Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(134)

“I’m going to be okay. Breathing deeply, check. Pain meds, check.” But none of it mattered because the pain in my side was nothing compared to the pain in my heart.

Dr. Gomez administered two injections into my IV line. “I’ll prepare all the discharge instructions, but just know that rest is important. No work or strenuous activity for two weeks.”

My eyes went wide. “But—”

“No, you don’t,” Dex said immediately. “You will follow all the doctor’s instructions to a T. Wylder will find someone to cover for you. And I will take Owen to and from camp—or Kol will help.”

I snapped my mouth closed. Owen, who had no idea what had happened. And I wasn’t sure he ever should. Waylon had picked him and Skylar up from camp and had them helping with ranch chores.

A little more reality slipped in. Pain. And not the kind that came from my ribs.

“Okay,” I whispered.

Dex was there in an instant. “I’m here. We’ll get through it together.”

There was still so much we didn’t know. But all I could think about were the awful things Travis had said.

I wove my fingers through Dex’s, and the steady pressure was there like always. “We get through it together.”

His lips brushed my temple, just as someone pulled the curtain back.

My gaze flicked up to find Kol moving into the space. Dr. Gomez took stock of Kol’s uniform and quickly excused himself. “I’ll just get that discharge paperwork prepared.”

“Did you find him?” Dex asked.

Kol shook his head, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Not yet. We’ve got the county search and rescue team working the river, but the water is high this year. Body could’ve gotten caught on any number of downed trees or rocks.”

A shiver racked me as the image of Travis falling into the river flashed in my mind. The blood spreading out over his chest. The panic in his eyes.

I gripped Dex’s fingers harder but didn’t take my eyes off Kol. I swallowed hard. “Nova?”

Kol’s face hardened, his angular jaw instantly becoming sharper, his cheekbones standing at attention. “We found graves.”

The tiny flame of hope flickered as if an invisible wind had picked up.

He stepped closer, pulling an evidence bag from his pocket. “This was with one of the bodies. Do you recognize it?”

I peered through the clear plastic, taking in the dirt-caked item. But I could still make out the purple, pink, and teal strands beneath the soil. The same design as on my wrist. And that bracelet burned now as if made of scalding acid.

“It’s Nova’s,” I croaked. “It’s Nova.”

The word only lost an s, but it changed everything. Nova. My friend. My sister. My other half in so many ways because we’d walked through the hardest parts of life together.

I’d found her. Like I’d always promised I would. But finding her meant losing her forever all the same.

I thought I’d know. Thought I’d feel when she was gone. But I hadn’t. And maybe that was because she’d never left me. Nova was a part of me. She had been almost from the moment we met. And she would be forever more.





58





BRAEDYN





THREE DAYS LATER


“Delivery brigade!” Mav’s voice called through my cabin’s screen door. I’d left the front door open. No alarm set. No deadbolt latched. Just a warm afternoon breeze and freedom.

Yeti let out a happy bark as Owen scrambled to his feet from the other side of the coffee table we’d been using to play Monopoly Jr. The interruption was for the best because he was kicking our asses.

Dex’s lips twitched as he squeezed my shoulder. “Apologies in advance for what is about to descend on you.”

But I knew exactly what he was doing: giving me the family I’d never had, that Nova and I had always wanted. The kind that was there in good times and bad and showed up for you time and again.

Skylar raced inside, Yeti barking and leaping around her. “Let’s go play with Yeti!”

Owen glanced at me, looking for permission. “Can we, Mom?”

“Only because you didn’t call me bruh,” I shot back.

He laughed and then raced out the back doors with Yeti and Skylar. We could see them from where we were, and it was nice that I finally felt safe enough to allow it.

“Little Badass, I come bearing food,” Mav called, lifting two massive Tupperware containers.

Waylon ambled in behind him, carrying a large box and wearing his beloved Carhartt overalls. “Don’t let him fool you into thinking he made all that. I did.”

“Hey, I helped,” Wylder called as he moved in behind the group, holding up a bakery box. “And Orion sent chocolate fudge cake.”

God, they were all so wonderful. Caring in their own ways. “I think Orion has an obsession with chocolate.”

Wylder and Dex shared a look.

“What?” I pressed.

“It’s Ever’s favorite. Chocolate cake,” Dex explained.

That had a different sort of ache settling in my chest. “She’s got good taste.”

“She does,” Wylder said softly as he slid the cake onto the island.