Page 31 of Bonded Ever After

I tense. “Are you saying they might be able to come after us?”

“Yes,” he says softly. “So we have to get moving, and we have to keep up a fast pace. Until we’re sure they won’t be able to find us.”

This is all so scary. So scary and so overwhelming. Neverwood isn’t safe. Paradise Falls isn’t safe. And we have a baby on the way. A baby we need to protect from everything in this world.

“What should we do?”

He sighs softly. “We should get moving. Tonight. We can’t have done all of this just to be caught by them. Our Little Bean has to stay safe.”

“LIttle Bean?” I ask, lifting my head and looking at him.

“Yeah, don’t they look like beans at this stage?”

They do. I wouldn’t think Callum would know that.

I smile. “Yeah.”

He smiles back. “So, they’re our Little Bean.”

I laugh. “Okay, Little Bean it is.”

He squeezes me tightly, then rolls out of the bed. “Let’s get going. We can go over baby names on the way.”

It’s clear he’s trying to distract me, to get me to think about something other than Paradise Falls crumbling, or the Council coming after us here, so I try to smile as I gather my stuff and focus on baby names. Because what else can we do?

THIRTEEN

Ari

I worked so damn hard. I did everything in my power to help Elora without risking my own life, so I wouldn’t die the way my mother did, but all of that has been for nothing. It’s stupid that I didn’t think ahead, stupid that I didn’t consider what would happen once Elora and Callum disappeared, and now I only have myself to blame.

“Shouldn’t he be back by now?”

Serrill is bouncing on the edge of my bed, bothering the shit out of me. Veric and I had been talking about Elora and Callum’s disappearance, and what that meant for us, when Teth, Serrill, and Beva had arrived at my house, demanding to speak to me. I’d taken them into my room, even though at my age I no longer needed a guardian to live with me in my tiny home, so we were alone here. My room just felt safer. They’d demanded to know everything I knew, but it turns out I had a lot more to learn from them.

We started putting together the pieces of what we knew, and what Veric knew from watching the Council. Together, we’d come to the conclusion that Elora and Callum had disappeared into Neverwood forever, and that the Council was freaking out.All flights had been cancelled, the power had turned off, and all medical centers had been closed. An emergency order had been given by the Council for everyone to stay in their houses.

Not that we did.

Teth had snuck back out, saying he had a way to spy on the Council meetings, to give us more information, and we’d been waiting patiently ever since. It was irritating beyond belief. I hated having people in my space, hated talking to them, even hated the way they smelled.

Man, I have some serious issues.

Veric is the only one I don’t mind, the only presence that I can tolerate. From the moment we separately started looking for the ancient trail out of Paradise Falls, we’d created a bond. No… from the day our parents had died. The whole world had kept going, but not for us.

“He’ll be back,” I grate out. “Or he’s been caught and we’ll never see him again.”

“Ari,” Beva scolds.

She irritates me with her “too smart for you” attitude. You would think a girl missing a finger, and only alive because of her friend, would be a little quieter and a little more humble.

“I’m just being honest.”

“We don’t need honesty right now,” she snaps.

“You want some lies,” I tell her, leveling her with the kind of look that makes most people take a few steps back. “Everything is absolutely fine. None of us are going to end up dead in the street.”

Beva glares and pats Serrill’s shoulder like he’s a child. “We’re going to be okay.Teth’sokay.”

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