CHAPTER NINETEEN || HARRIS
The way down the mountain was winding and dark.
The rain had stopped earlier, but it started coming down in sheets again, cutting off my visibility and forcing me to go at a glacial pace around the twists and turns of the narrow road.
My headlights cut through the gloom, gleaming off the metal guardrails at the edge of the pavement.
Below that was a long, steep drop down the mountain.
My hands were tight on the wheel, even as my mind spun in directions I didn’t want it to go.
Paul, who I’d loved and never told. Who’d died before I could work up the courage to do anything about it.
I’d spent a long time alone after that, until Cole had come along.
I’d been hollowed out. Gutted but going through the motions anyway.
And after Cole had left, I had been sinking back into the same darkness.
Then I’d found Reed. And for a little while, I’d let myself believe it could be different.
Was I repeating the same mistake? Was I running again, instead of fighting for what mattered?
But Reed didn’t want me. He’d made that clear.
So what was I supposed to fight for?
I drove for a long time, until the mountain road became a two-lane road that eventually led me onto the freeway. I turned everything over and over in my mind until I felt exhausted.
I yawned. Then tears suddenly blurred my vision, emotions hitting me full force without warning.
I blinked the wetness away, trying to even out my breathing.
I needed to calm down before I kept going. And possibly sleep.
Then I spotted a rest-stop sign through the windshield.
Sucking in a shuddering breath, I pulled off the freeway and into the rest stop parking lot. I turned the engine off, my hands shaking, tears still blinding me.
I didn’t want to be alone right now. But I didn’t have much of a life at all. No friends, except Cole.
I pulled my phone out and looked at the screen, hesitating. I’d never tried being messy with him before. What if—
No. I needed him. And I trusted him, too.
I found Cole’s contact and called.
He answered on the first ring. “Harris. Finally. I’ve been waiting for—”
“Reed told me to leave,” I said, the words tumbling out before I could stop them.
“That bastard,” he said, his tone sharpening dangerously. “Alpha or not, I’ll—”
“No. I don’t want that,” I said immediately. “I just—look, I’ve been driving for hours, but I don’t even know where I’m going anymore.”
Silence.
Then Cole said, “You’re coming here, obviously.”
My throat tightened. “What?”
“To Seattle. Well, north of Seattle. You can come stay with me and Eli. We have plenty of room. And you shouldn’t be alone right now.
” He paused. “I’m fairly certain this is an ice cream or baked goods situation.
Possibly both. Perhaps with reality television and much complaining about how vile men are.
” More seriously, he added, “I’m not really sure of the details, but we can figure it out. ”
I let out a bark of laughter and relief hit me like a wave, so strong it left me dizzy. “Yeah,” I said. “Okay. Yeah. Let’s do it. Pizza and beer, though.”
“We can do pizza and beer if you wish, but I’m firm on the ice cream, detective. Text me when you’re close. I’ll send you the address.”
“It’ll be a minute. I need to sleep here for a bit. I’m not in good shape to drive.”
“Very well. I’ll be annoyed with you if you get yourself killed.”
“Thanks, Cole.”
“Of course, detective. Drive when you’re once again able to do so.” His voice softened before he added, “This is what friends are for.”
With that, he hung up.
I sat in the car, staring at my phone, bleary-eyed and wrung-out.
I set an alarm on my phone for an hour, locked the doors, and tilted the seat back. I expected I wouldn’t be able to sleep, too caught up in my thoughts. But I passed out almost immediately.
* * *
I was standing in a forest. The shadows were dark enough that they seemed to drink in all the light.
The moon overhead was too bright and vivid to be real.
The evergreens were massive sentinels all around me, their boughs a deep and unnatural neon green, their trunks so impossibly wide they dwarfed me completely.
The Otherworld. The same clearing I’d rescued Sally from the night before.
Reed was there. In human form, lying on the ground a few yards away—shirtless, his torso covered in blood, thin surgical scratches raked across him.
The Algea stood over him.
It was more solid here than it had been in our world. Its grin was wide and terrible, its black eyes gleaming with predatory anticipation as it watched him.
Reed’s eyes were closed and he wasn’t moving. My heart lurched and for a horrible moment I thought he was dead. Until I saw his chest rise and fall.
It was waiting for him to wake up, I realized. Waiting to feed on his suffering, his despair. Just like it had done to the hiker. And to Sally.
No. Horrified, I started toward him.
It must have—what? Jumped him? Taken him?
Did the pack know?
“Harris.” Reed’s voice came from behind me.
I turned to face him. He stood a few feet away, his gaze locked onto his own body in the clearing. When he raised his eyes to meet mine, there was a ragged desperation in them that made me want to put my fist through a wall.
“Harris, I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I never should have said those things. I was scared and being an idiot.”
It was exactly the words I had prayed he’d come back to the cabin to say—except that given the circumstances, it sounded horribly like goodbye.
He swallowed, then said, “I love—”
“No! Don’t!” I cut him off, hating the resigned look in his eyes. “After we save you, you can tell me as many times as you want. But not like this!”
“Harris, no. There won’t be a later. I’m here, in the Otherworld. It’s got me.”
“There will be,” I said firmly. “Because I’m going to kill it.”
His shook his head, his eyes widening with alarm. “No! Don’t come here! Let the others know, but don’t—”
I shattered the dream, sitting up with a gasp, before he could finish. My heart was hammering and sweat soaked my shirt. For a moment I just sat there, my hands shaking, trying to catch my breath.
Reed was there. In the Otherworld. The Algea had him.
And I knew—bone-deep, certain—what I had to do.
I grabbed my phone and pulled up my contacts, scrolling fast. Emma. There. Reed had made sure I had her number in case of an emergency. Well, this was one hell of an emergency.
I hit call.
She answered on the third ring. “Harris? Are you okay? Where are you? Lindsey told me what happened, but—”
“The Algea took Reed,” I said, my voice steady despite the way my hands were still trembling. “He’s in the Otherworld. We need to get him out. Now.”