  Lily&#39;s Perspective
  The chaotic glow of emergency lights and the rising black smudge of smoke on the interstate grew smaller and smaller in the distance, finally swallowed by the rolling horizon. Xavier guided the SUV down an exit ramp, turning onto a narrow country road lined with overgrown weeds and sprawling oak trees. The world went abruptly quiet, the silence filled only by the steady shush of tires on asphalt and the subdued breathing of the five of us.
  Silence settled over the cabin like a heavy, damp blanket.
  My knuckles ached, bone-white from gripping the steering wheel. The order to turn around and retreat had come from my mouth, but each word had felt like a barbed hook being dragged from my throat.
  I knew it was right… we’d had no real choice. I was the leader of this team. The safety of everyone in this vehicle, the very survival of our entire pack, rested on my

  Celena&#39;s Perspective
  I was exhausted. My body felt like a collection of loosely connected parts, but my mind was painfully, unnervingly clear.
  We were two people now, a single unit, doing something we had to finish ourselves.
  I was so grateful to Jacob. The feeling was a heavy, precious weight settled in the softest part of my heart, welling up even before the love did.
  He had seen right through me. He&#39;d seen the still-boiling, stubborn magma beneath the thin layer of ice I&#39;d tried to freeze over.
  He had suggested this final search. For me. And for his own tangled knot of feelings about Brett—the guilt, the sense of unfinished duty.
  This was my last hope.
  Not the hopeless fantasy of bringing a laughing, hair-ruffling Brett home. The rational part of me, the part that had learned to view the world through a lens of icy clarity, had already pronounced a death se

  Jacob&#39;s Perspective
  My girl was back.
  The words echoed in my mind like a tremor of pure sweetness, making my hands tremble slightly on the wheel. It wasn&#39;t fear. It was a dizzying, weightless joy, the kind that made me feel like if this rustbucket of a pickup decided to take flight, I&#39;d just ride it out with a grin plastered on my face.
  Celena had forgiven me.
  She&#39;d actually said it. She&#39;d looked right at me with those eyes, stripped of all their defensive edges, and said those words in a voice soft enough to break my heart. It wasn&#39;t a dream. The celebratory honks and whistles from Lily&#39;s SUV behind us were proof enough. Dave and that lunatic twin Jim were probably still hollering.
  And that kiss. God above, that kiss.
  I could still taste the salt—hers or mine?—and feel the profound shift as she finally, completely relaxed into my embrace. The tr

Lily&#39;s Perspective
  The chaotic glow of emergency lights and the rising black smudge of smoke on the interstate grew smaller and smaller in the distance, finally swallowed by the rolling horizon. Xavier guided the SUV down an exit ramp, turning onto a narrow country road lined with overgrown weeds and sprawling oak trees. The world went abruptly quiet, the silence filled only by the steady shush of tires on asphalt and the subdued breathing of the five of us.
  Silence settled over the cabin like a heavy, damp blanket.
  My knuckles ached, bone-white from gripping the steering wheel. The order to turn around and retreat had come from my mouth, but each word had felt like a barbed hook being dragged from my throat.
  I knew it was right… we’d had no real choice. I was the leader of this team. The safety of everyone in this vehicle, the very survival of our entire pack, rested on my shoulders.
  But goddamn, it felt like shit. It felt like leaving a comrade on the battlefield a

Chapter 236