Fragile Trust

VANCE’S POV

Malachi drops to the mud.

Cleo rushes to him, wrapping herself around him, pressing her hands to the marks my fingers left on his throat. He waves her off and gets to his knees again, facing me, head bowed. Waiting.

I turn back to the river. Rowan is standing in the shallows, the water around her knees, my violence and Malachi’s plea still hanging in the cold air between all of us.

She