“I’ll see you at home,” Bas grunted. He knew Valentine was being practical, but he didn’t want to look at that damned box, let alone consider using it on his Bridget.
“Talk to me, Basset,” Cosimo said as they wound through Temple Bar and back to the Greatdrakes mansion.
“I don’t know what happened,” Bas replied from his position. He was lying on Bridget to stop the creature from thrashing about. He didn’t want it to hurt Bridget’s body. She was going to be needing it back in one piece. “We were walking on the river, and she said she felt weird. Then she’s running down a set of stairs to a dock, where she freezes, lifts a foot off the ground, and then faints. The fucker jumped her, and she almost went into the river.”
“Ohhh, she’s gone much further than into the water, magician,” the Brollachan mocked before it tried to bite his face.
You’ll get her back. You’ll get her back. You’ll get her back.Bas chanted over and over. There wasn’t anywhere that Bridget went that his dragon wouldn’t be able to find her.
Taranis was waiting in the garage when they pulled in. He helped Bas up.
“You okay, my boy? You are looking a little wild about the edges.”
“It’s got my mate,” Bas said, the words coming out in a horrified sob.
Taranis’s eyes glowed. “Breathe, Basset. There you go. In and out. We can get it out of her. This is a house of magicians, is it not? Possession is child’s play.”
Bas nodded, and then, after a few more breaths, they got the Brollachan out of the car and down into the cells below the garage. They were dusty from misuse, but the magic in them was still strong.
“Burning, burning,” the creature hissed, writhing back from the bars.
Bas was going to be sick, but he still pushed it into one of the chairs in an empty cell and cuffed it down.
“Let her go, and it will stop hurting,” Bas said, his voice cracking.
“And have you kill me after I jump out? No, no, I think not.”
Cosimo put a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, son. We need to talk about this privately.”
“Take as long as you like,” the Brollachan hollered. “The longer I’m in this meat prison, the more I can eat away at it. And she is so very delicious.”
Taranis’s hand went to his other shoulder, and Bas was marched out of the cell and upstairs. He made it to the hallway bathroom in time to lose his lunch. He vomited until he was empty and shaking. He had known that the creature had wanted Bridget. Known that it had been hunting her. And he had still taken her with him.
“Hurry up in there, Basset. We need to make a plan and not fall apart,” Taranis said, banging on the door.
“Not helping,” Bas snarled back.
Taranis only kicked in the door. “You can’t help her if you’re hiding.”
Bas washed his face and rinsed out his mouth. Cosimo held out a glass of scotch for him, and Bas downed it.
They ended up in the kitchen, Bas seated at the counter with another scotch beside him. He filled in Taran about their adventures by the river. He knew Valentine would update the others before they all descended on the Greatdrakes mansion.
“And you believe this creature when it says that she’s gone?” his uncle asked. “Did you try and touch her mind?”
“I didn’t get that far. I was trying to keep it from running away with her body. She feels different, though. I can’t explain it, but I don’t think she’s in there at all,” Bas replied.
Cosimo rubbed at his stubble. “The creature didn’t say that ithadeaten her. It said that itwaseating her. If its food is consciousness, then there has to be some of her left to eat.”
“You’re right. I was too panicked to see, but you’re right. She has to be somewhere in there. Tethered somehow. Bridget is smart. She would’ve known what was happening and would’ve tried to protect herself,” Bas said, thinking out loud.
“You found her in the astral plane. She hid from you in there for weeks after Midsummer. Would she have gone there again to try and hide?” his father replied.
Bas thought it through. “I could go and check, but the astral plane is vast. She could be anywhere. We saw the creature there before, which means it’s also its playing ground. It could be a trap.”
Quinn came into the kitchen and sat down on Taranis’s lap. It made Bas’s whole chest ache to watch them. He missed his mate and wanted her in his arms.
“Forgive me for eavesdropping, but it seems like the more brains on this, the better.” Quinn tried to smile at Bas, and then her expression went thoughtful. “When you were a dragon, you came back to her. Your consciousness was lost in the dragon just like hers is lost now. If you can’t go into the astral plane to search for her, why don’t you act as a beacon for her to follow?”
