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Providing that for Elena was the one gift I had to offer.
My brutality.
My cruelty.
My inhumanity.
Because beasts like me didn’t get that grace.
We only carved a path for those deserving to gain it.
FIFTY-FIVE
ELENA
“What’s taking so long?” I peered out the window next to the front door. Twilight had long passed, the pink and purple hues giving way to a heavy gray before the day had been completely sucked away and consumed by the night.
The trees were still.
Ominously still.
Faint moonlight trickled through the leaves and cast a murky gloom across the surrounding woods.
Meems and Kai had gone to bed a couple of hours before, and now it was just Brinley and me worrying ourselves half to death in the dim light that seeped into the room.
Brinley rushed her hands up her arms, and she paced again. “They’re fine. They’re probably trying to get information out of the guy. You know that can take time.”
Even though she asserted it, I could feel the anxiety course through her body.
The way her inhale was shaky and short.
I kept mine steady. I’d been through this umpteen times. Waiting. Waiting for them to return. Sick to my stomach with fear.
I’d learned to breathe through it. To believe that everything was going to be okay.
But there was something about tonight that sent a skitter of agitation fluttering through my veins.
I returned my scrutiny outdoors. A baleful howl whispered back.
My heart pounded as dread twisted around me.
“They’re going to be fine.” Brinley set her hand on my shoulder. I knew she needed that reassurance, too.
I forced myself from the window and turned to her. I conjured the brightest smile I could afford. “They are. They have to be.”
There was no fathoming any other outcome.
“I think this calls for wine,” Brinley said, shaking herself out of the cloak of anxiety that held fast to the room.
She turned and headed for the kitchen.
She was right. This was exactly what we needed.
A distraction.
They’d show while we weren’t paying attention.
“I do love the way you think,” I told her.
