Chapter Twenty-Three
The search continued all throughout the night in small groups, some resting, others prowling the woods still searching for the children. Aoife had ceased replying to his texts, and Dimitri ordered Lir to remain at the cabin in case the kids showed up there. Or worse, Aoife did. He lost count of how many cups of coffee he drank or how many laps around his cabin he had made, hoping for just a glimpse of his children. Eventually, out of sheer exhaustion, he collapsed into the rocking chair on his front porch where he floated in and out of a restless sleep, jumping at every sound in the hopes it was his children come home. The thought of them out in the dark woods alone tore at his gut. There were real dangers out there, and Aoife had merely tossed them into the wild like
