I wanted to say something to him, but no words came out of my mouth when I opened it.
Austin tilted his head, and that slightly mischievous grin—the one I knew so well and missed more than anything—pulled up his lip.
“I miss you—” he started to say, but I blinked and he was gone. Vanished like wisps of smoke in the night.
I screamed.
Or…I wanted to scream. I wanted him to stay. He had been gone for so long.
Wake up…
I finally opened my eyes. This time I knew it was real, because the pain was setting in. My eyes stung, dry and scraping against my eyelids as I looked around. For a moment, I didn’t know where I was.
Then the smell hit me—old hay, dust, something sharp and metallic—and my stomach dropped. Early morning light filtered through the holes in the roof—thin, fractured beams cutting through the dimness. A barn.
An old one.
Empty stalls lined the walls. Scattered, molding hay covered the uneven floor. My back was pressed against the rough wood of one of the support posts. Panic fluttered up my chest as the rest of the pain rushed in.
My shoulders felt like they were on fire.
My hands were numb, tingling violently as they were bound behind my back around the pole. Every time I shifted, pain shot up my arms so sharp it stole my breath. A rope was wrapped around my chest, pinning me secure against the beam. My neck throbbed, head swimming. My brain felt full and heavy, like it was stuffed with cotton.
Even if I weren’t tied up, I wasn’t sure I could stand.
I wasn’t sure I could even crawl.
Blinking hard, I tried to clear the blur from my vision. Colors smeared and edges wavered. I dragged in a shaky breath and forced myself to look around again.
That’s when I saw her.
Mara sat about ten feet away, perched on an old, overturned bucket. Her red coat looked almost cheerful against the muted browns of the barn. She blinked at me, tilting her head to the side like a curious child.
“Are you awake now?” she asked softly, as if this were the most natural conversation in the world.
I stared back, every muscle in my body wanting to run as it sensed the imminent danger. I shivered, the cold sinking in. It was freezing. My heart lurched into overdrive, pumping so fast another wave of dizziness hit me.
I tried to stay calm, but my breaths stuck in my lungs. Nausea rolled through me, and I swallowed against the saliva that flooded my mouth, my throat somehow parched despite that.
“Your eyes kept fluttering open, and you kept mumbling so…I didn’t know if you were finally awake for real,” Mara continued.
I fought back another wave of nausea. When I opened them again, Mara was still patiently waiting.
“What—” I tried to say. My voice was nothing but a whispering rasp. I tried to clear my throat, and pain reverberated down my spine. My entire body rebelled against the subtle jostle of it. I stared down at my lap. I was filthy and wet, my jeans caked in dirt and mud. There were tears in the fabric and I was missing a shoe, like I had literally been dragged to wherever we were. Maybe I had been.
I tried to speak again, and this time, I managed a crackling murmur. “What happened, Mara?” I didn’t want to sound accusing, even though the memories were starting to surface. Mara had come to me in the library. She had given me some hot chocolate while I waited for Graham—
I jerked upright at the thought of him, crying out at the pain that followed the motion.
Graham.
I looked wildly around me, at the sunlight filtering in through the cracks and holes in the siding of the barn.
Sun.
It had been evening when I was in the library. Had I been here all night?
Reeling, my eyes fell again on Mara. She frowned at me.
