Page 19 of Mystic's Sunrise

“Yeah.”

His jaw ticked. “You’ve been in there a lot, man.”

I gave him a look. “She needs someone. What the fuck do you care?”

“She’s got a whole clubhouse,” he shot back. “You don’t usually play nursemaid. And you know why I fuckin’ care.”

My shoulders stiffened. I stepped past him. “You got a point?”

Chain pushed off the wall and followed. “Not one I’m ready to make yet.”

We reached the end of the hall. The light above flickered, buzzing in that way cheap bulbs do—just loud enough to fill the silence. Just annoying enough to remind you where you are.

Chain kept walking, but tossed a parting shot over his shoulder.

“Just sayin’... you’re carryin’ somethin’, and it’s heavy enough to pound you ten feet under.”

Before I could answer, my phone buzzed. Unknown number. No ID.

But I knew.

My throat closed up. Heart kicking at my ribs. I stared at the screen. Then answered, low and clipped. “Yeah?”

A pause.

My pulse drummed in my ears.

“Where are you calling from?”

I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Just stood there while everything inside me twisted tight. Whatever peace I’d found in that room was gone. Shattered beneath the weight of everything I hadn’t buried deep enough.

CHAPTER TWELVE

I LAY INbed, my eyes fixed on the window,watching the way the trees moved with the breeze, soft and slow like a lullaby I could not quite remember. Mystic had opened it before he left, and the air that drifted in smelled like outside—like life beyond this room—and it felt so good I almost forgot the ache in my body.

I was still too weak to leave the bed—not truly, not without effort—but my legs ached for movement, for freedom, for something more than the silence pressing in from every side like a closing door.

From somewhere outside, a male voice reached me, low and muffled. Then another answered it, also male, unfamiliar.

“…I’m just sayin’, man,” one of them said, his tone cautious. “It’s weird. Mystic hasn’t left her side. Like—at all.”

“I noticed,” the second replied, voice more sure of itself. “He’s protective. Attached. And that’s not like him.”

“She was with Dragon Fire. What if she’s one of them?”

There was a pause, then a short breath of a laugh. “You think she’s gonna spy or some shit?”

“I think we don’t know anythin’. And he’s already lookin’ at her like she’s his.”

My chest tightened then, as if something inside was slowly being squeezed.

“She can’t even talk, and they beat the shit outta her.”

“That doesn’t mean she’s clean.”

The first man sighed, softer now. “She looked half-dead when we found her.”

“Yeah, and now she’s gettin’ better. What if her loyalties lie elsewhere?”