Fitz was winded by the time the cottage came into view. It looked unoccupied, no light in any of the windows, no sound but the drone of the nighttime insects in the grasses around them. It seemed safe to slow down to a walk now that they were nearly there. And as tired as he was, his father beside him was more so.
Then he heard a scream. Ritchie"s scream. And suddenly he was sprinting again, vaulting over the raised beds of the kitchen garden and into the dark cottage.
He charged up the stairs to the still-unlit bedroom where he knew she had to be. His father was in the cottage now too, but had slowed his steps at the bottom of the stairs. Fitz heard him subvocalizing as he gave someone orders over his comm, but he didn"t pause to find out more. He took the steps two at a time and burst
