I wish I cared, but I really don't. Not after what just happened.
If he can track me, then Calder can too.
Maybe that's why he knew we were coming.
But not anymore. Silence is a weapon, and Calder won't see shit until I'm already at his throat.
I wipe blood down my shirt, eyes fixed on the black void stretching across the Highlands.
"Hide her. Hide my son. Try."
Nothing could stop me from finding them.
My pulse and promise are steady because I believe every single word.
I turn toward the woods. "I'm coming for you, Red."
And when I reach the Ferryman, he'll beg for a death I won't give him.
The forest swallows me whole, greeting me with open arms like it knows exactly who I'm about to become.
NINE
KEIRA
My tongue is thick, like I tried to swallow a coin in my sleep. I blink, realizing the ceiling above the bed isn't the one I fell asleep under. That one had a crack shaped like a river. This one is smooth, pale concrete with a recessed light.
Everything around me is leaden. That's how I know I was drugged.
He does this every single time.
"Mommy?"
Hale's little voice slices through the fog.
I turn my head too fast and the room tilts. Hale is curled on the other side of the bed, a small shape in an oversized T-shirt, brown hair mussed, cheeks flushed from whatever they gave us.
"I'm here, baby." I reach for him.
He blinks up at me, pupils too big. "My head hurts."
"I know. Mine too." I stroke his hair, counting the breaths between each blink.
We've been moved. The walls are stark white, the air sharp with something artificial. No Highland drizzle. No peat smoke. No green walls. Even the salt smell is different.
"Where are we, Mommy?"
"On a new adventure." I hate the lie as soon as it comes out.
I stand on shaky legs and walk toward the windows—long slits of glass, damp with condensation. Beyond them sits a stretch of manicured garden fighting the wind, then nothing but rock jutting out in jagged sheets before it all just…drops.
No trees. No neighboring houses. Just empty sky, stone, and water.
Definitely not Scotland.
"Did you sleep okay?" I ask, climbing back in bed.
He nods, wincing. "I had a weird dream. The house was shaking."
