She was always with me now. In the twitch of my fingers, in the feral thrum of my heartbeat, in the tears I couldn’t explain, and the rage I no longer wanted to control. We weren’t separate anymore. Not truly. Her fury burned inside me like kerosene on a slow drip.
And now… now I wasn’t going to the gym to pretend I had control. I was going to kill the bastard who took our children.
*****
The fog thickened the farther I drove up the winding path, curling around the SUV like smoke from a battlefield. The trees lined the road like soldiers standing at silent attention. The headlights cut swaths of light through the mist, illuminating patches of gravel, half-frozen puddles, the scattered claw marks of passing animals.
Above, the moon was a slit behind the clouds, pale and cold. Snow had b
