Ka'Cit's Haven (Riv’s Sanctuary #3)

She had to go see him.

Now.

He thought he couldn’t give her what she wanted…but what she wanted was him.

“Riv,” she said. “I need a favor.”

42

Riv’s hover car wasn’t nearly as fast as Ka’Cit’s had been, but as the darkness came over the landscape she made good time whooshing across the savannah.

Behind her, Riv’s Sanctuary was but a dark dot in the distance and ahead was the nothingness of the plain.

She had no idea where she was going, but the hover car had a self-driving function and Riv had punched in the coordinates to Ka’Cit’s farm.

She only hoped he was home.

As she stared ahead, her heart beat so hard in her chest, she could hear the blood pumping in her ears.

What if Riv was wrong?

What if that wasn’t the reason why he’d stayed away?

What if she was heading all the way out there to confront him only to find out that Riv had been wrong.

It didn’t matter.

She still had to know.

She needed the closure, at least, so she could continue on with her life instead of pining for what never was or what could have been.

As she focused ahead, she was sure she saw something in the distance—something that wasn’t a natural formation on the plain.

Niya bit the inside of her lip and squinted.

Slowly, the structure in the distance was beginning to take shape and the closer the hover car got to it, the more Niya frowned and squinted.

Maybe heading out at dusk hadn’t been the best thing to do. She could hardly see properly.

Still, her heart thumped in her chest.

The closer she came to the structure, though, the more uneasiness grew in her stomach.

Maybe this wasn’t the place she was heading to and the hover car would zoom past it, because the structure ahead didn’t look anything like Riv’s Sanctuary.

Niya frowned, her mouth falling open as she looked at the thing coming up ahead.

There was an electric fence zinging around the property and the main building looked a little like Riv’s house…but those were the only similarities between the two.

All around the property were piles upon piles of…metal.

Metal everywhere…almost like a scrap yard.

Niya stared at it, confused, and when the hover car continued on and didn’t change direction, her confusion only grew.

Where were the animals and the robot’s tilling the hay? Where were the fruit trees? Where were the fields of rai?

“Destination ahead. Manual controls engaging in 5…4…3—”