He would be my first stop. I glanced at Vas. “I need an unseelie for the counter spell. Any ideas?”
He nodded. “Leave it to me.” He frowned at my silence. “You’ve done enough. You get everything else you need, and I’ll figure out the unseelie.”
“Thanks.”
I showered, collected my weapons, and avoided looking in Samael’s direction. The silence in my head was excruciatingly loud.
Kyla met me out by her car. “Where to?”
I frowned. I’d never been to Keigan’s house, although I was pretty sure I had the address in my phone somewhere. He sure wouldn’t be at the mage facility. Guilt burrowed deep in my chest, and I tamped it down as I pulled out my phone.
“Stonehouse Court,” I said, and Kyla took the wheel. I glanced around at the empty street. “Have you seen Virtus this morning?”
“Virtus?”
“The griffin. He liked the name.”
Kyla grinned, then shrugged, and I gaped as her cheeks heated. “You took him home with you, didn’t you?”
She cast me a defiant look. “He was going to be cold in the forest.”
“Try again. You’d know better than me just how warm all that fur would keep him.”
“He was lonely.”
That wasn’t entirely impossible, given that Virtus had been part of his own pack, even if he’d been largely ignored. I’d left him snoring on the porch, the front door of the cabin open a few inches in case he wanted to come inside.
“Fine,” Kyla glowered at me as if I’d spoken. “Iwas lonely.”
“I’m sorry.”
She sighed. “Don’t be. It was probably all that shit with my brother. I saw the griffin–Virtus–lying on the porch and I told him he could stay with me. He slept on my sofa.”
I grinned at the mental image that popped into my head, and her expression lightened.
“Yeah, it was pretty funny.” We pulled up outside of Keigan’s house—a large, two-storied brick home with a double garage. Along the steps leading to the screened porch, small immaculately trimmed shrubs were spaced apart so precisely that I could picture Keigan measuring the distance with a ruler.
The sight made my heart hurt.
Kyla glanced at me as we got out of the car. “What kind of approach do you want to take?”
I sighed. “Honesty, with a large side of regret.”
Keigan’s car was in the driveway. He didn’t keep us waiting, but his expression was guarded as he opened the door. “Come in,” he said with a wave of his hand. He didn’t offer us a seat, didn’t lead us out of his entranceway. I swallowed around the lump in my throat. Keigan had been my longest friendship. It looked like that friendship was dead.
I took a deep breath and explained what I needed. He pondered it for a long moment, his eyes turning thoughtful.
“This would save Samael’s life, and he would wage war against Lucifer.”
“Yes.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry, Danica, but I can’t step in here.”
The world must have kept spinning, but for me, it came to a grinding halt.
“Excuse me?”
If I wasn’t struggling against pure, unrelenting grief, I might’ve been pleased with the look of anguish on his face.
