Page 164 of Veil of Blood and Bone

“You think if we give her enough time she’ll come back by choice.”

I shake my head. “I think running blind into a supernatural storm after a woman trying to escape us is idiotic.”

“No.” His shadows curl over the arm of the chair like smoke. “You’re afraid she’ll choose not to return.”

The words land cleanly between my ribs. We stare at each other for a long silent moment.

His black eyes bore into me, and I’m acutely aware of what he hides. “You’re also implying you don’t trust Forest to find her.”

“Again, I shouldn’t have to state the obvious. Thor’s hammer...she may think she knows her limits, but she doesn’t. Although I understand why she’s determined to try.”

I do, too.

I stop beside Wren, looking at him rather than the storm, the dark shadows under his eyes and the mark of too many lost nights of sleep.

More will come. The lengths we’ve gone to save her demand it.

I watch his face for seconds before groaning. “Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to escape this hellish hamster wheel we've been cursed to?”

Especially when the powerful presence of foreboding lives adjacent to us. I scoff, stomping away from the window. Wren leans against the arched wall separating the living room and the kitchen.

I’d hoped, in a way it’s never safe to hope, the sex would be enough to lull Helene in a sense of complacency, would make her more amenable to working together.

It’s too easy to get lost in the cycle, to let it drag us under and pummel us with anger and fear and loss.

Until it’s the only reality we know.

Wren stifles a yawn. “Are you inclined to believe he’ll return shortly? I’m not.”

The storm cuts visibility down to zero. And he’s right. I’m not willing to risk her, and I hate myself for it.

I lean down until we’re eye level. “With all the magic at your disposal, together, we better accomplish the same thing as that damn bird.”

I expected him to be lazy. Instead, the keen intelligence he sometimes uses is like low hanging fruit.

The pit in my stomach opens wider, heart battering my ribs.

I’m the first to move. Wren follows me out of the apartment and down the hall, the corridors dark and damp.

There is no good reason to leave without Forest. I simply can’t bear waiting.

If Helene’s safety demands it, we both fall into line.

The hunger and the pain it brings threaten to pull me tight and double me over.

“Have your shadows found her yet?” I push the words through my teeth.

“I have a general awareness of the right direction. They’re not dogs. But they’re close. She didn’t make it far.”

Wren has always been this way. And for his own personal interests, yes, it’s smarter to allow someone else to put themselves in jeopardy over him. Conserving his magic may also make sense if we’re dealing with the creature I believe we are.

This entire situation is wrong.

I’d hate myself more if we waited. If we didn’t try.

None of the other occupants of this mausoleum stir from their apartments. When we push open the front door, a blast of wind burns strange marks into my chest.

The magic in the blizzard presses against me like a living being, vast enough to tamper with instinct itself. Flakes lash across my face and sting.