Page 208 of The Devil's Thorn

“What is it?” I asked, stepping closer.

“A lucky charm,” Anna said with a small smile. “It’s been in my family a long time. I thought maybe… it could protect you.”

My fingers curled around the cool metal, the chain slipping into my palm. The engraving looked like some kind of symbol—intertwined letters, maybe? I couldn’t tell.

“Anna, you don’t have to?—”

“I want to,” she cut in, voice gentle but firm. “You don’t have to wear it. But take it with you.”

Something about her tone made me stop arguing. I nodded, slipping it into the inside pocket of my coat. “Thank you,” I said, and meant it.

Anna stepped forward, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear like I was a child again. Her hand lingered for a secondlonger than normal, and when I looked into her eyes, something passed through her—like grief disguised as affection.

I didn’t understand it.

“Go,” she whispered. “Kellan’s probably pacing outside like a bodyguard with control issues.”

I laughed under my breath and turned toward the door. “You know him too well.”

“I know the type,” she murmured behind me. I didn’t ask what she meant.

I pulled open the door, pausing one last time to look at her, silhouetted by the soft yellow light of her kitchen. “I’ll call you when I land.”

She nodded, but didn’t say anything as the door closed between us.

The stairwell was quiet. My shoes echoed faintly off the tile as I descended, the faintest weight of the pendant pressing against my coat like a whisper I couldn’t quite hear.

When I pushed through the building doors, the sunlight hit me like a slap. It was too warm for what I was wearing, but I didn’t shrug off the coat. I felt like I needed it now. A layer of something to hold me together.

Kellan leaned against the car door, sunglasses perched low on his nose, arms crossed. Ash sat behind the wheel, tapping at his phone with mild irritation.

“Took you long enough,” Kellan muttered, pushing off the car.

“Nice to see you too,” I said, opening the back door and sliding in. “I was saying goodbye.”

He didn’t answer, but when I glanced at him through the rearview mirror, I saw the way his gaze drifted to me. Down. Over the coat. The silence stretched, filled with unspoken questions. I didn’t offer answers.

“Let’s go,” I said, eyes shifting to the sky. It was starting to darken around the edges. And we were going straight into the storm.

The engine hummed low beneath us, the city slowly giving way to wide, open stretches of tarmac and fencing. I leaned my head against the window, my eyes tracing the blur of steel and sky outside. The seat beneath me was warm, the hum of the car almost soothing, but nothing could stop the slow churn in my chest. A kind of anticipation I didn’t know how to name.

My fingers fidgeted with the small pendant Anna had pressed into my palm just minutes earlier. Cold, metallic, a strange comfort I couldn’t explain. I hadn’t questioned it when she gave it to me—she just smiled softly and said it was a lucky charm. Something she always kept close. Something she now wanted me to have. It had felt… final. Like a goodbye she wasn’t ready to say out loud.

I shook my head slightly, curling my other hand into my lap. No. That wasn’t Anna. That wasn’t today. It was just a charm. That’s all.

“You’ve been quiet,” Kellan said beside me, pulling me from my thoughts. He didn’t look away from the road, but I caught the careful tone in his voice. Always watching.

Ash snorted. “She’s probably mentally preparing to be stuck with Romanov in a flying metal tube.”

I glanced at them both and gave a dry smile. “Maybe I’m just imagining how peaceful this trip would be without the two of you hovering over me like bodyguards.”

“Funny,” Ash said, tilting his head toward me, “because we are your bodyguards. Sort of. Occasionally. Against our will.” He muttered something under his breath after that, and went back to scrolling through the dash board while Kellan kept looking at the road, like it had all the answers he needed, his fingerstapping rhythmically against the soft leather like he had too much energy and nowhere to put it.

I leaned back in my seat, letting my head rest against the leather, and stared up at the ceiling. The tension I’d been feeling hadn’t gone away. It had just settled into something heavier. More silent. Like a storm waiting for the first crack of lightning.

Maybe it was Naples. Maybe it was knowing I was willingly flying into the center of a world I didn’t belong to—his world. Maybe it was the strange way Anna looked at me this morning, her gaze lingering too long, her words chosen too carefully. Or maybe it was the pendant.

I let it dangle from my fingers, the chain catching sunlight as it twisted slightly in the air. There was something about the way she gave it to me. Not forced. Not panicked. Just… sad. Like she knew something I didn’t.