Chapter 24: The Widow in the Woods
The rain did not cleanse me. It only pushed the mud deeper into my pores.
I knelt in the slurry of ash and wet earth where Kaelen had fallen. The ground was still warm from the explosion, a fading heat that mirrored the dying embers of my own life. They had taken him. They had dragged his broken body into a van and driven away, leaving me to rot in the wilderness.
"Kaelen," I whispered.
The sound was ripped from my throat by the wind. No one answered. The woods were silent, save for the hiss of rain on the smoldering ruins of the warehouse.
I looked down at my hands. They were covered in soot and blood. Not my blood. His blood. I brought my fingers to my face and inhaled. The scent was faint, washed away by the storm, but it was there. Sandalwood. Ir
