Page 114 of Entangled

“Okay.” He brings a hand to the back of his head, looking back down to the photographs and grimacing. “Okay, I’ll make some calls and see what I can find out. But Ellie…” He steps forward and grips my hips, eyeing me with concern. “It’ll take some time. People aren’t even up yet. And have you slept at all tonight?”

I dart my eyes away, shaking my head.

“That’s what I thought.” He wraps his arms around me, tucking me under his chin. “Let me try to figure out where she went… but you, you need to go get at least a few hours of sleep, yeah?”

I wrap my arms around him, some of the tension leaving my body as I breathe him in and mumble my response into his chest. “I don’t think I can.”

“You can’t function or think properly without sleep, both of which you’ll need to do when we find my aunt.” He presses a kiss to the top of my head. “Just try, please, for me?”

I’m silent in response, knowing logically that he’s right but everything in me is screaming to not rest until I have my answers.

“I’ve got this, okay?” He presses another kiss to the top of my head and gives me a squeeze. “I promise.”

I turn my head to the side, looking down at the photographs on the table before giving a reluctant nod.

“Good.” He walks us back toward the bedroom, still holding me in his arms, not letting go until I hit the end of the bed. Stepping back, he gives me a sad smile. “Just try, okay?”

“Okay,” I answer softly, sitting down on the bed and feeling like I just ran a mental marathon.

He leans down, pressing a soft kiss to my lips before pulling back and walking to the door. “I’ll let you know if I find anything, okay?”

“Okay,” I echo, watching him close the door.

A feeling of surreality takes over as I sit on the bed as if I’ve floated away into someone else’s life. A life of a girl whose parents’ deaths might not have been as cut and dry as she believed. I sigh wearily and grab one of Jace’s discarded shirts from the floor, stripping off my clothes and pulling it on before climbing underneath the covers. But the sense of a living dream stays with me as I stare up at the ceiling, feeling the boat gently sway beneath me as I try to rack my mind for memories of the night my parents died. To reach into the recesses of my mind and unearth something. And eventually, the combination of the boat rocking and the exhaustion weighing me down wins out, pulling me into a sleep that’s filled with true dreams.

Dreams of a night-forest-eyed boy telling me everything is going to be alright and that he’ll read me a fairy tale so I can go back to sleep.

***

The sound of raised voices pulls me from my sleep and has me wondering if maybe I’m still dreaming as I crack my eyes. I listen for a second, realizing that there are two of them arguing back and forth heatedly as I try to quickly blink away the grogginess of sleep. I hear Jace yell something I can’t quite make out and then a loud crash sounds, causing me to jerk up in bed and scramble for the door. My hand is already turning the knob and pulling open the door when the demanding voice on the other side hits me. It’s the voice that haunts me.

“She’s fucking here, isn’t she?” he grates out.

My hand drops in shock and I stand there uselessly, body completely locked up.

His back is to me. Jace in front of him with a hand pressed to his jaw. His hair is buzzed down now, body leaner as if he’s lost some weight but still… I don’t need to see the tattoo of our words winding up his left arm or even hear his voice again to know that it’s him. His presence reaches out and brushes against my skin with a palpable caress. As if it’s a lover who’s missed me.

The breath leaves my body in a whoosh as I breathe his name. “Coop.”

He turns at my voice, eyes locking with mine and turning enraptured as a pained expression flashes over his face. Silence fills the cabin as we stare at each other for a long moment before his gaze starts to rake my face. Devouring it slowly, inch by inch, then dropping down. I see his eyes turn dark when they land on my bare legs, his jaw clenches and his teeth grind.

He brings his night-forest eyes back to mine and arches a brow. “Hey, Princess.”

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