Page 32 of After Midnight (Skye Druids #7)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Rhona would be pissed. Sabryn couldn’t remember why she hadn’t spoken to the Druid leader before they left the manor, but there had been a lot going on.

Surely , Kurt had sent the text to everyone.

But why wouldn’t the others have come out and piled into the vehicles?

Especially after everything that had happened.

She glanced at Kurt in the rearview mirror. He was still absorbed with his laptop.

No one had said where they were going. She had looked at it on the map, but she couldn’t recall where it was.

How , then, did she know where to drive?

She had stood outside, and not once had she felt the wind.

She hadn’t tried to listen for it, either.

Perhaps it was still punishing her. She hoped it would forgive her soon because she suspected she would need it.

Her father had been a wind talker. One of her earliest memories was sitting on his lap on their back porch as he gently urged her to listen to the wind.

Her eyes watered as emotion welled in her chest. She missed him so much.

It didn’t matter how much time passed. She still longed to call him and ask for advice.

He’d never been too busy to give it, either.

What would he say now? What might his sage words be?

Likely that she visit her mom.

“ Here ,” Kurt said, breaking into her thoughts.

Sabryn pressed the brake and stopped the SUV . She looked behind her, but Elias must have already turned off while she was deep in thought. She hated getting so lost in her head that she couldn’t remember portions of a drive. It always amazed her that she didn’t wreck during such occasions.

“ See you there,” Finn said as he opened the door.

Sabryn grabbed his arm to stop him. She looked behind him and met Carlyle’s gaze.

“ What’s wrong?” he asked.

She shrugged, trying to put into words what she felt. “ I’m not sure.”

“ We have Parker . We can’t let him slip through our fingers after what he did to Kurt and your family,” Finn said.

He was right, of course. Parker needed to be punished.

There wouldn’t be anything to tie him to her father’s death, but there were witnesses to Parker stabbing Kurt .

The chief superintendent could file charges.

But would they stick? Not if Diana or the London Druids had any say in it.

The only place for Parker was in the Druid prison deep in the Red Hills .

All three of them stared at her. Sabryn forced her fingers to loosen on Finn’s arm. “ Be careful. If th?—”

“ We know it’s a trap,” Carlyle said. “ We’ll be prepared.”

They were gone before she could reply. She watched her friends disappear over the hill.

Kurt said, “ Keep following the road for now. Parker hasn’t moved.”

She lifted her foot from the brake, and the vehicle began to roll forward. She rested her foot on the accelerator but didn’t press down. “ How far?”

“ About a mile.”

She suddenly didn’t want to go down the road and pressed the brake again. “ We shouldn’t do this.”

“ What ?” Kurt asked, lifting his head to look at her through the rearview mirror. “ Why not? I thought you wanted Parker as much as I do.”

“ I do,” she insisted.

His brow puckered. “ Then what’s the problem?”

“ This is a trap.”

“ We know it is. And you came up with a plan.”

She scowled. “ Not much of one. No one disagreed with it or wanted to change it.”

“ What is going on with you? You always come up with plans the Knights go along with.”

“ Something isn’t right.”

Kurt sighed and looked out the passenger window. “ Nothing has been right on Skye for some time.”

She couldn’t argue that point, but that didn’t help her shake the sense of imminent doom. Not that she hadn’t experienced it before. It just hadn’t been so overwhelmingly dire as it felt now.

“ What’s the wind saying?” Kurt asked.

“ I don’t hear it.”

There was a beat of silence. “ Because you aren’t listening again or because it isn’t talking?”

“ I really don’t know. I didn’t hear it when we were outside looking at the map, but I wasn’t trying then, either.”

“ Try after we park.”

She nodded because…what else could she do? Still , she didn’t drive farther. “ You really found your brother by tracking his phone?”

“ You make it sound like you don’t believe that’s what I did.”

“ That’s not what I meant,” she hastened to say. “ I just… I’m just trying to sort through everything.”

He snapped the laptop closed and set it on the seat next to him. “ Why don’t we get out here?”

Sabryn happily put the vehicle in park and shut off the engine.

Kurt had already exited. He stood beside her, one hand on the door, the other on the side of the SUV .

She looked into gentle, pale blue eyes that held more emotion than words ever could.

The navy ringing the irises only made them more brilliant.

Those were eyes she had once trusted beyond all measure. Eyes that had burned with desire. Eyes that hungrily watched her from across crowded rooms. Eyes that had crinkled as he laughed at one of her corny jokes.

She missed the man behind those eyes. She longed for that kind of connection again, burned for it. After tasting such bliss, nothing could ever come close again.

He leaned toward her. “ You think I didn’t want to find him when I first came to Skye because I didn’t immediately search for his phone?”

Sabryn shrugged. It was a good question. “ Why didn’t you?”

“ I had gone days without sleep. I wasn’t thinking clearly about anything but getting here to you.”

“ Yes , of course. I forgot about that.” How had she forgotten that? He had passed out in front of her.

Kurt stepped back and dropped his arm to give her room to get out. “ I’m on your side, Sabryn , whether you believe it or not. Everything I’ve done since DC has been to make up for my part in what happened there. I’ll apologize for the rest of my days in hopes you might forgive me one day.”

“ Don’t . Please ,” she begged as she unfolded from the vehicle and closed the door. “ Let’s just focus on Parker .”

