a

rt, but my mind was already o

oppressive dark for the headlights of a passing car. The silence was so complete I could hear t

es, plastering the torn fabric

d seeped into my bones, shaking my frame with violent shive

arp

branch breaking echoed from

g-low, guttural, heavy, a

ickened my pace. Every step on the jagged gravel in

led further down the mountain, while the right

g I needed shelter, not m

e I had vanished. A massive pile of dirt and up

over the wet earth, my frozen finger

a loose rock, and

slammed against a stone, and my vision flar

aring up at the stars through

s mountain. I wondered if Mia was sitting in his pas

blew the torn fabric o

placed by a strange lightness, as if my body were no lon

ight swept

me over. A thick, calloused hand presse

a rough voi

over his broad back. He wrapped a heavy, militar

my nose, followed by the sav

was a ceiling of rou

quilts. A cast-iron stove burned fiercely a few feet away, its

stle of the quilts, he turned his head, hold

me the cup. The sharp, swe

ok so violently that I splashed ha

k, set it down on a nearby wooden cra

groundskeeper for the estate up the ridge. I will ge

towel. "Is there a te

n is a dead zone. The nearest town

ands. I took a sip of the spicy, burning tea,

I whispered,

stove once more. "It is nothing. You find so

ire, sending a shower of orange

dress?" Dante asked, his gaze fixed