Page 21 of Shackled to the World
No one spoke, their condemning gazes nearly suffocating her.
Camden broke first. “Show me.”
He looked more resigned than angry, like he should’ve expected her to do something and was kicking himself for not catching on and stopping her sooner.
Glad to escape a tongue-lashing, Annora nodded. “I have a map.”
Without waiting for a prompt from them and needing space to gather her wits, she whirled and dashed up the stairs. It didn’t take more than two seconds to find the map she taped under her mattress.
But when she turned to go down the stairs, she couldn’t do it.
They were waiting for her, their disappointment making it hard for her to catch her breath.
With her uncle, she took the beating and could move past it, but her rebellion broke the trust between her and the guys, and she wasn’t sure how to get it back.
She shouldn’t care.
She was doing what they would do if they could to find Logan.
So why did she feel so horrible about it?
With a heavy sigh, she trudged down the stairs, each step weighing heavier on her. When she entered the kitchen, she found all five guys seated and waiting for her in silence. She swallowed hard, her feet frozen to the floor, her heart cracking a little at seeing them so united against her.
Only when Mason stood and pulled out her chair was she able to function again.
She hesitantly stepped toward them, not sure what to expect. She was raised with fists and pain, which was so much easier than this uncertainty. Unable to look at them and see their disappointment, she ducked her head while she unfolded the map and spread it out on the table.
Two dozen black marks were slashed across the surface.
Without speaking, the guys stood and leaned over the map. The five minutes of silence while they studied the map almost broke her. A beating, broken bones, or starvation she could handle, but being left out was breaking something deep inside her, and she shuffled her feet awkwardly, no longer feeling like one of them.
As if her movement caught his attention, Camden lifted his dark head and pinned her to the spot, his expression completely pissed. “You were going to leave us behind to rescue him.”
It wasn’t a question.
She wanted to protest and defend herself, but he wasn’t wrong.
If she had a chance to get Logan back, she would take it in a heartbeat.
Mason wasn’t just furious, he was hurt, and her heart actually cracked at his devastated expression. Xander didn’t say anything. Though he might understand her reasoning, the tic in his jaw called her on her bullshit. He leaned over the map, his hands on the table as he surveyed her work. “How are you narrowing down your locations?”
She swallowed hard against a lump in her throat, not sure how to answer them.
Because she wasn't sure how she knew.
Edgar swore and straightened. “Tell me you didn’t—”
“Of course not,” Annora huffed in annoyance. “I said I wouldn’t slip into the afterworld, and I kept my word. My dreams. I’ve been dreaming about Logan. It’s so real that I could swear I’m actually standing next to him.”
Tears pricked her eyes at what was happening to him in those dreams, her mind flooded with every devastating detail of what Logan was being forced to endure because of her, and she waited as the guys fell silent at the implications.
“Fuck.” Xander’s voice was hoarse, easily reading her tortured expression. “You’re connected to Logan, picking up things from him when you sleep, living through whatever’s happening to him.”
She tried to convince herself the nightmares weren’t real, but they were too similar to her childhood memories to dismiss. “And they’re getting worse. Logan won’t be able to take much more before he breaks.”
Mason swallowed hard and grabbed her to his chest then dropped into a chair, his hold unbreakable as he pulled her onto his lap. She leaned against him, the reassuring beat of his heart helping her to breathe past the pain.
“I can withstand any torture my uncle inflicts on me, but I can’t deal with Logan’s pain. It’s breaking me. How can I fight it?” Her voice wobbled pathetically. She glanced at the guys pleadingly, her lungs practically on fire as she waited for them to answer.
