Unbound

Chapter 52

From the moment I woke up, I wasn't ready for this day. The things Gabriel and I had shared the night before—the love, the emotion, the closeness—could all be ripped away from me just as quickly as I'd found them. The weight of this realization sat heavily on my shoulders and coiled tight in the pit of my stomach. Though Gabriel maintained his usual calm, stoic exterior, I could tell by the way he could hardly bring himself to let go of my hand that he was nervous, too.

We were meeting the shaman deep in an old growth forest near the coast. It wouldn't be more than a half-day's drive, but that felt both too long and far too short. I wanted it over now. I didn't want to do it at all.

Gabriel walked ahead of me, carrying both of our overnight bags out to load into the car.

"I'd hoped our first trip together would be a bit more romantic," I teased him as I locked his front door. When I heard him stop walking, I looked back over my shoulder.

Victor was standing outside of his car in the driveway.

Gabriel had dropped both bags to the ground and his hands balled into tight fists at his sides. I moved to him and urged one open so I could slip my own hand into it. His chest rose and fell with increasing speed.

"You're not talking him out of this, Victor." I spoke for him, stepping between the two. "His mind is made up; you shouldn't even be here after yesterday."

Eyes cautiously locked on Gabriel's, Victor reached into the backseat of his car with slow, deliberate movements. I tensed and pressed back against Gabriel protectively. When he straightened back up and swung the door closed, Victor was holding a backpack.

"I'm not here to stop you," he said. "I'm coming too."

I let out a long breath I hadn't realized I was holding and I felt Gabriel do the same behind me, his ruffling my hair. I let go of him and he stepped around me to advance towards Victor. When he stopped in front of him, the two clasped hands fiercely between them.

"Thank you, brother." Gabriel's voice was heavy with gratitude; he'd sorely underestimated how much he needed the support.

"You didn't have to be so dramatic," I complained. "You could have called ahead."

"And miss seeing this look on his face? Not a chance," Victor laughed.

Despite my protests and Victor's best attempt to convince him otherwise, Gabriel insisted on driving. I knew that he needed to keep his mind occupied, so I didn't fight him too hard. Victor spread out in the back and I sat as far to the left side of the passenger seat as I could so I could keep one hand on Gabriel's thigh as he drove. We both needed the contact.

An hour into the drive, as I was navigating for Gabriel with a map book in my lap, Victor's phone rang.

"It's Dmitri," he said.

"Pull over," I told Gabriel, directing him to the shoulder of the highway. I turned the hazard lights on and both of us twisted in our seats to face Victor, who now had the phone pressed to his ear. He hummed every few seconds as he listened to Dmitri speak, then passed the phone to Gabriel.

"What is it?" I mouthed to him silently.

I wasn't great at reading lips, but I thought he mouthed back good news.

Gabriel listened quietly for several minutes before thanking Dmitri and hanging up, handing the phone back to Victor. I looked between the two of them, annoyed that they were likely holding a full conversation across their link.

"Either of you want to tell me what's going on?" I couldn't keep the annoyance from creeping into my voice.

"The team went in early this morning and arrested Erick, Alanna, William, and two witting Councilmembers," Gabriel said. "Odette and the other members were questioned but Dmitri determined they hadn't known about Erick's plan."