“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?”
Taranis patted her on the thigh. “I don’t know if Pussy Power is going to work this time around my love.”
“Depends on the pussy.”
Cosimo interrupted their argument. “No, she’s right. You need to be a lighthouse for her consciousness to return to you. If this creature has pushed her out of her body, maybe your connection to her will be enough to draw her back, and then she will push the Brollachan out on her own.”
Bas had his doubts that it would work, but the alternative was to let Valentine try and trap it in his spirit box. The biggestproblem with that was that there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t trap Bridget in the box with it for all eternity.
Bas headed back down to the basement, Cosimo a quiet presence beside him. The Brollachan had been trying to pull itself free, and Bas almost threw up again at the sight of the bruising on Bridget’s wrists.
“You are going to kill her faster like this,” the Brollachan mocked.
“Silence,” Cosimo commanded. A spell sizzled through the air, robbing the creature of its voice. “I have only silenced the creature. If Bridget comes back through, she will be able to speak with you fine.”
Bas pulled up another chair. “Thanks, Dad.”
Cosimo hugged him. “I never had a chance to save my mate when she was dying, Bas. It’s one of the greatest pains in my life. Don’t let her go. Hold tight with both hands and fight like hell. Understand?”
“I will. I can’t handle the thought of losing her. It’s not an option. She doesn’t even know what she is to me. I should have told her,” Bas said, tears choking him.
Cosimo let him go. “Tell her now, Basset. Tell her everything.”
“She’s going to be so mad,” Bas sniffed.
