Page 71 of Dark Night of the Soul

His grip tightened around me a fraction. Enough for me to notice. Not enough for me to feel caged. Proof he was still here. Still holding me even after everything they’d tried to make me become.

In one sentence, I’d given Kincade all the ammunition he needed to end Sebastian Crane for good.

And I wasn’t sorry.

Chapter 24 | Kincade

The message came at dawn. One text on the burner phone. Three words.

Move. Today. North.

Then GPS coordinates.

I didn’t text back. I didn’t need to.

I’d stood near the door all night, waiting. Now, I glanced up into the bedroom where she’d slept. Curled on her side. Finally. After she’d stopped shaking. And the nightmares had stopped waking her.

It seemed cruel to wake her. Staying felt like suicide.

If Silas said to move, I had to move. I couldn’t wait.

I pocketed the phone then turned toward the bedroom.

But she was already standing in the doorway in the borrowed clothes, bare feet. Awake. Eyes clear. Back straight. Like she’d never slept at all.

I never heard her move.

“What is it?” she asked.

“We have to go.”

“Where?”

“Another place. Someplace safer.”

She frowned. “I doubt there’s anyplace safe for me.”

The words cut deep.

She said it like it was a fact. Like she’d been thinking it through while I thought she was sleeping.

I glanced at her bare feet. We were running on borrowed time.

“Let’s go.”

She didn’t argue. She followed me out the door.

We stepped into the predawn morning as the sun bled across the cloudy sky. Outside, the building looked like what it was—dilapidated, abandoned, forgotten. Boarded-up windows in adjoining units. Graffiti on exterior walls. Peeling paint on doors. Cracked sidewalks with weeds pushing through.

At least the car was still where I’d parked it.

“God, this place is charming. Should we lock the door?” she said.

The sarcasm was so familiar it hurt. It was the first time she’d sounded close to herself.

I glanced back. She stayed close giving the place a once-over with a look of disdain.

There was a way back from this. There had to be.