Ian stood behind Raya, sitting in a chair next to the unlit fireplace, while the rest of my friends gathered randomly throughout the room, clearly uncomfortable with the knowledge of Kade’s disappearance.
“Okay, so walk us through this one more time,” Ian said.
I heaved an exasperated sigh as I paced in front of the couches by the window overlooking my mother’s favorite gardens. Storm jumped in. “I was giving Lana a tattoo and then a dark shadow-like mist overtook him. They didn’t look exactly like his shadows. They looked like—” He paused, and his wary eyes met mine. “They looked like the mist Thames controlled back in Mysthaven. A second later Kade was just gone.”
The bond between Kade and me pulled taught, like if we took one wrong move, it would snap into a thousand pieces. I rubbed my arms as if it could calm the ache of being away from him. “I don’t care what we do. We must get him back. It has to be Thames. It’s the only reasonable explanation.”
The others sat in silence, staring at me with what looked like pity on their faces. “Lana—” Storm started.
Turning to face him directly, I knew deep in my bones I wasn’t going to like the words he would say next. Little did he know I wouldn’t go down without a fight.
“I know you want to immediately go find Kade, but we have to think this through. We have to be smart.”
Tears fell down my cheeks, unable to hold in any more of the emotions wracking my body. “I don’t want to be smart. I just got him back, and now I’ve lost him again.”
Ian left Raya’s side and wrapped me in an embrace. He kissed my forehead and let me listen to his heartbeat, like we had done so many times before. “Just breathe, Lana.” He rubbed my back as I tried to calm myself. “Listen to what he has to say.”
I felt Ian nod toward Storm as if sayingcontinue.
“We can’t get anywhere near Thames right now. We won’t win. The darkness is still there. We need to put our emotions aside and focus on figuring out how to destroy whatever this weapon is. If we can get rid of the weapon, then we can get rid of Thames.”
“He could be dead by then,” I snapped, pushing myself out of Ian’s grasp.
Storm stepped toward me and grabbed my shoulders. “I know. Don’t forget I love him too.”
I swallowed down some of the anger seeing Storm’s devastation. We survived by leaning on each other the first time we lost him, we could do it again.
“This is a huge risk, but it’s one that we have to take.” Storm reached down and held my hands firmly in his. “We have to be smarter than Thames so we don’t lose all of us.”
He was right and, in a way, it’s what hurt the most. Evelyn and the prophecy made it clear that unless we eliminated all the darkness, Thames would continue to live. There would be nodefeating him. If he did have Kade, we weren’t ready to face him right now.
It didn’t make the pain of losing Kade—again—any easier. I snorted thinking back to standing in my room as he disappeared. He’d begged me not to do something rash. Luckily, Storm listened better than I did.
“But we don’t even know anything about this so-called weapon,” Kalliah added bluntly, with her hands on her hips. A signature Kalliah move for when she was annoyed.
The library door creaked open slowly, making us all turn in surprise, especially when it opened to reveal Cassandra and Vivienne standing on the other side.
My fears morphed quickly into anger. An unreasonable bout of hatred swelled in me, and I knew my magic played a role in it. “What are you doing here?”
The two entered the room without a care in the world, like they were meant to be here.
“Where have you been?”
“It appears you need our help,” Cassandra announced coolly, seating herself on a settee to my right. “So here we are.”
Now they decide to show up?I was so tired of these seers just coming and going as they pleased and not giving us any real direction. What good was their power, their magic, if they couldn’t even help the ones who needed it most?
“You didn’t even say goodbye to us when we left the Knotted Willow. What makes you think we need your help now?” Fury laced my tone, and my hands began to shake. There were too many emotions swirling inside of me in too short a period of time.
Vivienne walked over to me, her features calm and clear. “The Fates had a different plan for our arrival.”
“Well if the fucking Fates could decide on what they wanted, it would be really fucking nice,” I screamed, unable to controlmyself. My skin glowed as my magic tried to break free, extending out of me almost like Kade’s shadows. “I’ve had enough of their meddling.”
I stood there, trying to regain some composure as my carefully built facade intended for diplomacy crumbled around me.
“By all means,” Cassandra drawled. “Throw a temper tantrum. That will be extremely helpful.”
“What good is your magic if you speak in riddles? Why don’t you ever stay? You claimed to care about Kade, and he’s gone. Again. You weren’t here and we lost Corbin.”
