Did she really escape?
The thought should have prepared Theron.
It did not.
Maybe he pushed her to it. He was guilty and avoided her whenever she tried to talk to him. Was she angry and wandered away. She tend to do that when they were younger. She would just run wherever her little legs would take her.
What if she were lost?
And even if she had run, then she had done it into a forest full of danger. Into darkness. Into creatures that did not care how fragile she was, how soft her hands were, how easily she could be hurt.
His throat tightened painfully.
No.
He refused to believe she had simply vanished by choice and left herself unprotected.
Not like this.
Not without a trace.
Not without telling him.
His gaze sharpened, scanning the trees again, as if sheer force of will might make the forest return what it had taken.
