Chapter 60


    Panic struck through me. Adrenaline surged through my veins.


    Seeing Elva hanging from that window took years off my life.


    I rushed forward at once, forgetting the Luna now behind me forgetting all else.


    My child was in danger!


    As I ran closer, I held out my arms, ready to catch her if she fell.


    Nichs was already in action, climbing up the vine–covered trellis set alongside the pce walls.


    “Hold on, Elva!” he called up to her. “I’m almost there.”


    “Nickss!” Her sharp, frightened cry pierced into my heart. Tears stained her cheeks as she looked


    down at him.


    “Hurry, Nichs!” I wanted to join him, but I feared too much weight would destroy the trellis. It already


    creaked under his weight alone.


    Suddenly, another figure appeared in the window, trying to grab her. She shuffled as best she could


    away


    from those grabby hands.


    At first I felt relief. Someone was there! They would save her!


    But then I noticed those hands weren’t trying to pull her up. They were trying to push her.


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    “Leave me alone!” Elva screamed.


    “Jump, Elva. Right here, I’ll catch you.” Feet nted on the trellis, Nichs opened his arms wide.


    Wasting no more time, Elva let go of the ledge.


    My heart stopped.


    But then Nichs caught her. He enclosed her in the safety of his arms, and I could breathe again.


    Carefully, he carried her down the trellis. I met them at the bottom. Elva turned in Nichs’s arms and


    reached out for me with both hands. I immediately cradled her to me.


    Nichs stayed close, leaving his hand on her back.


    Eww’s loud sobe wracked through her body. She was a trembling mess.


    +15 BONUS


    Mommy Mommy…


    “It’s okay. I’m here. We’re both here.”


    She turned from where she was hiding against my shoulder to check for Nichs.


    “You’re safe now,” he told her, voice gentle.


    She sucked in a loud, wet breath.


    I looked her over, making certain she wasn’t injured. But other than being afraid, she seemed okay.


    “Can you tell us what happened, Elva?” Nichs asked. “How did you end up in the window?”


    7 like the horses,” she said, sniffling. “I was looking and then… a guard..” She buried her face against


    my


    shoulder again. “He chased me.”


    Nichs and I locked eyes. His burned with fury.


    “What happened to the nanny?” I asked.


    “That meandy made her leave.”


    Nichs’s brow furrowed, confused, but I knew exactly who ‘meandy was.


    “Lena,” I mouthed to him.


    Elva wiped her nose with her sleeve. “I told him I didn’t want to y… but he chased me… Then at the


    window. Mommy, he pushed.me.”


    Her face crumpled up. “I want to go home.”


    My entire heart shattered to pieces.


    “You don’t have to leave. It’s going to be okay, now,” Nichs said, looking from me to Elva and back,


    like he was telling us both. “I’ll get to the bottom of this and never let anything like this happen again.”


    The fierceness of his tone gave me hope, yet doubt still harbored in the corners of my mind. He might


    mean it, but would he be able to actually stop it?


    had thought staying here would help Elva because of her ess to medical care. But if someone was


    trying to actively hurt her…


    We could go back. I’d work as many jobs as I would need to, to keep her safe.


    abled my en, pulling me from the spiral of my thoughts and returning me to the hern


    +15 BONUS


    If I let myself believe him, and I wanted to, then I had no reason to be afraid.


    Yet in the sudden absence of that fear, my anger flourished.


    Why would Lena send the nanny away? Why would the guard attack Elva? Were they each acting


    alone, or was someone behind the scenes, pulling the strings


    I saw my own rage reflected in Nichs’s eyes. That gave me a measure offort.