I didn’t expect the dragon landing to be guarded, so as long as we didn’t have very bad luck and end up there right when a dragon was landing, we should be okay.
I stumbled when I resurfaced, my eyes so heavy from the sleeping magic I could hardly open them. My body felt like it was in some sluggish dream.
I bent over, resting my elbows on my knees, sucking in air. “Gods.”
“Are you okay?” Nova put her hand on my shoulder.
“I’ll be fine. I’m just fighting…” I pried my eyes open and made myself take a few steps. “What did they do to us?”
“It’s definitely magic of some kind.” She slipped her arm into mine to help me stay upright. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know where to start, which means we need Nyx's help. But I don’t think I can find him on my own.”
“Kol will help us find him,” Nova said.
Sneaking through the hallways, we went straight to Kol. Nova knew where his chambers were. It seemed like she’d had more freedom before I arrived. We knocked on his chamber door.
Kol immediately pulled us inside and glanced out the door behind us before closing it and locking it behind him.
“How did you two get here?” he whisper-yelled.
“I went to her like you asked,” Nova said, sounding annoyed.
“But you snuck out? Arkyn is going to be livid?” Kol rubbed his forehead.
“Is everything okay?” Alaric said from behind Kol.
“No, it’s not!” I snapped, “Faolan is missing, and you’re drinking?”
Nova leaned around Kol to look at him. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m allowed to leave my rooms at night…” Alaric clutched a drink to his chest.
“This is how we know we’re getting the short end of the stick. We have a bedtime and attendants, and you two can be out all hours of the night? Males!” Nova scoffed, shoving past Kol. “You told me to tell Caly her mate is missing. Did you really think we weren’t going to look for him?”
“My brother is going to be furious when he finds out,” Alaric sighed. “He’s already spinning out about all of this. Who knows what he will do next?”
An unease crept up on me. “Could your brother be responsible for Faolan’s disappearance?”
“What makes you say that?” Kol asked carefully.
“The things he said to me after the meeting—” I cut myself off, not knowing what I was trying to say. It was just a feeling beginning to solidify.
“What did he say?” Kol asked.
I recounted all of Arkyn’s threats. “It didn’t feel like anything when he said it, but now knowing Faolan is missing, it might have been something. He said he would arrange it, you know, for me to have access to Faolan to grow my power. Like he has him and is the only one who could grant that. Maybe I’m being over-dramatic, I don’t know.”
“With my brother, over-dramatic is the baseline. Anything is possible.”
“How long has he been missing exactly?”
We tried to figure out the last time anyone had seen him.
“We have to find him before my brother does, if he hasn’t already.” Alaric set his drink aside before getting up. “And before he notices you’re missing. He’ll be on the warpath.”
“Let’s go to Nyx then,” I said, looking down at my nightclothes. “And someone give us some other pants or something.”
We changed into ill-fitting clothes, but they were better than wandering around the palace in nightclothes.