Kurt turned and pointed. “ He should be over that hill.”

Sabryn didn’t like that the SUV sat out in the open.

She glanced around to see if there was a place to hide it when she saw that the road just ended.

She couldn’t have driven farther even if she had wanted to.

When she glanced at Kurt , he was already a few steps ahead of her.

She hurried to catch up. The seven of them would be enough to take out Parker and whatever Edinburgh Druids might still be around.

It would be another matter entirely if Edie showed up.

“ I don’t suppose you can hack a satellite to see if your brother is alone,” Sabryn joked as they walked.

Kurt kept his gaze forward. “ I could. I didn’t think of that.”

She frowned. He always thought of things like that. Always . Sabryn halted, her heart racing as disquiet curled inside her. Nothing felt right.

He walked two more steps before pausing and looking back at her over his shoulder. “ What’s wrong? We’ve given the others plenty of time to get into place.”

She searched his face, though for what, she wasn’t sure.

“ Sabryn ?” he asked worriedly as he faced her.

“ Something isn’t right.”

He walked to stand before her. “ You forgot to listen to the wind.”

Shit , she had. What was wrong with her?

She inwardly gave herself a shake to clear her mind of all the problems and worries circling inside her, then closed her eyes and opened her ears.

The wind came at her from all directions—some of it soft like a butterfly’s wing and other gusts that whipped around her in an angry, urgent frenzy.

But not once did it speak.

She stayed there for several minutes, waiting and listening. Then she spoke to it. “ I’m sorry I shut you out. I need your help. Please .”

Sabryn repeated the words several times, but it didn’t reply. She sighed and opened her eyes. “ It won’t talk to me.”

“ It would’ve been helpful, but we’ll make do,” Kurt said.

They proceeded forward, but her apprehension grew with every step. Something was very, very wrong. Why couldn’t anyone else sense it? She had to stop going along with things before it was too late.

“ Wait ,” she called to Kurt as they reached the top of the hill.

But he was looking down into the glen. “ There’s Parker .”

Sabryn reached for him, but her fingers grabbed air as Kurt headed toward his brother.

Parker sat alone atop a picnic table. He was the only one around, which seemed particularly odd.

She frowned. When she looked across the shallow valley, she spotted Elias , Bronwyn , and Song .

Sabryn turned her head to the side and caught sight of Finn and Carlyle .

All of them were headed straight for Parker .

Sabryn looked at their target, noticing that his eyes were on her. He smiled.

“ Stop !” she yelled to her friends. “ STOP !!!!”

But no one seemed to hear her. She raced down the hillside after Kurt , screaming at her friends. The wind snatched each word from her mouth, so it never reached them. She ran as fast as she could but couldn’t catch Kurt , who was just a few yards ahead of her.

Then , she saw the mist pouring over the hill behind Elias .

It stretched like fingers as it slid down the slope toward the trio.

There was more behind Carlyle and Finn .

When she dared to look over her shoulder, she saw the mist there, too, rushing right for her.

She tensed, waiting for it to grab her, but it gave her a wide berth and went straight for Kurt .

It wrapped around his ankles and moved up his legs without him realizing.

Everyone had mist creeping up their bodies except for her and Parker .

His laughter filled the valley, getting louder and louder the longer it went on.

She stopped shouting at her friends and turned to magic.

She released a volley at Parker and cheered when it struck him. Yet it did absolutely no damage.

She didn’t have time to wonder why as she called more magic into her hands and threw another round at him. He didn’t even try to move, and just like before, the magic struck him without effect.

He laughed louder, goading her. “ You never learn,” he said.

That drew her up short. She looked at the Knights . The mist had consumed them. She could no longer see their faces. Kurt reached out a hand toward his brother, but that, too, disappeared within the vaper.

“ I warned you.”

Sabryn’s head jerked to the side to find Edie . “ Let them go.”

“ I gave you a warning you chose not to heed. I told you what would happen.”

“ No ,” Sabryn said, shaking her head. She couldn’t— wouldn’t —believe it. “ Let them go!”

“ Sabryn !” Kurt yelled.

Kurt’s shout drew her attention. She looked over to find him on his knees—at least, she thought it was him.

“ They’re only the first,” Edie whispered in her ear.

Sabryn jerked away and readied her magic, but Edie was gone. Everyone was gone. Her friends. Parker . Everyone . She spun in a frenzied circle, waiting for the next shoe to drop.

“ You were warned.” Edie’s voice drifted on the wind.

The truth of what had just happened hit her then.

Sabryn dropped to her knees as anguish sank its claws into her chest and ripped out her heart.

The grief was sharp, the sorrow suffocating.

It was the kind that echoed louder than any scream.

All of her fears had been laid bare. She was alone.

She’d had the chance to save her friends and had only led them straight to their deaths.

“ Sabryn ?”

She jerked at the sound of Rhona’s voice to see the rest of their group descending into the valley. Terror coursed through her veins as she reached out her hand. “ Get back!” she warned.

But the mist was already rising from the ground. It swallowed them in an instant before disappearing into the earth once more. Sabryn stared in stunned silence at what she had just witnessed.

The hush around her was ghostly. The mist hadn’t just taken her friends. It had taken every living thing. The birds, insects, and the animals. She leaned forward, her hands sinking into the grass as she dug into the ground, hoping the mist would take her, too.