Aerenden: The Child Returns (Ærenden) Read Online Free PDF

His voice grew stronger
and steel returned to it. “We need to go. We have some distance left to go
tonight and we need to walk it.”
    Her
focus came back to him. She frowned. “I don’t see how we can. It’s snowing. I doubt
our sweaters will be warm enough.”
    “It
won’t be easy,” he admitted. “But once we start moving, we should be okay.”
Taking her hand in his, he offered a thin smile, though it did not hold any
encouragement. “I’m sorry. I wish we were better prepared.”
    “How
do we prepare for something like this?” she asked, dropping his hand. “It’s not
like we could have known,” she hesitated, not wanting to say the words that
would acknowledge her parents’ deaths. “That we would be out here,” she finally
finished.
    Nick
pressed his lips together, and then averted his gaze. In guilt, she realized,
though she did not understand why. They had found out about the intruders at
the same time. They had both seen the carnage and together, they had failed to
rescue her father.
    The
realization stung her heart once again, burning hot tears in her eyes. The
tears coursed down her cheeks, splashing onto her hands before she saw Nick’s
blurry image move closer. She fisted her hands on the back of his sweater,
burying her head in his neck as sobs came fast, racking her body. Her grief
overwhelmed her until she had exhausted her energy for it and her body stilled.
Nick pressed his lips to the top of her head before he let her go.
    “I’m
so sorry,” he whispered. Sorrow hung in his voice and she felt her throat
constrict with her own grief. She swallowed to erase the sudden feeling she
might choke to death.
    “You
knew they were there,” she whispered, forcing her gaze to his face. His eyes
widened slightly and she continued to press him. “You knew, didn’t you? When we
were in your apartment, when I—”
    “Not
the way you mean.” He placed his hand on the door handle and turned from her.
“We need to go.”
    She
grabbed his arm to keep him from leaving. “What happened, Nick? What aren’t you
telling me? You feel guilty. I can tell.”
    “Nothing.”
He yanked his arm from her fingers, facing her long enough for her to see the
anger now stiffening his face. “Stop, all right? I’m too exhausted to keep you
out right now, so stop reading me.”
    “Reading
you?” She shook her head, confused. “I don’t even know what that means. What on
earth are you talking about?”
    “Forget
it. Let’s go.”
    Without
waiting for her objection, he opened the car door and stepped outside. She followed
his lead, moving around the vehicle to the driver’s side.
    “What
are you talking about?” she asked again, frustration creeping into her voice
when he did not answer. “You can’t keep avoiding my questions.”
    “I
can and I will. At least until it’s safe.” He opened the back door of the SUV
and pulled out the backpack. When he turned to her again, she felt a cold that
had nothing to do with the weather. Despite her talent for understanding small
emotional cues, she found his face indistinguishable. His posture appeared
impassive, his eyes vacant. His anger had dissolved in an instant.
    “What—?”
she started to ask what had happened, but did not know how to finish the
question. It made no sense.
    “I
blocked you,” he said before turning from her to gather branches from the
ground. “Help me hide the car. By now, the police will have found your parents
and assumed you’ve been kidnapped. Their theories on me won’t be great, so I’d
rather not give them an easy path to hunt us down.”
    She
stood rooted to her spot. “What do you mean ‘blocked’ me?”
    He
stacked the branches over the car, creating a nest. “Are you going to help?”
    Her
hands shook, so she dug them into her pockets to warm them. “Not until you
answer me.”
    “There’s
no time.”
    “You
promised me you’d answer my questions when we got here. I’m not taking another
step until you