Chapter 169

Liam

The drive back through the storm was the longest of my life.

Every sound, the wind, the tires crushing snow, the faint rattle of the heater, felt too loud against the silence between us.

Alaria sat beside me, wrapped in my coat, eyes unfocused, skin pale. Anastasia slept in the back seat, head resting against Marin’s shoulder. Even in sleep, she kept her hand stretched out toward her mother, as if afraid to lose her again.

I’d thought finding them would bring relief.

It didn’t.

Relief was too soft a word for the mess inside me.

What I felt was something sharper, rage, guilt, a hunger to destroy every inch of ground that Darius had touched.

Kai followed behind us with the others, their headlights cutting through the snow. I could see his shape in the mirror, rigid, silent, on alert. No one spoke.

When we finally reached the safe house, an old cabin tucked between the northern ridges, I cut the engine and turned to her.