Kahl took one side of the river and the other two are on the opposite bank. “Okay, I’m decent,” I call out awkwardly and I mentally slap myself, telling myself I’m seeing heated looks that aren’t there.
We walk back into the cover of the woods away from the water until finding a decent tree with low enough branches. I start to climb, but Kinsley grabs my hips and plucks me out of the air, pulling me back to the ground beside him.
“You’re going to be spending enough nights sleeping in uncomfortable spots. At least stretch out and rest your leg one more night. We’ll keep an eye out,” he cajoles and it’s too tempting an offer to refuse.
“Just one more night,” I relent, eyes already beginning to close as I lean back against the tree, my screaming legs stretched out in front of me. “But then you guys need to wash your hands of me.”
They don’t answer, and I’m glad. As much as I know it’s true, that doesn’t mean I want to hear it.
Chapter 5
Kinsley
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Saige slid down throughoutthe night, her head resting on my lap. I gently stroke my hand over her head, running my fingers through her dark hair in a moment of weakness despite my brain screaming at me that I shouldn’t.
No one should touch her unless she asks. What if she flinches away, gets the wrong idea and thinks I’m going to hurt her? I think it would kill me if she was scared of me, if she thought I was no better than the men that hurt her. I have no right to touch her, no one does, but I just want to keep her curled up against me so I can protect her, can’t bring myself to stop now that I know we have barely any time left.
“Should we go back and hide the body?”
Kahl shakes his head, keeping his voice barely above a whisper so we don’t wake her. “Going back to the scene of the crime after this much time has passed is idiotic. That window has closed. Besides, the longer we hung around, the likelier a neighbor would have come over to investigate the shots and caught us. We’re better off just pretending it never happened.”
Jaw clenching, I grit out, “How can people just shoot at a girl, human or not? She wasn’t doing anything, wasn’t hurting anyone.”
My heart breaks at this shitty world that I’m incapable of fixing. We’ve spent the last decade since our parents died in the attacks trying to protect our sister from all of this, but she at least had abilities, in addition to most of our people looking out for her. But Saige? She has no one and nowhere to run, yet she’s still convinced it’s her only option. Because sadly, she isn’t wrong.
We can’t change the world, only try to survive it.
“Is she just going to spend the rest of her life like this?” I croak, feeling sick at the injustice of it all. “Always running, sleeping in trees with one eye open?”
She mumbles in her sleep and I draw my hand away, fisting it at my side. Twisting, she rolls onto her back, still using my thigh as a pillow. We wait a few minutes before picking up our conversation, making sure she gets as much rest as possible while she can.
“It’s not like there’s a safe haven for humans.” Kahl’s voice is tight, eyes locked on Saige like he’s trying to memorize her features.
There may have been no point crossing that bridge with her, knowing in our guts she was never going to stay, but between the three of us? I have absolutely no shame admitting that I adore her, could love her if she’d let me; all of us would. It’s been weeks of misery, falling a little bit more in love with her every day while knowing she didn’t trust us to keep her safe, to take care of her.
