Page 99 of Darkness of Mine

Her nails dig into her arms, and she stares at a spot past my shoulder. “I’m sorry for what he did to you. For what he’s still doing.”

I don’t know what to say to that. I can’t tell her it’s okay because it’s not. When the silence stretches for too long, I settle on telling her, “We’ll stop him.”

Hannah nods, a wisp of blonde hair brushing her cheek. She looks healthier than when we first found her. Her face has filled out a bit and she’s got some color to her cheeks, but the damage is still there in her pale eyes.

I brace myself for how it feels when she directs her haunted gaze my way.

“Bring her back to me, Freya. She’s just a child.”

“I know.” Allie’s not the same as me. She broke in a way I didn’t and while I’m glad our mother is looking out for her, jealousy hisses at the edges of my mind. I feel so little connection to this woman and yet I wish she was as protective of me as she is Allie.

I swallow, my throat thick. “I’ll bring her back,” I say but Hannah’s words play in my mind. Allie is just a child really. The riskiest part of the whole thing is that we’re relying on her to help keep Harley safe until we get there. We’ll have people tailing Zach when he leaves but if they lose him, then Allie will be alone with Harley and Zach until we find them.

My sister may be saying and doing all the right things at the moment, but she’s a wild card at best and at worst, she’s our father’s daughter.

42

FREYA

Allie sits cross-legged on my bed, moving Jude’s stones around on the sheets in front of her.

I tap my palm on the bed. “Are you paying attention?”

Allie glares at me. “You ruined the pattern.”

My eyes drop to the stones that are now ever so slightly out of alignment and I force myself to take a slow breath. “Allie, this is important.”

She just blinks at me.

This, this is what I’m worried about. Allie’s slipping away and if she doesn’t follow the plan, everything could go wrong. I want to go through it again but the dead look in her eyes tells me I’m not getting any more out of her this evening. Either she’ll do what we agreed on or she won’t.

I drag my backpack out from under the bed and focus on the things I can control instead. I double check it’s got everything I need in it and slip my phone from my pocket to read over the text Reaper sent me.

Reaper: Good luck, Wildcat.

I grip the phone tight, hoping that luck embeds in my bones. I feel like we’re going to need it.

River knocks on the open door and I slip my backpack under the bed with my toe before standing up and walking over to him.

He eyes Allie, who is once more lost in making patterns with the stone. “She going to be alright?”

I grimace. “I guess we’ll find out.”

River’s hands circle my hips and I loop my arms around his neck.

I sigh. “So much of this could go wrong. What if he doesn’t even turn up?”

“He will. This isn’t my first con you know.” River smirks and I huff out a laugh, glad he feels able to joke about it. I know this whole thing has him going against every one of his rules.

Anxiety hums inside of me but I tug on his neck, dragging him down for a kiss. His lips are sweet and sure, and I moan when he pulls away.

Dark eyes bore into mine like he can see right through me. “I need you to promise you’ll be careful tomorrow.”

I give him a tentative smile. “Nothing’s going to happen to me.”

“Freya.” His gaze sharpens and I go still.

I meet his serious gaze with one of my own. “I’ll be careful. I promise.”