Page 54 of Burdened Bonds

“Tristan can’t be trusted,” I say.

Winnie considers this for a moment. “I think he can be. I think he wouldn’t want Rhi to fall into his father’s hands.”

“You didn’t see how lovesick the guy was acting these last few weeks, Az. I think Winnie is right.”

I’m not so sure but I listen as Winnie continues thinking aloud.

“So if Barone hasn’t handed her in–”

“He’s probably torturing her somewhere,” I snap.

“No, I think St … Professor Stone may be right. I think she could be on the run, hiding from those who are chasing her.”

“Miss Wence,” my friend says with a genuine smile. “While I’m honored with the level of respect you continue to show me, I think it time we dispense with the formalities, you may call me Stone. Or perhaps you’d prefer the nickname you and Rhianna devised for me?”

Winnie’s cheeks pinken in the cold.

“What was it?” I say.

“Where would she go?” Winnie asks, clearly changing the subject. “If she were on the run, where would she go?”

We’re quiet again as we consider this, the frozen leaves crunching beneath our boots.

“The only place she knew other than the academy was her home,” Phoenix says.

“She wouldn’t be stupid enough to return there,” I say. “It would be too dangerous. Too many people know it was her home.”

“Didn’t she already go back there once?” Phoenix points out. “Even with an assassin on her tail.”

“She had her reasons,” Winnie says in her friend’s defense, “and we dealt with said assassin, thank you very much.” Winnie glares at us both. “I think we should go back there.”

“I’m telling you, it’s too dangerous. And she won’t be there.”

“And I’m telling you, it’s the only potential lead we have. And even if Rhi isn’t there, there might be other clues – hints of other places she knows, people she may have gone to for help.”

“There are no such people,” Phoenix says. “She was all alone.”

We walk on. The forest is quiet. The ground hard. The air turning more and more frigid.

All alone. She was all alone. I’ve spent much of my adult life alone, hunting, chasing, pursuing. It’s been a lonely jobbut I’ve always had Phoenix and Ellie to come back to. I’ve never been properly alone in the world. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like, how she must have felt.

It makes the guilt for the way we treated her ten times worse.

Well, she’s not alone anymore. She has us and we’re going to find her.

“Okay,” I say at last. “We’ll go check out her house.”

23

Rhi

I’m running,running as fast as I can, my chest heaving as I gasp for breath, my arms and my legs aching, my throat raw and dry. I keep running, keep pushing onwards. I need to get there. It’s important that I do – vital.

I need to reach the beast. I need to find it. It’s injured, hurt, dying, its life source draining away. Only I can heal it. Only I can save it.

It’s important that I do. Fate is insistent. It’s my destiny to save the creature. I cannot fail.

I wake up with a start,my heart racing, my body bathed in a layer of cold sweat, the strange dream still vividin my mind.