Ivy POV

I stood in the middle of the yard, the last of the sunlight fading as panic began to creep into my chest. Rick was gone.

The cake was still in the kitchen, the candles blown out, and the smell of honey and strawberries lingered in the air, but none of that mattered. What mattered was that my son was nowhere to be found.

“Rick!” I called out again, my voice trembling. “Rick, where are you?”

The yard was empty. The sounds of the village were muted, and distant. The laughter ...