I shrugged, because what else was there? I was still the guy with five grand in his pocket and a hundred secrets. “I don’t know where he went. I was just going to try and look for him, but I don’t have a car.”
“I’m sure he’ll be okay.” Ignatius’s words were careful. “If you could tell him we called?”
I gaped. They were just gonna leave?Fuck this shit.“His dad said something about bringing in an elder to ‘rebind’ him. Does that mean anything to you?”
The room went deathly silent. Ignatius looked at me like he could see right through me and his eyes burned for a second like silver, then he blinked and they were back to normal. “Come, then,” he said and turned to go. I didn’t need to be asked twice.
“You know what it means,” I said finally when we were all in what had to be a very expensive truck. Keegan drove.
Ignatius finally spoke, not unkind but absolute. “It’s not my place to explain Cole’s history. That’s for him to decide.”
“Fine.” I could barely keep my voice from cracking. “But whatever this is, whatever’s happening to him—it’s eating him alive. You all talk about him like he’s the only thing holding this team together, but off the ice he’s just… I don’t know. He’s a mess.”
Keegan smiled at that, and it was the first real one I’d seen from him. “So are the rest of us. Some of us just hide it better.”
I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. “Yeah, well. He’s got a head start on hiding.”
Ignatius turnedand met my gaze. “Why do you want to know?”
That was almost funny, if anything about this was funny. “Because for some reason, I can’t walk away. Even when I know I should. Even when I told myself I would.”
For a second, he just watched me. I wondered if he could see through to the core of me, to every ugly thing I’d ever done. But he only nodded, once, slowly. “That’s loyalty, Phoenix. Not failure.”
The word made my stomach twist. “I don’t think he’d call it that.”
Keegan actually rolled his eyes. “Because he’s as stubborn as the rest of us. And he thinks if he lets anyone in, it’ll all go sideways.”
Something told me they didn’t mean the team. “Are we going to the arena?”
Ignatius shook his head. “He won’t have gone there.”
“Then how will we find him?” This was ridiculous. I tried again, pushing because I had to. “You’re not going to tell me what’s going on with him?”
Ignatius’s voice was gentle, but final. “There aren’t many places we can look. How much of a head start did he have on you, and is he driving?”
“About twenty, thirty minutes. He took his keys.”
Ignatius nodded and tapped something on his phone. “Take 6th Avenue freeway,”
Keegan blinked. “East or West?”
“West,” Ignatius answered without hesitation. “He’s heading for altitude.” How did he know that? No one had said a single thing about where Cole might go.
Keegan merged onto 6th, the highway rising toward the darker outline of the foothills. The mountains rose ahead like a wall.
Ignatius tilted his head slightly, almost like he was…listening? But the windows were closed. The radio was off. The car was silent.
Then he said, “Stay right at the split. Toward the ridge.”
A prickle crawled over my skin. “How do you know?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Ignatius didn’t look back. “He’s upset,” was all he said like that was an explanation. “He’ll go somewhere he can breathe.”
That wasn’t an answer, not really, but something about the certainty in his voice made my stomach twist. I turned my forehead to the cold glass, watching the mountains draw closer, the city falling away.
As we started climbing the gentle slope into the foothills, something tugged at me.
Not fear. Not panic.
