“And why you didn’t mention it to us sooner,” Clooney adds.
“We’re getting nowhere like this, if you haven’t noticed,” I counter.
“We have other means of getting answers, Ms. Wakefield. Don’t push us.”
“But I don’t know anything.” My voice cracks.
“On the contrary, you know too much. Now, start talking.”
Chapter
Eighteen
KAEL
Iawaken with a start. The damp forest floor feels warm beneath me, pinyon pine branches stretching overhead.
Tempest nickers next to me, teeth pulling grass up by the roots.
The marks on my chest ache and burn. A pressure builds in my head.
It shouldn’t be like this. The farther I get from her—it shouldn’t beunbearable.
My mind wraps around a flash of metal—the alien alloy bracelet Eliza wears around her wrist.
Suppression.
My stomach twists, a cold sweat coming over me.
It’s my only hope.
I gulp air, fingers digging into the mark pulsing across my chest and down one arm. I can’t live this way. But there’s no alternative.
Except for the dampeners.
I have to go back to Raven’s Ridge. I have to finish what I started with Mags. What Ash broke at the cabin in the winter pasture.
There’s no other way.
“Come on, girl. Got to ride hard,” I say between clenched teeth, thumb sliding over the raised welts on my forearm from rattlesnake bites.
If only the sparks Eliza put in my blood would heal as quickly. But I can’t think about her now as I ride into a new storm. Heading back into the thick of the humming mountains and the woman who won’t stop tugging at my thoughts.
Two hours later,I stand in Redfern Feed, the sweet smell of grain and the nuttiness of hay threading the air. My hands are on my hips, facing off against Mags. “The dampener. Have you had any luck fixing it?”
“No,” she says, eyes large, face blanched. “But we have much bigger problems than that now.”
“What do you mean?”
“You haven’t heard?” she asks, skepticism behind her gaze.
“Heard what?”
“That Eliza Wakefield’s missing.”
The air escapes my lungs, my chest squeezing hard. “What do you mean?”
“She hasn’t been to work in two days. Isn’t answering her phone.” She paces behind the counter, then stops, leveling her gaze on me. “You don’t have anything to do with this?”
