But all I feel is recognition.
…break the jar, Bash…
“You did what you had to do,” I say.
Kai makes a sound that might be a sob. “How can you say that? I killed my own mother!”
I shake off his hand, reaching over and grabbing a fistful of his hair.
“To save someone you love.” I twist my hand until he groans. “Your mother was suffering, Kai. What you did…that’s not murder. That’smercy.”
The same mercy I showed Billy.
Kai is crying now. I can feel the mattress shaking with his silent sobs, can feel Haven shifting restlessly between us, as if she senses his distress even in her sleep.
I reach across her body and pull him closer until all three of us are a knot of limbs and warmth and trauma.
“I’ve got you,” I murmur. “Both of you. You’re safe now.”
It’s a lie.
We’re not safe. The Jordans’ bodies won’t stay hidden forever.
But tonight, we’re playing pretend. Tonight, I’m the huntsman, not the witch. Instead of devouring these lost children, I’ll save them.
Kai’s sobs quiet down. Haven’s breathing becomes deep and even again. Outside, the blizzard howls like a hungry beast.
I don’t sleep. My wolves won’t let me.
They pace and whine and growl. There will be no calming them until Haven and Kai are safe.
So I hold Haven and Kai, watching over them as they sleep, and I wait for tomorrow.
Just like my Billy used to, every day of her short, godforsaken life.
Chapter 52
Haven
Thud
My eyes fly open, and for a horrible moment, I can’t move. As I frantically scan my surroundings, I realize I’m alone in Bastian’s bed.
Which would have been fine…if I could remember how the hell I got here.
I sit up in a rush, the sheets pooling around my naked waist.
The room is too quiet. The air has an eerie, breathy kind of silence that makes my skin prickle.
“Kai?” My voice sounds odd, like I’m speaking underwater. “Bastian?”
Silence.
I can’t tell if it’s dawn or twilight. There’s too much snow, and the sky looks overcast with thick gray clouds. The pale light falling in through the window glass casts everything in shades of gray and blue.
Bastian’s bedroom looks bigger somehow.
The shadows in the corners seem to breathe.
