But now she needed some time to herself.
It wasn't personal. She wouldn’t have gotten through the day without Nate, and she was hoping he intended to sleep in her spare room again, but right now, she just needed to be out of the stifling grief that filled her house.
She needed to run.
If Naomi hadn’t been a couple of weeks away from giving birth, she would have called her friend and asked her to come and go running with her. Instead, she would have to settle for running on her own, which wasn't really such a horrible prospect.
Slipping quietly out of the house while Nate was busy talking on his phone since she didn't want to explain to him that she needed to be on her own for a while, and she didn't want to hurt his feelings, especially after how great he had been all day. The last of the day’s light was just fading away, the sky was dark and clear and full of twinkling stars. She took a moment just to stare at it, to let the beauty and peacefulness of it seep into her.
She didn't want to think anymore. She just wanted to let her mind go blank as her body fell into a routine it knew so well.
Barely paying attention to where she was going, Rylla began to run.
With each step she felt the tension inside her easing. The grief was still there, but it was no longer choking her. She knew it would never go away, she would never stop missing her sister and all that could have been between them, just as she would never stop blaming herself for not stopping this killer before he got his hands on Mila.
As she ran she lost all track of time. Her mind blocked out everything else. Everything but placing one foot in front of the other. The monotonous rhythm made everything around her blur into nothingness. Her lungs were burning, her legs starting to go numb, but she pushed through it, continuing to run until her body physically gave out.
Rylla collapsed on the grass, breathing hard. Now that she was no longer moving her mind wandered again.
Had Mila known she was going to die?
Had she suffered?
Had she thought that someone would come and save her?
Had her last thoughts been of her children?
So many questions and she had no answers to any of them. She supposed she could call Matthew and ask how Mila had been killed, but she was embarrassed to talk to him after blaming him for not finding her sister in time. And she wasn't sure she wanted to know how Mila had died, that would just set her imagination into overdrive.
In the morning she would go and visit Emmy and Mac. She had wanted to give them and Beau some space, let them process the news. But she wanted to be there for them, they were her family, she had failed their mother, but she wasn't going to fail them too. She would be there for them no matter what, anything they needed, anything she could do to help she would do.
She didn't have a watch on her but at least an hour must have passed since she left, and Nate probably knew she was gone and would be worrying, she should go back home.
Rylla stood and was just about to start jogging when an arm wrapped around her chest, and something cold was pressed against her neck.
A knife.
“Hello, princess,” a voice spoke in her ear, a warm breath whooshed across her cheek.
Instinctively, her self-defense training kicked in and had her automatically fighting back. She lifted her foot and stomped firmly on his. Then without pausing her hand thumped his groin, her elbow slammed into his ribs, then moved seamlessly up to connect with the bottom of his jaw.
The man yelped in surprise and pain and loosened his grip.
As she spun sideways out of his arms, she felt the knife slice through her neck. Warm, sticky blood oozed from the gash, but she didn't have time to worry about whether or not the wound was serious, she was already on the move.
She got only a couple of steps when the full force of the man’s body tackled her. He landed on top of her as she crashed into the ground. The weight of him on top of her shoved the air from her lungs and pain exploded in her chest.
Again, she had no time to worry about what injuries he had caused her. Rylla knew the man was too big and too strong for her to throw him off her, but she wasn't out of options yet.
“Your sister told me all about you.” His hot breath tickled the back of her neck.
Sister?
This was the Fairytale Killer?
Why was he after her?
Shaking off the whys for now, Rylla opened her mouth and sunk her teeth into the forearm that was trying to drag her up to her feet.