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Lazy fluffy flakes were already drifting through the air, but they no longer held the magical appeal they had only a few hours ago.
Flames still burned inside the library. The fire blazing around the building and the vehicles that had caught fire were more important than the books inside a building that would contain its own flames.
"No, Patricia's not okay, Haley." Zane sighed and stared through the windshield before turning back to her. "You have to tell me what happened, honey."
"I don't know." She stared back at Zane in shock. "It was going to snow. You know how pitiful Patricia's car is in the snow." Another sob tore free. How pitiful it had been. The explosion had destroyed several other vehicles as well, Patricia's being one of them.
She lowered her head, fighting the sobs that shook her shoulders as Zane patted her knee.
"Come on, Haley." He lifted her chin until he was staring back at her. "You gave Patricia your keys, right?"
She nodded unsteadily. "So she could get to town after the snow. She hates being snowed in."
"Yes, she hates that." Zane nodded. "Go on."
"That's all," she whispered. "She went out to leave. I turned the television back on. I wanted to see the snow." Her lips trembled. "They were showing the snow in other states, and I wanted to see it. And then . . ." She blinked and shook her head.
She had to stop crying. She had to remember what Jonas Wyatt and Noble had told her. She couldn't tell anyone what had happened at Sanctuary until the hearing. But she knew, oh God, she knew Patricia had died because of it. Somehow, some way, the Breeds' enemies knew what she had seen and overheard. She knew it. She could feel it crawling over her skin, digging its way inside her brain.
"Haley." Zane stared up at her, his blue eyes sharp, concerned, but knowing. "You have to tell me what's going on here, honey. Someone blew up your truck. That wasn't an accident. You and I both know it wasn't an accident. Now, you have to tell me why."
She shook her head. She couldn't lie to Zane. She was a horrible liar, and she knew it. And she couldn't look him in the eye when he was staring at her like that. Determined and worried, compassion and pain glittering in his eyes.
She looked at her truck, and her stomach ached with the sobs and the fear she was holding in. Her chest felt constricted, tight, and filled with pain.
There was nothing left of Patricia. She was gone, while the snow drifted through the air, and the flames billowed around them.
Firefighters were working to put out the blazes, several twisted hunks of vehicles were nothing but charred skeletal remains of what they had been.
"We found a breed, Haley," Zane told her then.
Her head jerked around in terror. Haley could feel the rest of the blood leeching from her body, agony tearing through her.
"No." Sometimes Noble came in late. Returned books, helped her lock up.
"He was shot behind the library. Someone killed him. Now tell me what the hell is going on, or I'm taking you in for your own protection."
"Who?" The word wheezed out of her as her stomach churned sickeningly. She was rocking, slowly, back and forth, and didn't notice as the coffee cup slipped from her grip and crashed to the ground.
She was going to throw up.
"Who was the breed?" She nearly pushed Zane back as she forced herself to her feet. The quilt dropped behind her. "Where is he?"
She was shaking so hard she had to grip the open door as Zane grabbed her shoulder.
"Haley, dammit, tell me what the hell is going on."
"Was it Noble?" she screamed back at him. "Tell me, damn you. Who was the breed?"
She tried to tear away from him, the sickening fear of Noble, gone, dead. No, it couldn't be Noble.
But it had been time for Noble. It had been. She had been waiting for him.
She stared around and jerked away from Zane.
"Where is he?" She sobbed again, stumbling around the door and gripping the side of the car as she tried to force her legs to move.
He had said behind the library. Dead behind the library. She wasn't crying now. The fear and the pain was going too deep for tears. If Noble was gone, she couldn't bear it. Not Patricia and Noble. It couldn't happen. Not like this. Not bec
