Un-fucking-believable.
She found her phone. She found her goddamn phone.
She's leaving.
“Ten,” Lorcan says with a sigh. “Give me ten minutes.”
“You've got five.”
“Jesus Christ, Ash.”
I hang up.
The road passes in a blur as the city gives way to open country, and every second feels like a goddamn eternity. Every mile between me and Bianca is a knife to the gut.
She promised me.
She lied.
My phone buzzes with a text from Lorcan.
Lorcan
Crowning estate. Sending address now.
The location drops into my messages.
She's going back to him… I know it. Of course she fucking will, right back to the fuckin’ murderer. To the life that's going to destroy her.
I should let her. I should fucking let her make her own choices and face her own consequences, goddamn it. My hands grip the wheel so hard it hurts.
I should fucking let her run straight into Crowning's fucking arms and see what happens when he becomes the monster she doesn't know yet.
But Christ help me… I can't.
The image of Bianca’s broken body flashes before my eyes like a living nightmare. My vision blurs in a red haze, and I push the gas pedal harder.
Jesus.
The cabin finally comes into view through the trees. I screech to a halt, kill the engine, and as soon as my feet hit the walkway, I know. Iknow.
She’s gone. I can feel her absence like a physical blow.
What will I do? What will I fucking do?
The front door's locked. I key in the code, then push it open slowly, silently. Lancelot meows loudly and winds himself around my ankles. I bend and pick him up, cradling him to my chest. A connection toher.
“Bianca?”
Silence.
The cabin feels empty without her. It’s too cold, like the air's been sucked out of the room.
I check anyway, of course—room by room, knowing with each one that she's gone. Lancelot pounces onto the bed and meows again, as if telling me she’s gone.
The window's open. Not broken, just open. She must have figured out the lock. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that she's gone.
I stand there, staring at the open window, my hands fisted at my sides, breathing hard through my nose like a bull about to fucking charge.
