Page 28

Nadia

“Let’s go,” Cole says, his voice cold.

Rose turns and starts to protest, but when she sees his face – and then my body pressed to his – her brows rise, her words failing.

Cole doesn’t say anything, stepping towards the stairs. His arm drops from its place around my waist, but he takes my hand, pulling me along. I go, my feet moving absently while my mind stays fixed on the horrible sight of those ruined mattresses – evidence of something terrible here –

My mind darts around to all the awful things it could mean, settling on nothing, constantly producing more and worse ideas.

“At least leave me the light!” Rose calls, frustrated.

“Come on!” Cole shouts, out of patience, taking me up the stairs. When we come back into the light of the foyer, I suck in a deep breath –

I hadn’t even realized I needed it, but apparently I’d stopped breathing down there. I didn’t want any of that fetid air in my lungs – in any part of me –

I stare down into the blackness of the basement that looms like a well –

“Nadia.” Cole takes my face in his hands, turning it towards him, looking down at me, worried. “Are you all right? Tell me.”

I stare up at him for a second before I narrow my eyes. “You know something.”

He frowns.

“You do,” I say, stepping away from him, suddenly wary, looking back and forth between this Prince and the stairs. I point down them. “You know something about that room –“

“Nadia,” he says, sighing. “I don’t –“

“You do !” I snap, shaking my head. “Don’t lie to me, Cole!”

He sighs, his head hanging.

But before he can say anything else, Rose’s footsteps hurry up the stairs. Her face is pale, drawn, but she holds up her camera for a moment. “Okay, I got it,” she whispers, looking between us. “Let’s…get out of here.”

“You feel it too?” I whisper, kind of surprised.

She frowns at me for a second. “Listen, I know we don’t get along or whatever? But I’m not immune to people’s suffering. It affects me too, Nadine.”

“It’s Nadia .”

“Whatever.” She flicks her beautiful blonde mane back over her shoulder, striding for the door. “Come on, we’ve got to check out the rest of this place. Hopefully, it’s not so grim. We need a little spark of hope to really make this story shine.”

Cole and I both stare after her as she moves out the front door. “Well, she’s persistent, isn’t she?” I murmur.

“Yeah,” Cole says with a sigh, stepping to me and reaching for my hand again.

I snap it out of his reach, glaring up at him like he’s crazy.

“Nadi –“

“Oh, back off, you big elephant,” I mutter, storming after Rose for the front door.

He stays behind, baffled. “Elephant?”

“They’re overprotective!” I call back, frustrated at him for always seeming to be on the wrong wavelength. For someone who claims to be my mate , shouldn’t he get me more?

As I step out onto the front porch, Shayne looks up at me from her seat next to Tommy.

Worry creases her forehead, but I don’t miss that his arm is stretched out behind her.

Tommy’s hand is flat on the wood of the step, but his bicep and forearm brush against Shay’s back. I can’t help but smile a little.

At least Shay’s having a good night.

“Are you guys okay?” Shayne asks, looking around at the three of us as Cole comes out the front door and closes it behind him. “You all look…spooked.”

“It was weird in there,” Cole murmurs, noncommittal. Shayne turns to me, taking in my pale face, frowning and wrapping her arms around herself.

“Should we…go?” Tommy asks, looking between Shay and me.

“No, we have more to do!” Rose says, moving quickly down the front steps and starting around the house, ready to further explore this haphazard little village.

Cole looks at me as well. “What do you think?”

I scoff a little, starting after Rose. “I’m fine!” I snap. “We’re not stopping on my behalf.”

Cole’s sigh is audible as he starts to follow me with Tommy and Shayne.

I roll my eyes at all of Cole’s stupid performative sighs – his way of letting me know that he’s not happy with something I’m doing, even if he won’t say it aloud.

Stupid. I really, really hate that we have an unspoken method of communication. That is the opposite of what I want with Cole Kincaid.

We move through the western half of the town, Rose taking dozens of photos, continuing to narrate into her little recording device.

