiff, and throw my wild glare up at the ceiling.
Dust and snow rain down from the gaps in the wooden slats. The rattle loosens all the old debris up on the roof and poisons the air.
I shove myself under the safety of the bar, hooking my arm to my face, and stilling my breath.
Cringed, I wait for the rattle to end, for the shudder to stop—
But when it does, my blood runs cold.
The rattle ends, the shack stills…
And Dare’s familiar voice is slick through the air, “Found you.”
TWENTY-FIVE
BEE
I’m rooted in place.
Bootsteps thud on the old, groaning porch, and I feel every step, like a strike to my bones.
“Hope you don’t mind that I left a gift for you at the entrance,” his smooth, polished voice snakes through the gaps in the wooden slats. “Suppose I threw it a touch too hard…”
I reach my shaking hand down to my belt, then fumble with the switch on the CB. I turn it off—and the static dies, silenced.
Like that’ll help.
Like he hasn’t already heard it.
Like he doesn’t already know I’m in here.
His mocking tone comes light, playful, but it’s as menacing to me as a loaded gun dipped in glitter. “Who knew it took so little to crush a human body?”
My lashes flutter with a startled blink.
Lips parted around uneven breaths, I am stagnant, stupid, and his words are taking too long to process.
That’swhat shuddered the building.
That’s what collided with the exterior wooden wall and rattled the whole brewery so violently that my boots are white-dusted with roof debris and my arm is locked around my mouth to protect my lungs from the filthy air.
A body.
A human…
