Page 108 of Dawn of Hope
When my feet hit the ground, I run toward the portal. I can hear Dane behind me as I step into the darkness. I emerge on the other sidewith him beside me, holding out a torch for me to grab. I hadn’t thought about how dark it is going to be. The light might make us easy targets for any Castaways out in the storm, but it is the only hope we have to see anything.
“Fin!” I call out, pushing away leaves and tromping through the wet trees to the main path.
The torch stays lit despite the downpour, and I am thankful for the magic that is helping me try to find him.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I say as I glance back and forth in both directions.
“We need to stay together,” Dane says. “Do you have any idea where he was today?”
“No. Roley didn’t say either. I don’t think he knew.”
“Alright. Lennox, I need you to listen to me. We might not find him tonight. I need you to understand that. But he’s a smart kid. He’s learned a lot.”
I don’t want to say it, but I need to. I need to prepare myself for the worst. “What if they took him?”
His face turns grim. “We won’t know right away. Try not to think that way.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat. If it isn’t safe to be out long, we need to get going so we can cover as much area as possible.
We search the section closest to camp, scouring the paths and offshoots, checking everywhere he could have stopped for shelter. There is no sign of anything amiss, no footsteps in the mud or broken branches that might indicate a scuffle.
Despite being soaked to the bone, I am not cold. The storm is hot and muggy, and the air is filled with buzzing and rain. The warmth makes me push to keep looking, but the longer we are out, the more my fear rises that we will not find him tonight.
“We need to call it.”
“No, just a little more. Maybe he’s down at the beach?”
Dane shakes his head. “I doubt it. There’s nowhere there to hide from the storm. It’s time, Lennox. We need to head back.”
I let out a scream of frustration. I don’t want to give up. I can’t. Not on Fin. But if we don’t head back now, we would put ourselves in more danger. If something happens to us, we won’t be able to help Fin at all.
I finally concede, and Dane leads us back to camp. I feel numb, and the gaping hole in my chest widens with each step back to the portal. He will be alright. He has to be. I promised he wouldn’t lose me, but now I’d lost him.
Tears streak down my face, unnoticeable in the rain. Dane takes the torch from me as we arrive and places them back in the sconces he took them from. We slowly walk back to the cabin. I don’t know how long we’d been gone, but almost everyone is asleep when we step inside.
Mara perks her head up, moving only slightly so as not to disturb a sleeping Roley tucked into her side. She meets my eyes, silently asking for news. I shake my head and look away, trying to hide the defeat and worry that is eating me alive.
Dane places his hand on the small of my back and guides me past the tavern to a small washroom. I go first, toweling off and wringing out my soaking wet hair. I change into new clothes and gather up all the weapons I had to take off before I walk outside. Dane slips into the room after, while I make my way over to my bed and set all the weapons down on top of it.
I probably should get something to eat, but the thought of food makes my stomach churn. I had barely taken a bite when Roley asked about Fin. There is no way I will be able to eat, or sleep for that matter.
In a trance of my thoughts, I don’t see Dane approach. He extends his hand down to me and I take it. He pulls me up and we walk a few spaces over to an empty large fluffy sphere. He plops down in a sitting position and extends his arm, making room for me to plop down beside him. I sink into the cushion as it molds around me and turn to lean into his chest.
“I’m not going to sleep tonight,” I murmur. His fingertips stroke my shoulder gently, soothingly.
“I know, but you should try. You need to have energy if you’re going to search tomorrow.”
I nod silently, knowing that between the nightmares and worry for Fin, it is going to be a rough night ahead.
CHAPTERFORTY-ONE
Isleep fitfully despite being curved into Dane’s side, but manage not to disturb him. After waking from the last gasping nightmare with Weston holding a sword across Fin’s neck and me unarmed and helpless, I can’t try to sleep any longer.
I lie awake next to Dane, staring at the one magical window in the cabin to see outside. The rain has eased to a drizzle for now, but the sky is still too dark to be morning. So I wait.
I can’t stop thinking about Fin, how scared he must be, how helpless. How evil Weston is if he took achildcaptive.
Terrible thoughts keep circling through my mind. I don’t know what methods Weston uses to turn any captive against us, but from what I know of torture and mind manipulations, I fear for him.