We discover a building stacked with shelves and barrels of preserved goods, a springhouse with a couple of bottles of spoiled milk, and an empty barn that smells like cows.

“So, they left the food?” Shayne asks, frowning as she steps into the barn and looks around. “But they took the animals?”

“Apples can’t walk,” Tommy mutters.

“How’d they get them out so fast?” I wonder, turning to take in the sight of the well-kept barn.

“My guess is that they had protocols in place,” Cole says, likewise looking around. “Slaken is paranoid as hell. They were prepared for our assault, even if they didn’t know it was coming. Had a front to take on the military while their civilians escaped.”

“Shay?” I ask, carefully watching as my friend approaches one of the empty cow booses. “What is it? What are you seeing?”

Cole leans towards me, likewise watching my friend. “Does Shayne…know about cows?”

“She grew up on a dairy farm,” I say, casting out a hand toward her as she looks around, a little frown on her face. “She loves the big dirty things.”

“Cows aren’t dirty, they’re beautiful,” Shay murmurs, resting her hands on the metal boose and standing on her toes to peer at the straw behind it. She looks around with interest, like there’s something interesting in the straw.

“Shayne, if you’re noticing something, we’d be grateful to know it,” Cole calls.

“They were housing the cows in here all winter,” she murmurs, still studying the straw. “It’s clean – they were well cared for – but did you see how low on milk they were in the spring house?”

The rest of us glance at each other, even Rose stopping her incessant photography to shoot Shay a baffled look.

“Yes, I noticed instantly,” Tommy says, a bit dry. “How could I miss it?”

Shayne doesn’t notice his sarcasm, turning back to us. “For the number of stalls here, there should be more milk if there are fresh calves.”

We all just continue to stare at her, clearly not at all understanding what the hell she’s talking about.

“Which means there are no calves, or very few?” she says, holding her hands out to the side and speaking slowly like it’s all incredibly obvious. “Which means…the majority of the cows are pregnant right now and they’re going to calve in the spring. Like, soon.”

“Oh,” Cole says, his eyebrows arching in surprise.

“Looks like someone else is useful,” Rose murmurs, smirking at me and turning to leave the barn.

“Yeah, and they didn’t take any of their dried hay – or not much,” Shayne says, pointing over her shoulder at the full hayloft.

“So, they’re going to need a lot of pasture land, wherever they went now, if they want the calves to survive.

And considering this terrain, that’s going to narrow their choices, right?

” She shrugs. “Or, they might just eat the cows. Who knows.”

“Damn, Shayne,” Cole says, smiling proudly at her. “Well sleuthed!”

“Thank you,” she says, beaming at him and dropping into a little mock curtsy, pretending to hold up the edges of a non-existent skirt. “A cowgirl does what she can.”

Tommy laughs as Cole and I smile at her. “Come on, milkmaid,” Tommy says, grinning and holding out a hand. “Let’s get out of this stinky barn –“

“It smells nice!” she protests, moving quickly to Tommy’s side and slipping her hand in his.

“You are…incorrect,” Tommy says, smiling down at her, their joined hands swinging as they head out into the night.

I sigh as I fall into step with Cole because, even if I hate to admit it, they are…cute.

Cole glances down at me as we head back into the night.

I glance up. “Don’t get any ideas.”

He smirks. “I wouldn’t dare.”

But suddenly his head snaps to the left, his arm reaching out in front of me and smacking me against the chest as he snarls, rough and low.

I gasp, likewise turning in the direction of his fierce gaze, my eyes locked on a dusty and creaky bush behind the barn that rustles and shakes.

Tommy snaps his head to Cole, Shayne tucked behind him, as Rose moves close to his side, her own teeth bared and snarling.

“Sir?” Tommy’s word is tense, clipped.

Cole sniffs the air, watching carefully as the bush continues to rustle and then goes still. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Is it – is it a person?” I whisper. “Is it one of them, come back?”

Cole frowns, undecided, narrowing his eyes at the bush like he can see right through it. “Stay back, Nadia.”