Chapter 11

Rowan stood frozen at the edge of the cliff, a crushing pressure closing around his chest. The panic he had been holding at bay surged all at once, overwhelming every trace of anger and swallowing him whole. Fear, rage, pain, regret—they wrapped around his chest like strangling vines, choking the breath from him. A ragged sound tore from his throat. His vision pulsed black at the edges, and the familiar metallic sweetness rose in his mouth. "Rowan!" Lia caught his swaying body in alarm. He shoved her away, barely holding himself upright on shaking knees as he faced the unempathetic ocean and screamed with the last of his strength, his voice torn and broken. "Find her! Keep looking! Turn all of Harborcrest upside down! Bring her back to me!" Three years ago, in the same stretch of coastline, his enemy had dragged him toward the cliff, fingers locked around his throat. Ava had saved him then. She had burst forward like a streak of white lightning, sinking her teeth into the kidnap