Page 42 of Ravaged Devotion

“Fog is very common here, everyone,” Cosima reassured. “Tod, your job.”

The employee didn’t seem nearly as spooked as the rest of them, nodding at his boss before exiting the room.

“I don’t know,” Ryker admitted to Rue, almost as if Cosima hadn’t spoken, “but he’s worried. And if Uriel is concerned…” His gaze latched onto the fog, brow furrowing, then he stepped toward Eulalie. “My father?”

“He went fishing with Vance and Izan,” she replied. “They left before dawn.”

“When are they expected back?”

“Around lunch time.”

Ryker considered that information and motioned to the unconscious employee. “Is there somewhere we can put him? A place he can’t get out of? Even if this type of weather is common, there’s no way they’re driving through this. We need to put him somewhere until the fog clears and the authorities can make it.”

“My office locks from the outside,” Cosima offered.

“Perfect. Bring him there. Penn, Hollis, help move him.”

Rue watched as the other guys got to work without argument. Then again, that’s how the Harts operated. They gave orders and people listened.

The other employee who’d been on guard duty knew where the office was, and the three of them carried the unconscious man from the room.

Darae suddenly broke out in a sob, shaking Delta’s shoulders. “She’s not breathing!”

“Uriel,” Ryker called to his friend, “let’s get the bodies out of here.”

“You can’t do that,” Cosima said. “It’s evidence.”

Oh. Guess she hadn’t gotten the memo about the Harts being Imperial.

“Do you suggest we seal off the area and leave them here to rot? It’ll be a lot harder to clean.” Ryker quirked a brow, and when she went silent, curled his fingers at Uriel again. “U.”

Uriel didn’t appear to have heard him.

Ryker frowned, but didn’t call him again, waiting instead.

He wasn’t exactly known for his patience, so the fact he was willing to give his friend a moment to…do whatever the hell Uriel was currently doing, made Rue’s nerves fry even worse. Having witnessed the aftermath of a brutal murder, that deep, unsettling feeling was to be expected. But even if he’d been shielded from violence of this nature before, he wasn’t naïve. Having grown up around several Black Harts and their families, he knew they were well acquainted with bloodshed.

Aside from wanting to handle the mess, Ryker appeared mostly unaffected, and Uriel was more interested in the fog than anything else. Because of this, any shift in character seemed extreme, and the attention he was giving Uriel, and his warnings, were making Rue uncomfortable on top of being sick to his stomach.

“There’s something out there,” Uriel repeated suddenly, a hush falling over the room. He shifted on his feet and leaned in a little bit closer. “It’s moving.”

All eyes turned to the window, but after a lengthy moment, when nothing happened, Esti let out a nervous laugh.

“Very funny, U—”

A scream cut her off, and then Tod appeared from the fog, slamming against the window. He beat against it, eyes locked on Uriel, begging for help.

His palms were bloody.

“Let me in!” his voice was muffled through the glass, but the words could still be made out with how loudly he must have been yelling them. “Good Light! Please—”

A large black thing, moving too quickly to be seen as more than a blur, came up behind Tod a second before the man was yanked backwards in one swift motion.

He vanished, the only signs he’d been there at all were the crimson smears on the window.

There weren’t even any accompanying screams.

The fog settled back into place.