Chapter 26
Edward
I couldn’t believe she was gone. I stared Jamie down for several seconds and then I left before I said or did something I couldn’t take back and walked into the main room.
“She’s gone,” I said. “Jamie helped her escape.”
Aidan went still. “Explain.”
Declan straightened, eyes sharpening. “You let our mate leave?”
Jamie had followed me into the living area, hands lifted like I’d pulled a weapon on him. “Aye. I gave her space. That’s all.”
Logan’s gaze found Jamie’s and didn’t blink. “Say what you really mean.”
“She needs the Watch,” Jamie said, and the grin he usually wore was nowhere to be seen. “We need them. You know I’m right. You just don’t like trusting humans.”
Aidan’s jaw flexed. “And you didn’t think to say that before you just opened the door and just let her waltz out into the dark?”
“I did think it,” Jamie shot back. “And I’ve been saying it. She was already planning on leaving, lads. I just helped her along.”
Declan’s mouth went hard. “By letting her go alone? How the fuck is she even going to get there? Flap her wings and fly?”
“She’s fully capable all on her own,” Jamie said, meeting my eye for once without flinching. “I found a functioning, seaworthy boat and may have mentioned it to her.”
Aidan stepped forward, green eyes dark and angry. “You what? You don’t get to decide for the rest of us.”
“You don’t get to decide for her either,” Jamie said, softer now. “She decided. I just respected it and solved her biggest problem for her.”
Logan’s voice resounded throughout the room. “Enough.”
We all shut up.
He looked at me. “What do you suggest?”
I swallowed the first answer (drag Jamie outside and knock some sense into him) and gave the one that mattered.
“We move at first light. Somehow find another boat in working condition and follow her. Finding her on the water is going to be impossible, so we make it to the Isle of Man and make sure she’s alright.
She’ll make it to the Watch before we do. There’s no preventing that.”
Declan folded his arms, scar tugging when he scowled. “And if she doesn’t want eyes on her?”
“She’ll never know,” I said.
“And Zara?” Aidan asked.
Logan answered automatically. “We keep the radio schedule. Every hour on the half, three-minute windows. If…” He closed his eyes for a moment before resuming. “When her team surfaces, we adjust and meet them north.”
“Your handset is still cooked,” I reminded him. “We need a working transmitter, not hope.”
Declan nudged a half-open cupboard with his boot. “I’ll take hope and a rummage.” He kicked it wider. Inside was a shoebox full of cables, a police scanner with a cracked face, and two antennas.
Jamie barked a laugh. “Bless whoever lived here, a proper apocalypse starter kit. Look at that, a Baofeng special.”
I knelt beside the shoebox, stripped the good antenna, found a BNC-to-SMA adapter in the tangle, and swapped it onto Logan’s handheld. I cleaned the contacts with a corner of my shirt, then waggled the jack into place. “Power on.”
Logan thumbed it and the screen lit up.
His radio crackled and then he spoke. “Wolf One to River Team, radio check. Zara, it’s Logan. Radio check.”
Static. And then—thin and distant, threaded with wind—his sister’s voice: “—copy—Logan? We’re—downstream—bank.—fine.—you find Declan? The—signal’s poor.”
Logan closed his eyes, exhaled, and keyed again. “Copy. We found Declan.”
“—copy. Watch your backs.” The line died in a round of static.
Declan’s chin tipped. “Boat first, then?”
“Boat first. We go after our mate. I’ll radio Zara. She has her own pack to look after her. She’ll be fine,” I said. “Weather’s turning—if the wind stacks the tide against us, we hug the coast, then head east by northeast to the Isle of Man.”
“At first light we all go to the quay, secure the best hull, and cast off together. If we happen to spot Sera, we shadow her.” Logan laid out the plan in his typical no-nonsense manner.
Jamie spread his hands like a man surrendering in the heat of battle. “Aye, aye.”
When the room eased into the twitchy quiet of men pretending to rest, Aidan glanced up. “You think she’ll let us follow?”
“She won’t ‘let’ us do anything,” I said. “We’ll do it anyway.”
“You ever going to forgive him?” Declan asked, jerking his chin at Jamie.
“Probably not,” I said. “But I’ll settle for kicking his ass when this is all over.”
Jamie’s mouth crooked. “Big of you.”
“Want me to do it now?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Aidan pushed up on an elbow, his eyes hard. “Get in line.”
Declan’s scowl deepened. “You’ll have to take a number.”
Jamie spread his hands, tired grin not reaching his eyes. “We handing out tickets or just swinging wild?”
“That’s enough,” Logan said, not really all that loud, just sounding as though he’d heard all he cared to. He didn’t move from the window. “We need him right now. Take your pound of flesh from him when she’s safe.”
Silence stretched between the lot of us.
Jamie broke it first, sounding more chastened than he had been all night. “I didn’t do it to spite any of you.” He looked at each of us and didn’t flinch. “I did it because she was already planning on leaving, with no help, and she needed to know that at least one of us believed in her.”
“Say that again when we’re fishing her body out of the Irish Sea,” Aidan almost snarled, uncharacteristically.
“I won’t have to,” Jamie shot back, and then, lower, “because I’ll be in the bloody water with her.”
“Hero talk doesn’t fix bad calls,” I snapped.
“Neither does pride,” he countered.
Declan sat up, forearms on his knees, voice flat. “Trust is fragile, Buchanan. You put a crack in it tonight.”
Jamie’s jaw worked. “Then I’ll replace the window.”
“You can’t,” Aidan said. “You can only stand in front of the draft.”
Logan rubbed a hand over his jaw. “This serves nothing. We’re angry. That’s good. Be angry at the thing that’s hunting us. At first light we move. Until then, you keep your knives in their sheaths.”
No one argued. No one agreed, either.
“Watches,” I said. “Jamie first, I’ll relieve. Aidan third. Logan fourth. Declan last.”
Aidan grunted with his assent. Declan nodded once. Jamie took the first post at the window, shoulders square as he looked out into the city.
When we settled again, the air between us was still fraught with tension.
Aidan rolled his bedroll out farther than usual from Jamie and didn’t look at him.
Declan faced the door with body language that said try me.
Logan himself angled toward the water as if that would bring Sera back.
I sat with my back to the wall where I could see all of them.
Jamie glanced over his shoulder once, not cheeky now, just honest. “For what it’s worth, I’ll take the hit when this is done.”
“Noted,” I said.
He nodded and turned back to the night.
Logan finally spoke, eerily calm. “Four hours. Then we go after her.”