With the snow falling down on me in waves and the wind howling around me, I knew his magic really was powerful as hell because Tan was an insanely powerful witch.
I approached the shield and ran around it until I heard cussing and found my witchy friend—he must’ve been yelling because I’d actually heard his curses over the wind.
“Dain!” Tan shouted.
“Fuck. I can’t even see him. He’s really in there?” I skidded to a stop beside him, sliding on the slippery snow.
“Stand right here and wait a few seconds. The snow’s swirling around, but if you wait, it’ll clear enough to see him.”
I moved to the spot he pointed to and stared into the snowy mess inside the shield, waiting with my heart in my throat. Lanche was somewhere inside that blizzard with someone controlling him.
Fuck, how did it feel not to have control of his own magic? Of his own body?
The thought alone made me want to cry.
The snow swirled around, and finally there was a break in the white, and I gasped.
In the center of the shield, Lanche—my sweet, kind, gentle Lanche—was standing completely still, staring off into the distance. He was in his yeti form, his fur blending in with the snowstorm, but I would be able to pick him out no matter where he was.
He was mine. We were connected. I could see him, feel him, no matter what chaos swarmed around us.
He looked like a statue, like he wasn’t even inside his own body anymore. Like his body was an empty husk being controlled by some evil outsider.
My eyes threatened to water again, but I held it back because Lanche needed me now more than ever, and I was going to fucking save him.
“Oh, Mother of All, please save him,” I whispered. My hand came up to rest on the shield as I swallowed hard. “Lanche, I’m so fucking sorry.” I bit back a sob. “I’ll find a way to save you, baby. I swear it.”
Tan said, “The others are out searching for the person controlling him. They have to be close by. Or at least, that’s the theory. Otherwise, how do they know where to make Lanche go and what to have him do, right?”
I nodded, only half paying attention to him as I stared at my poor Lanche.
Fuck. I had to help him. Ihadto.
I needed to get to him.
Fucking now.
Turning to Tan, I said, “Let me through.”
“What?”
“Let me through your shield. I need to help him.”
Tan made a face. “Dain, I can’t do that. You’ll be ripped apart in there. If you think the storm’s bad out here, inside there it’s probably twenty times worse, if not more. The wind and ice will literally rip you apart.”
“I don’t care,” I growled out. “I need to get to him.”
From the look on Tan’s face, he wasn’t going to let me.
Fine. I’d rip his shield apart if I had to in order to get to Lanche.
Chapter Sixteen
Dain
Tan made that face again, and I growled, loud, deep, and long.
“Tan. If that was Garrick inside there, you can’t tell me you’d be okay with standing out here. You’d be in there, by his side, in a fucking heartbeat. Let me through.” When he stillhadn’t moved to open his shield, I growled out, “I need to get to my viramore. Now!”
