The Puppeteer and The Poisoned Pawn (The Pawn and The Puppet series Book 3)
The Puppeteer and The Poisoned Pawn: Chapter 26

Chekiss

We stare through the tree line with aching hearts.

I’m not entirely sure if Skylenna knows we’ve followed her to the asylum, but we’ve debated letting Warrose storm the place for days. Ruth is the one that urged us to trust her. She must have a plan.

And this was it.

After we watched the patients flee, scattering quietly into the forest or the city, the prison for the wounded minds roars with a devouring fire. Skylenna, all in white and covered in blood, walks out of the flames like a demon rising from hell.

I wait for Niles to make a stupid comment, but we’re all stunned into silence. The dark smoke spreads overhead like an omen.

Ruth clears her throat. “Do you think she—”

“Yes,” Warrose mutters. “I think she killed them all.”

Something between pride and horror leaves me speechless. How could she have done all of that herself? What has happened to her?

“Chekiss.” Niles looks at me with big, glossy eyes. “We never have to go back.”

Goose bumps prickle over the backs of my arms, and I just stare at him. That sweet girl has looked out for us, even when she’s been walking through hell, enduring the most crippling pain anyone can fathom. My relief is quickly replaced with a deeply rooted sadness. I place a hand on Niles’s shoulder, squeezing gently, careful to avoid any burns. There isn’t anyone else who can relate to what we’ve been through in that asylum. And even though I’ll never admit to it out loud, it makes Niles and me kindred souls.

“I can’t stand to see her like this,” I tell Warrose, who is still watching the burning asylum with an unreadable expression. “My child is in pain. We can’t just keep sitting back and watching as her world crumbles around her.”

In the corner of my eye, I catch Niles rubbing his hands over his face. He tried so hard to get her to come back with us, to reason with her. It broke his heart when she left him again.

Warrose continues to watch the fire with a stony expression. The blazing sunset shimmers across his light-brown skin and glitters in his hazel eyes.

“Warrose.” My tone grows impatient.

His eyes flicker to me for a moment, then he runs a large hand through his shoulder-length, dark shiny hair. “She’ll come to us when she’s ready.”

Something has been eating at this man since we started this journey. At first, I thought it was due to his best friend’s death. But lately, he is so lost in his own thoughts, I wonder if there is something larger at play here. A burden he must carry alone.

“Horse shit! Would you look at her? She looks like a butcher in a slaughterhouse!” Niles points to Skylenna walking toward the Bear Traps. Blood is splattered across her face and neck, and her arms are fully coated as if she has just performed surgery, elbow deep.

I nod in agreement. “She’s unhinged, Warrose. We have to help her.”

I hadn’t noticed before, but Ruth is crying silently, arms wrapped around her knees, refusing to look at Skylenna again. She deals with the gravity of this situation in her own way. We all have.

Niles has nightmares of the fire he got caught in. At night, he wakes in a sweat that stings his healing burns. We all pretend we’re still asleep, but he’s loud enough to wake the forest.

I’ve had trouble eating. The thought of enjoying a hot meal makes my stomach turn. How can I sit and indulge when my precious Skylenna is out there, alone, in such pain?

Warrose has barely spoken two words since we started following her. He drums his fingers impatiently, staring out into the forest with a pinched brow and clenched fists.

“She knows we’re tailing her,” Warrose grits out. “When she figures her shit out, she’ll let us know. Until then, let’s move. It looks like she’s aiming for her father’s house again.”

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