Eli looked up at me. “Right. But don’t worry about me. I’m okay.”

I stared at him, no longer able to hold back my curiosity. “Are you Ben’s son?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied without a beat. “He adopted me.”

“You’re not a Fury?”

His brow arched. “Do I act like a Fury?”

“I don’t know.”

“You should. They’re everywhere.”

“But are you one?”

“No.”

That’s what a Fury would say. Bobbie again, whispering in my ear.

But for now I wanted to believe Eli, so I did. “Okay. Just one more night, I promise.”

“And then what?” he asked.

“And then I’ll find someplace safer for you inside the perimeter.”

“One more night, then.” He stood, hefted the backpack over one shoulder, and gave me a nod. “Let’s go.”

Chapter
Twenty-Five

ROSE STOOD AT HER KITCHEN SINK. THE HOUSE WAS silent, her children asleep, her husband quietly tucked away in his office. She’d cleaned the kitchen twice with hope that the activity would distract her mind from the trial at hand, but nothing seemed to help. The kitchen was dark, with only a faint light streaming in from the hallway. She stared out the window above the sink, looking at the darkness that blanketed Haven Valley.

Sylous had given her five days to kill the intruders. But the boy was now missing. The thought made her cringe.

The guardians had spent the entire day searching and had come up with nothing. Every home and structure in the community had been overturned and shaken out. Not a trace of the missing boy anywhere. He’d either vanished into thin air or escaped into the forest. Either way, she’d failed Sylous.

Rose had gone over yesterday’s events a hundred times. She’d left her children with her husband, gone to the medical clinic to deal with the old man, and come home to find the boy missing. Neither her husband nor the children had seen or heard a thing.

The boy had obviously left through the basement window, but how could he have managed without help? Yet there was no sign of a break-in. The key to the basement was in its place, the door to the basement locked, the windows and screens all intact. But she refused to believe he’d escaped on his own. He was too naïve a boy to attempt, much less pull off, an escape.

Then again, Sylous said he was a Fury. She shivered.

Even so, he was no longer within the perimeter, surely. Maybe Sylous would leave well enough alone. Maybe her nerves were more about having been violated in her own home, the sanctuary under her most rigid control.

She dropped her eyes to the sink, closed them and exhaled. Beyond the perimeter, the boy didn’t present an immediate threat to Haven Valley. Sylous would know what to do.