Chapter 243

I wait for him to finish his sentence, then glance at Meadow again as nothing comes. She screws up her face indicating something is up with her link to Cesar. I can feel the swirling rise of concern and panic between us as we wait out this endless silence. Colton? What were you trying to say? I ask, waiting patiently, but no response comes through the link. Instead, an eerie solitude that I haven’t experienced for a long time, not since Colton cut me off many moons again when he rejected me, swirls around me. It starts to dredge my inner anxiety with fury as I pull at my mind to make the connection, but I feel like I’m facing a blank dark wall. Meadow moves forward, and she stares at the tree line, seemingly trying to concentrate hard, and I realize she, maybe, too, has lost her link to Cesar. This is not a coincidence. “He’s not responding anymore.” I point out, distress rising in my throat, and I watch as she moves as far to the edge of the trees as she dares. Her face is stiff, he