Page 60 of A Wolfe in the Woods

Sitting at my desk with the freezing AC, fidgeting in a scratchy polyester skirt with my nose running…I got the sudden longing urge forheat. Summer heat. The quiet hush of a night…warm air filling my lungs that smelled faintly of silver cosmia blossoms…sticky sweat on the back of my neck that reminded me of sneaking out as a teenager in Everwick, riding bikes at midnight with my friends down to the crashing shore.

Something had changed since I’d returned from Everwick. Something inme. Maybe I’d been away from home too long.Maybe I’d grown so used to the acrid cigarette smoke from a passerby on the sideway, the constant honking of horns and sirens wailing, the gray layer of smog that had settled over this city like an umbrella…that I’d forgotten what it felt like tobreathe. To be still and quiet. To remember who I’d been once, someone who’d felt beautiful peace in the simplicity of life in Everwick. Where I’d kept time by the hourly horns from the lighthouse, where I’d sit at the town square with my grandma, moonshade-berry ice-cream cone dripping in hand, watching the people and tourists pass, or sitting in my grandmother’s garden as she pruned her roses back, the fragrance sweet and full of memory.

But then silly me had wantedmore. I didn’t blame myself for it. Nearly all my friends in Everwick had talked about gettingaway, as if home was this shackle around their ankles they couldn’t wait to escape.

Now that I’d seen it from the other side, however, all I could think about lately was going back. I’d started to have foolish fantasies of leaving Graymore. Maybe move back into my grandmother’s cottage, fix it up since I’d let it sit for over a year, tend to her garden so that Jonathan didn’t have to, and just…breathe. Just live again.

What would it feel like to not be so anxious? To not get a jolt of adrenaline every time my inbox dinged? To not feel weighed down with everyone else’s needs and wants that I never had the time to ask whatIneeded or wanted?

I didn’t know anymore. What was the good in a big promotion anyway if it only meant filling my day with more things to do?

What I’d admitted to Jonathan at the café that afternoon had been true.

Iwaslost.

I had been for much longer than I realized.

And then there was Jonathan himself…

I wanted to take him up on his offer partly because Iwantedto see him again. I’d thought about him more than I cared to admit since our lunch, and after he’d walked me back to the Skoll Corp lobby, we hadn’t talked since.

My eyes flicked to Erik’s closed office door.

Logically, I knew I could take more than a mere few days off. I had maxed out my PTO. If I didn’t take it, I’d lose it. And with the exception of my forced leave, I hadn’t taken a vacation in years.

But it was more than that. These office walls had started to close in around me. I didn’t know if I could stomach another day without air.

Something had to change.

I stood, wiping my nose with a tissue before smoothing down my skirt with clammy palms. I took in a deep breath and walked to the double doors of Erik’s office, which overlooked the Vault District.

I paused outside his door. Something muffled came through the wood. A low voice. His, on the phone. I held my breath and leaned in.

“…phase two can’t proceed until the board signs off. I don’t care if it stays under Polaris Equity for now. Just keep it off the public registry.”

Polaris Equity?

I frowned. I’d never heard of it. But the way he said it, careful and clipped, stuck with me.

Then his voice dropped lower. “We’ve been trying to acquire that parcel since before Foley went under. If the state green-lights the dam project, that land becomes a keystone. Don’t screw it up.”

I took a slow step back, pulse ticking. Land acquisition? Since when was Skoll Corp interested in that?

A faint shift of movement caught my eye. Calder Rhys, who most just called Fang, stood at the far end of the hallway, half-hidden in the shadow near the wall like he’d been there the entire time. Erik’s right hand watched me silently.

Heat rushed to my face. I straightened abruptly, pretending I’d just arrived at the door.

My heart pounded as I knocked…three short raps.

Silence.

Then came the sharpclick—the mechanical sound of the lock disengaging. He’d hit the switch at his desk. Erik’s way of deciding who got access, and when.

I straightened quickly, swallowed hard, and gripped the handle like I’d just arrived. Then pushed in.

The room was dim, the blinds drawn low. Erik sat behind his desk, two widescreen monitors casting ghostly light across his face.

I stepped up to the leather armchairs directly across from his desk, stopping behind one and resting my hands on it like a shield. I stood there for so long, waiting for him to acknowledge me, knowing he hated interruptions when he worked.