7. Sawyer
SAWYER
Bright morning light warms a curved path between cheek and ear as I rouse from sleep. Too bright—we should’ve closed the curtains. As soon as I attempt to open my eyes, they slam shut again, hand lifting to block the unforgiving rays, as though the sun rose just outside the window.
I groan and roll to my side with my arm stretched toward Luna. I find a vacant pillow instead.
First emotion: disappointment.
But as soon as I remember what—who—is waiting for her at the Keep, my heart leaps.
I shoot up in bed, eyes snapping wide. “Luna?”
I twist left and right, but sure enough, she isn’t crouched on the floor. She isn’t standing at the window.
Bathroom?
I throw off the comforter and shake the sleep from my arm after laying on it all night. I stride to the door with an urge I tell myself isn’t fear. She’s fine. There was no need to warn her about Angel because…
Because.
“Luna?” I peek my head out the door.
Nothing.
I go to the bathroom—find it empty.
“Luna!”
My heart thumps in the silence, the sound a constant banging against my eardrums.
When I return to the room for my clothes, the smell of greasy eggs catches in my nostrils. I search for its source until I land on a foil-wrapped burrito on the nightstand. A folded note is tucked beneath.
I go to the nightstand and unfold the note.
In the neatest handwriting I’ve ever seen: Sorry.
Five letters written with precision that must’ve taken her time to get each curve just right. For all the care she took writing, she could’ve said more. Or at least made sense.
Better yet, woken me up.
I ball the note up and toss it to the floor with a scoff. But just as I reach for the burrito—the first bit of real food I’ve been granted since Zephyr—an image flashes through my mind that makes my stomach lurch.
Liberty… Ripped clothes… Tear-stained face.
Angel is a patient man, but if he learns what the Sanctum did to his wife, even he will become unpredictable. Him and Luna, alone in the Keep, two rooms away…
I abandon the food, throw on my clothes, and am out the door in less than a minute.