She gave him a bleak smile. “This is the only way. You’re going to have to trust me to go in alone. And I will trust you to come in and get me.”
Fuck it all.
Ethan turned away from the table, ignoring the men watching them, and pulled her into his lap so that he could wrap his arms around her and hold her against him. He breathed in her soft scent—Kay and a hint of jasmine—feeling her Shadows surround him as his surrounded her. Feeling her body, so warm, and strong. So competent.
And so easily hurt.
He leaned back just far enough that he could look into her eyes and give her what she needed. The truth. “I do trust you.”
ChapterThirty-One
The road wasdark and narrow, lined with woods on either side of Elizabeth’s small car as Kay pulled off into a rough parking area. The tires rumbled over gravel as she stopped and turned off the engine.
The abbey was close to the border between Wales and England, a bustling tourist spot in the day that was now empty and quiet. Isolated, but with easy access to main roads. A good place for a rendezvous.
The towering walls of the ancient ruins were spotlit, glowing in awe-inspiring arches against the deep navy of the night sky. A low moon hung over the woods in the distance, stars speckling the sky above the ruins. A chilly breeze tugged at Kay’s jacket, lifting the short strands of hair that had fallen free of her tight ponytail.
It was hard to believe that this was where she, James, and Zach had picnicked as students, lying in the grass and planning their future.
She pushed away thoughts of the past, and of the future. Any future. Kay let her head fall back for a moment, pulling in a long breath and then releasing it slowly as she cleared her mind. She let her fears and worries tumble out into the night until she could concentrate fully on her Shadows and on what she needed to do.
She slipped Elizabeth’s phone into the pocket of her black jeans and then climbed quickly out of the car to make her way through the parking area, away from the main abbey entrance, and down to the river.
Kay found the place she wanted. It was an ancient tumbledown wall with a nearby oak tree, its branches sprawling over the wall and reaching out toward her. She lifted her hands and let out a long stream of Shadows, flicking her fingers to twist them into a smooth rope and then deftly wrap it around the highest branch.
How many times had she practiced? And how often had James been standing nearby, teasing and heckling, but mostly just supporting her? Hundreds.
The horrible self-doubt was over. Ethan had looked her in the eyes and told her he trusted her. Even more importantly, she finally trusted herself.
All her life she had walked away rather than forgive, but not this time. Forgiving Ethan was the best thing she had ever done. Now she needed to face James and fight for him too.
She crouched and then sprang, using her rope to pull herself quickly up the wall, and then releasing it as she leaped back down the other side. She picked her way up the muddy slope, slipping the phone from her pocket and using its light to help her avoid stumbling into rabbit holes.
The walls of the ancient abbey rose around her like a huge open-aired cage as she climbed the smooth stairs that led into the ruins. The roof was long gone and open to the elements, and there was only damp, spongy grass beneath her feet where there would once have been stone.
The sudden darkness inside the ruins surrounded her, making her small light seem impossibly tiny and solitary. But Kay knew she was not alone. She could feel it.
Ahead of her, as her vision sharpened, she could see someone low to the ground, not moving, their Shadows spun with ruby and as familiar to her as breathing. While another presence hovered like fog in the back of her awareness. James was there, but she couldn’t sense exactly where he was.
She stepped closer, alert to every noise—every rustle of leaves, her footsteps on the soft earth, her own steady breaths—and raised her light to look properly at the figure kneeling on the ground.
Elizabeth lifted her head. Her hands were tied together at the wrists with thick tape. More tape covered her mouth, and her long silver hair hung loosely around her shoulders.
Kay forced down her aching shoulders. Here was the bait in James’s trap.
She smiled at Elizabeth and stepped forward, willingly becoming the bait in her own.
She stepped up to her grandmother, and then, with a whispered apology, took a corner of the tape at Elizabeth’s mouth. She pulled the tape away as smoothly as she could, wincing in sympathy as Elizabeth gasped.
“Kayleigh.” Elizabeth’s voice was dry and shaking. “Cariad. You shouldn’t have come here.”
She shook her head, letting her Shadows coalesce into a gleaming blade. “You know I wouldn’t leave you.”
“And for that, I’m so sorry.” The words sounded harsh, half-whispered, as if spoken at great effort. Tears glittered in Elizabeth’s eyes, and her face was haggard in the pale circle of light.
Kay knelt and used the Shadow blade to quickly cut through the tape on Elizabeth’s legs before turning to the binding at her wrists. James had still not appeared, but she could feel his presence.
Elizabeth’s arms sprung free, and Kay pulled her up to stand. “Let’s go.”
