Page 132 of Scarlet Wars
Moonlight caught her profile, silvering the curve of her cheek. She frowned at the map, lashes low, all focus and sharp edges. And I stared at her like a godsdamn fool. At her beauty. At the steel in her jaw. At the simple fact she was here, when she shouldn’t have been.
I was so fucking in love with her, it was madness in my blood.
Almost enough to make me forget we were walking into this to save her ex-boyfriend. The man I’d have happily left to rot if not for the small detail he happened to be taken along with my brother’s husband.
The thought cut through the fog in my head. Whatever shock I’d felt at their abduction didn’t come close to the gut punch of realizing my best friend had gotten married.
All he’d told me before we left was it wasn’t what I thought it was. Whatever the hell that meant.
“To be honest, I am not the best at reading maps,” Emma mumbled, low enough she might’ve hoped I wouldn’t hear.
I didn’t even look up. “Coming from our human expert, that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.”
“Yes, well,” she shot back, “I come from a long line of people who had actual smartphones instead of maps.”
I let my tone go flat. “Do those navigate on water?”
Finally, her gaze lifted to mine. “With the right boating app, sure.”
This was the first thing she’d said tomesince our fight about Coastal, since she’d thrown the truth back in my face as if I’d chosen the lie solely to hurt her. As if I hadn’t earned even a sliver of trust after everything we’d been through.
I held her stare long enough to make it uncomfortable before I turned back to the map. “Fascinating,” I said, voice all frost.
The rest of the team stared at her like she’d declared pineapple the only true pizza topping.
She huffed, then flicked her wrist once to translate a human phone into existence.
“Even with the Nexus out,” she continued, holding it up like proof, “we don’t have to resort to caveman technologies. Humans did have some form of evolution.”
“Right,” I retorted, “because a dead piece of metal is clearly the height of progress.”
She rolled her eyes, muttering something about my prehistoric mindset.
I ignored it, throwing an annoyed glance at the glowing screen like it offended me. “Just remember, paper doesn’t glitch.”
Her mouth opened, probably for another retort, but I was already looking away, tracing my map again like she wasn’t even there.
She tucked the device away in a small plastic bag, and the rest of the team bent low, hauling packs and weapons into silence.
One by one, we slipped from the cover of the rocks, our boots crunching over grit before sinking into the damp give of the dock.
The dinghies waited in shadow, tethered and bobbing faintly with the current. No one spoke. Every movement was careful. Oars stowed, ropes loosed, bodies folding into boats without so much as a splash. We became shadows ourselves, sliding off the shoreline and into the river’s grasp.
The water lay like black glass under the moon, broken only by faint ripples and the silver shimmer of reflected light. The air smelled of gasoline, wet wood, and the damp chill that sank into your clothes and stayed there.
The team clustered near the makeshift dock, eyes flicking between the boats. Too many at once would look like a parade; subtlety mattered.
“Four to a boat,” I said, keeping my voice low but steady enough to carry over the scrape of gear. “Thompson and I spearhead the first run. The rest follows staggered. If one gets stopped, the others have a chance.”
Emma stood at my shoulder, arms crossed, weight tipped onto one hip like she was daring anyone to argue. Of course she looked unbothered, but I knew better. I could feel the nerves vibrating off her like static as she glanced at the group. “Johnson, Campbell. You’re with us.”
Both gave curt nods, already moving to load gear.
She dropped her pack into the bottom of the boat and crouched, tightening a strap, hair falling forward, all practical focus while I stood there for a second, drowning in the memory of her body writhing against mine, the sound of her moans in my ear, the way she’d shattered apart in my hands like she was made for me alone.
And now she wouldn’t even look at me.
I forced myself back to the present when the men behind us began pairing off. The dinghy knocked hollowly against the dock, the river rushed past, and Emma breathed beside me, quietly
