I went back into the stable, following the trail of blood once more, leading all the way up to the tracker.
But as I shined my flashlight into the stall, I noticed something I hadn’t before.
Beside the tracker was a symbol drawn on the cement in blood. A crown at the top of a cross that transitioned into something akin to a blade toward the bottom.
I blinked, my blood running cold as I stared at the same symbol branded on Blake’s chest.
Not similar.
Not close.
Identical.
“What is it?” Blake’s voice cut through. “Did you find something?”
Every warning bell I’d ignored came screaming back to life, and my grip tightened around the phone, rage flooding through me, hot and violent.
I’d spent hours chasing Ariana through half of Florida when Blake might have known something this entire time.
When he might have been behind it all this time.
“Yeah. I did,” I replied with a growl, staring at the symbol.
At the blood.
At the tracker.
“What is it?” he pressed.
“You’ll know soon enough.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ariana
Waking came in fragments, different smells greeting me first. Fresh linen. Roses. Honeysuckle. And something else. Something expensive I couldn’t quite place.
For several seconds, I floated somewhere between dreaming and waking, unable to separate one from the other. My body felt heavy, my thoughts sluggish, as though I were swimming upward through deep water, desperately kicking for the surface.
Finally, I managed to blink my eyes open, momentarily disoriented as I tried to figure out where I was.
The last thing I remembered was applying mud to my face and arms.
Henry kissing me.
His reassuring words that he’d come for me.
But I was awake.
So where was Henry?
More importantly, where was I?
I blinked, an ornate ceiling painted cream and gold coming into focus. Heavy drapes framed the windows lining the wall. There was even a fireplace tucked in the corner with a cozy little reading nook beside it.
Nothing about this made sense.
This wasn’t an abandoned warehouse.