Page 118 of Save Her from Me

Fire lit in my belly. After all her actions had done, and the grief her mother had given me, apparently not even Jackson filling them in on my situation had deterred them.

I wanted to answer and yell at her. Take out all my hurt and worry on an idiotic kid who’d earned a telling-off but didn’t deserve the amount of angst I was ready to unleash.

Nor did I want to scupper Effie’s business by outraging the parents she relied on for an income. I shook, glaring at the call until it rang off. Then I took several deep breaths, calming myself.

A text sounded.

I jumped to read it.

Bridgette: I know you’re ignoring my call. No one misses their phone ringing. Anyway, we’re still away, but my mother told me to apologise and to ask again if you could…

I stopped reading.

A shout came up across the hangar, someone calling something urgent to Raphael.

Ahead of me by a few paces, my brother stilled.

He spun around.

At his expression, my heart dropped. I stared at him. “What?”

“Ben’s office.”

He guided me inside and lifted his phone, dialling someone. “Ben, talk to us,” he said.

Our friend spoke over loudspeaker. “Can Ariel hear me?”

“I’m here. What’s happened?”

Already, I knew it wasn’t good. Had that twisting in my gut which preceded news that was liable to hurt.

I tensed for the impact.

“Jackson last reported in thirty minutes ago. We call out every ten. He’s been silent since.”

“What does that mean?” I burst out. “He missed the call? Why would that happen?”

Raphael strode to a laptop and activated it, tapping in a password to bring up a map, the same as the one Jackson had once shown me.

“I just made it to his last known location,” Ben continued.

On the screen, four pulses of light converged in the middle of the forest, miles away.

Raphael pointed at them, quietly identifying each. First, the two close together. “Jax and Ben.” Then the two further away. “Gordain and Valentine.”

“You’re right on top of him,” I said to Ben. “We’re looking at the map now. Your tracker is with his.”

“I found his phone discarded on the ground.”

Oh God, no.

“He’s gone?” I uttered.

“There are footprints leading away, though the snow is covering them rapidly. Valentine’s tracking them now.”

Another voice came in, Valentine’s. “I reached a lane. The prints lead to another car’s trail.”

I squinted, trying to work that out. “He got into another car? Left without telling anyone?”

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