Page 47 of Winter’s Teeth

“My family is scared, and they’re lashing out,” he continued. “If you say you saw two men dead in the woods, then I believe you. It’s not the first time they’ve resorted to murder to take care of a problem. People go missing in the woods all the time. There are animal attacks more often than we know.”

Only in this case...

It was Fox’s feral family causing the disappearances and carnage, and they blamed it on the simple brutality of nature.

My stomach turned over, and I asked weakly, “The creatures... In the woods... I saw something today. It took a swipe at me.” I lifted my arm, gesturing to the slashes in my sweater and the blood speckled gauze beneath. “A giant bear saved me. I know it sounds insane, but there’s more you’re not telling us, isn’t there?”

He’d once been defensive about there being no animals on the property when my keen nose told me there were.

There were monsters here, and his family knew about it.

Fox remained stalwart. He didn’t meet anyone’s gaze, and he stared into the flames again while Riss muttered under her breath about how unhelpful he was. Of course, she was bitter there was someone in the room that knew more than she did, but I shared her frustration. We were so close to the answer that I could almost taste it, and Fox kept holding back.

His family tried to kill him, and yet he still held back. He still protected them.

Or maybe he was still leashed.

Maybe he hesitated because he didn’t want to die for this.

I got up, my legs gelatinous as I walked over and sat on the loveseat beside him to lay my hand over his. His skin burned hotter than the fire beside us. My hands were blocks of ice.

“What’s this all got to do with my sister?” I asked softly, trying to refocus. I wasn’t here to judge him or his family. Everly was my main and only objective.

He looked at our touching hands, reluctant to move a muscle, then sighed deeply as he forced his eyes up to mine. “You know how my family has some crazy traditions?”

I nodded. If you call getting beaten and tied up outside a mere tradition... Sure. I guess I know.

Fox’s gaze wavered. “One of those traditions involved your sister.”

The floor bottomed out beneath me. I was falling without moving an inch. Spiraling down a cold, dark drain with no clue where it would end up.

He turned away completely as he said, “Everly was taken to be Arthur’s bride.”

Chapter 22

Fox sounded crazy, but I sounded crazier when my cheeks dampened with fresh tears and I asked in a small, broken voice, “She’s alive?”

Yes, she was taken. Yes, she was trapped. Yes, she was probably scared, suffering, and confused about what was going on with this deranged family.

But she was alive.

That was all I needed for hope. It was all I needed to keep going, keep fighting, keep striving to bring her home. Broken was better than gone forever.

I zoned out, crying silently, tears splashing on the carpet patterns beneath my knees that I had sunk to in my shock.

My stomach turned and fluttered with fresh hope as voices echoed distantly while my friends prodded Fox for more information. I came back to reality just as Angela cried exasperatedly, “You have to tell us something! Why are you keeping her sister? Where is she?”

“Fox?” My voice snapped his attention back to me as I dragged the back of my hands over my cheeks to dry them, sniffling once before I said, “Please tell me where I can find her. You don’t have to be involved after this if you don’t want to, but I’m not giving up.”

The why of it didn’t matter right now. Not until we were in a courtroom next to his brother and whoever else was to blame. When I would take the stand and testify that Arthur Winter was a demon with dangerous secrets.

Fox rubbed his knuckles under his chin, face slackening as he considered the options. The risks. And I was willing to bet there was a staggering amount of them.

“Alright,” he said on a sigh, giving another inch since he’d already said too much. What was one more secret revealed? One more nail in his coffin. “There’s...this specific tradition. Winter men aren’t permitted to marry until they’re twenty-five, and it must be approved first by the family leaders.”

“Why?” Riss asked with no small amount of indignation.

“Because...” He heaved a deep breath. “It’s to prevent inbreeding and territory wars. It controls the bloodline, and it ensures only the right people are introduced into the gene pool.”