Free Bending Steele by Sadie Hart Page A

gotten to her. Anger churned
in his stomach. If they’d been faster she might have had a chance,
but in the end, he only blamed one person for her death. The
bastard still out there.
    “I hope he freezes to death,” Steele
whispered, her voice nearly stolen by the wind.
    Hexe growled. That was too kind a death.
    With a soft sigh he bent his head to the
woman lying in the snow, checking for any signs of life one last
time. Nothing. Hexe closed his eyes on a soft inhale. Damn.
Damn-damn-damn. Holding back the rage and frustration burning in
his gut, he blew out a slow breath. “I’m sorry,” he told the woman,
before he pulled himself to a stand and reached for Steele. “We
need to go.”
    Storm or not, he didn’t like being out in the
open. There was nothing else they could do for her. As much as he
wanted to, there was nothing to bring her back. The mountains would
bury her in the snow, which was more than they could do. With a
heavy heart, Hexe tried to gauge the direction they’d been heading
in when they’d fund her but it all looked the same. A blur of
shadows and darkness, the sharp scrap of the wind across his
face.
    His lips were chapped from the cold and he
already felt frozen stiff, but he didn’t dare change back, nor let
Steele shift. Somewhere in the darkness there was still one more
person alive, one who wouldn’t hesitate to put a silver bullet
through his heart. Hexe ground his teeth at the thought, his spine
suddenly stiff. If he found that bastard first, there would be no
place in these mountains the killer could hide.
    “I’m sorry,” he heard Steele say, her voice
soft with regret. Then she stood next to him, leaning into him. Did
she blame herself for that woman’s death? Did she— “I’ll kill
him.”
    A surprised laugh sounded from him, more
pained than amused, but he understood the roil of anger in her
voice. “Get in line, sweetheart. She was mine. I was her King. I
was supposed to keep her safe.”
    When she didn’t say anything to that, Hexe
shoved on, pressing through the snow. Blindly he staggered through
the darkness, thick tree branches reaching out of nowhere to scrape
at his face, to snag in his coat. He felt Steele beside him, her
hand in his as the struggled their way through the woods, each step
tentative, as if fearing a sudden drop. If he were wrong, they
could be heading straight towards a cliff face.
    One wrong step could send them both tumbling
to their death. His skin burned, both from the constant batter of
the trees and snow, and from the cold. Steele pulled up short
beside him. “At this rate we’re never going to find the damn cabin.
We need to hole up somewhere for the night. Let the storm blow
over.”
    It was only growing darker, the snowfall
thicker.
    Hexe started to agree when he spotted a
sliver of light in the darkness. Lifting his head, he inhaled
through the sharp bite of the storm and smelled home. Yes .
Exhausted and defeated, he staggered towards the cabin.
“Steele…”
    Light leaked out through a window and Hexe
struggled with the door, ramming his shoulder into the heavy wood
to get it to open. Panting and breathless, they both staggered
inside, only for him to swing the door shut behind them, blocking
out the constant batter of the storm. Steele stood in the softly
lit living room, snow frosted her cheeks, her normally black hair
turned white.
    With one hand to his lips, he signaled for
quiet. They both scanned the room, but no one stood out in the
open. He gestured for Steele to check the other side of the kitchen
counter as he moved towards the couch. Half frozen, his body was
stiff, aching with exhaustion, but he stalked across the room
silent, careful to keep on the balls of his feet. No one. He
glanced back to Steel and she shook her head, instead pointing
towards his bedroom.
    He waited as she crept towards him, pausing
to lock the door so no one else could follow them in, and then she
eased over to his side. Together they checked his