Book 11: Why They Took Her

Aviva

A shift in the air wakes me up with a start. I sit up, reaching to peek through the blinds. Snow falls in lazy spirals, blurring the tents rising in the pastures just outside the Silverhide village in the Deadlands. 

Nothing seems amiss, but…

Ryan lifts his head from his pillow, blinking into the darkness. 

“Did you feel that, too?” I whisper. 

He groans with the effort of leaving our warm bed, stumbling in the darkness as he pulls on a pair of sweatpants. “Stay here, okay? I’m gonna check it out.”

We’ve grown used to the noise of having several hundred warriors sharing our space–our village–but this wasn’t a sound. It was a feeling that’s still lodged in my chest as I ignore Ryan’s command to stay in bed and follow him through the quiet house. 

This feels like deja vu. Weeks ago, when Misty had been taken, this exact same thing happened. We felt a shift–like the air in the village parted–and then r