Page 49 of 15 Summers Later

Ava had done everything she could to protect Madi. She knew her older sister had slipped food to her, had nursed her through illness and fear, had adopted a cheery, optimistic attitude, though Madi knew how much that must have cost her when things looked so grim.

Madi also knew she was the reason Ava had finally agreed to the increasingly harsh demands that she marry a man thirty years her senior.

We need to bring forth the next generation of fighters. You and your children will carry on the battle after we are gone. You believe in the cause, don’t you?

She could still hear the swelling tones of Roger Boyle, as if he were standing beside her.

She hated remembering any of it.

She also hated that for the life of her, she couldn’t understand the dichotomy of Ava’s actions.

The sister willing to endure the horror of being married to a man she both feared and loathed, the beloved sister she had been certain would have died to protect her, seemed so very different from the woman who could spill all that hate and ugliness to the world.

Madi wasn’t sure she would ever be able to reconcile the two in her mind.

14

The crisp night air bites at my cheeks as my sister and I steal away from the compound, our hearts pounding in our chests. We’ve become shadows, slipping through the dense forest under the cover of darkness, our breaths syncing with the rhythmic beat of our frantic footsteps. Behind us, the eerie howls of the cult’s guard dogs echo through the mountains, a relentless reminder of the danger that pursues us.

—Ghost Lakeby Ava Howell Brooks

Luke

“How are you doing, kiddo?”

His daughter, looking at her phone with her legs stretched out sideways on the covered swing, lowered her feet to the ground so he could sit beside her.

She shrugged. “I’m okay. The birthday cake was delicious and I loved Grandma and Grandpa Boyd’s present. I just miss Zoe so much, you know?”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“I tried not to think about it much until now. Madi had me working with the puppies, giving them some basic training, all day. I was too busy laughing at them to be depressed.”

“She’s pretty smart, our Madi, isn’t she?”

“You should have seen what happened today with that rascal goat. Madi was feeding him and he kept sticking his tongue out at her and blowing raspberries. We were both laughing so hard we almost fell over.”

He looked over at the woman in question, sans goat. She was currently chatting with her grandmother in the fading afternoon light as she rocked his nephew in her arms.

Something soft and fragile seemed to unfurl inside his chest, like the new blossoms on the climbing rosebushes near the patio, sending their sweetness into the air.

She was so lovely. He wondered if she had any idea how she suddenly had the power to take his breath away.

What the hell was he supposed to do about this tenderness that seemed to have bloomed out of nowhere?

“Are you okay? Your face looks all funny.”

He turned back to his daughter, this girl he loved with his entire heart. Oh, he hoped she couldn’t tell what was going on in his head.

“Sorry my face looks funny.” He tried for a dad joke. “I’m afraid it’s the only one I’ve got. And I wouldn’t be so quick to point out how funny I look, since people are always telling us how much we look alike.”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I meant. You had a weird expression for a minute when you were looking at Madi. Like you suddenly thought of something you didn’t like.”

The problem was, he was beginning to realize he liked Madi entirely too much.

“I was thinking that I don’t want to go home and do laundry tonight,” he lied.

“Ha. Too bad. It’s your turn. I did it last week.”

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