The apartment was dark, lit only by a single flickering bulb hanging over a cracked kitchen counter. Dust settled on the surfaces as though the place had languished for years. But there was warmth in the air, the disturbance made recently.
She stepped further inside and the soles of Isla’s boots made soft echoes on the scuffed hardwood. Her senses heightened, sharpened with half-hearted ears wide open, every flicker in the paper-thin walls alerted her.
Then she saw him.
Nathaniel stood at the window, facing away from her now, hands clasped behind him like a soldier standing by for orders. His silhouette was familiar, but the energy in the room was completely different. There was no warmth, no glimmer of the boy she once knew.
Only ice.
“You came alone,” he said without looking.
“That
