Page 1

CHAPTER

ONE

DRAVEN

“Noor!” We stare in horror as her fingers slip through mine, and I lurch forward as if to follow her over.

I need to fix this.

“No!” Alastair snarls, his arm banding around my waist as he pulls me back, his muscles straining. Damn all of this fog! I need to see! “You can’t…Fuck. I don’t know if there’s water down there.”

Noor’s scream pulls my soul from my body as it pierces the night air, and I swallow back a sob as Ciaran stares in disbelief at the space where she disappeared. There’s so much we don’t know about her, despite the file we’ve compiled.

Can she swim, or is the water going to pull her and the unborn baby inside of her down to their deaths? Fuck, or is she no longer screaming for some other reason? I can’t breathe, fuck! Where is the oxygen?!

There’s too many unknowns. The single scream ends too soon, and even as I listen for a water splash, I can’t hear anything.

“Someone tell me that didn’t just happen,” Ci whispers.

“Hey guys!”

I flinch as if Alexa fucking hit me as I whirl around to face her. Can she see how devastated we are? Did she see anything? The fog feels as if it’s creeping further into the forest and it could easily swallow us up the way it did Noor.

I can’t stop shivering and Alastair moves until his arm is around my shoulders as we face this psychotic theater chick with a crush on Ci.

“Did you end up catching Noor?”

“Nah,” Ci lies. “She was too fast and we lost her in the trees. I’m sure she’ll pop up later.”

God, please. Alastair’s hand drags along my shirt until he’s squeezing the back of my neck to get the pain to center me. If Alexa wasn’t fucking here we’d be able to run down the path on the other side of the forest to look for Noor. I’ve never wanted to snap this girl’s neck more than I do now.

Alexa is more than a nuisance, she’s a physical barrier between us and Noor.

“Well, come on then. If Moo wants to walk around lost in the woods, then that’s her problem,” she says, pulling her arm through Ci’s. “I want a drink!”

Taking one last look over my shoulder, I force my feet to move away from the edge of the cliff. Ciaran allows Alexa to pull him further ahead of us, and Alastair presses his lips to my ear.

“We’ll come back,” he hisses. “This isn’t the end. If she’s pregnant, that's my baby. We fucked up. I told her we’ve all messed up before. I didn’t have a chance to tell her we’d figure it out. I’m telling you now, because I will not break this promise. We’ve done too much to ruin her life.”

I nod numbly, and he keeps me from tripping on stray roots as we walk. I’m working on autopilot. Every atom in my body wants to be searching for her at the base of the cliff. The basin is somewhere we’ve been coming for years. I know every inch of these woods, because I wanted to lead the senior events one day.

None of that matters anymore, but it’ll get us to Noor the second we’re released from our duties. We’ll pretend for a short while and then leave.

I curve my lips into a practiced smirk as we walk into the clearing where people I’ve gone to school with for years are partying. The masks are long gone, and I find a spot to watch everyone. I’m vibrating with the need to do something but force myself to stand still.

My teammates have girls in their lap as they drink, apparently not ready to be done fucking for the night. They’re running on endorphins and the excitement of being the big dogs on campus, and getting everything that comes with that.

It’s the last thing on my mind after having another taste of Noor. We aren’t planning to drink since we’re in charge of everyone being safe, and I glare at Ci as he whispers something in Alexa’s ear.

“Do you really need to go already? I was hoping we could talk,” she says coyly.

A glance at the watch on my arm tells me it’s after midnight. Noor is eighteen today, and we’re once again ruining another important day. Hell, we may be responsible for her being eighteen forever.

Breathe. Fuck. She can’t be gone.

“I want to take a walk and see who is still in the woods,” he explains.

My heart begins to pound as I realize he’s orchestrating a task for us. I was willing to pretend to take a piss and say I needed them both to hold my dick if it would get us the fuck out of here. The three of us do everything together, though we usually draw the line at following each other into the bathroom.