Abi shruggedmy arm away. “No. Where’s Maddy? Where is she?”
My throat tightened, and my lungs seized up. I didn’t want them to know, but there was no way to keep this secret. They were her family just as much as I was. “She, oh god, Maddy was taken. They have her. They came and got her while we were rescuing you guys.”
Abi’s hands shot out and clamped on my arms, one on each bicep. Even in her weakened and exhausted state, her fingers felt like steel bands, cutting off my circulation. “Where? We have to get her, Nico. Where did they take her?”
I looked into her fierce eyes and, for the first time, felt myself start to bend. My resolve weakened, and my will began to crack. I shook my head wordlessly. My mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.
The door to the right opened, and Maddy’s father stepped out. He looked equally as exhausted but had much worse wounds. His left eye was swollen shut, and his lip was split. There were bruises all along his jaw. Even in his weakened and injured state, he looked pissed, and why wouldn’t he? I’d be furious if I’d been through what he had.
He took two heavy steps toward us. “Do you know where she is? Maddy, I mean?”
He’d heard us talking then. He knew she was missing. I shook my head. “No, Mr. Sutton. We don’t.”
He gave one angry shake of his head. “Call me Anthony. And I think I know where she is.”
Abi and I both stared at him dumbly for half a second before I leaped at the news. I stepped up to him and put a steadying hand on his shoulder. “Mr… er… Anthony? You know where she is? How?”
I couldn't think of a single reason why this man would know more than we did, but I was happy to hear any news. Even a sliver of information was better than floating in the unknown. The longer we sat here doing nothing, the more impotent I’d begin to feel.
Anthony nodded and put a hand on the wall. He looked a little woozy. Once he’d recovered from his dizzy spell, he looked me dead in the eyes and said, “I heard some of the men talking. My guards. They were going to take us all to a place they kept calling ‘The castle.’”
“Wait,” I said. “Come downstairs. Everyone needs to hear this. The more minds working on this, the better.”
Once we were downstairs, I sat Anthony and Abi down on the couch. The rest of us settled in around them. Anthony told us again what he’d heard. I looked around at them. “Anyone have any clue where thiscastlemight be?’
Luis was the first to speak. “I might have an idea.”
“Out with it!” I snapped.
“Okay, okay. There’s a castle in Germany that the royals are known to frequent. It was part of Kenneth’s research. They owned multiple residences. Villas, penthouses, and mansions, but the only castles they owned were the Edemas ruins and a castle in Germany. That’s where the royals migrated to after the fall of Edemas’s family. It’s used as a sort of tourist destination at the moment. The front half is the museum and sightseeing venture. The remaining half and the rest of the estate is still used as a residence. That could be it.”
“Okay, okay, maybe,” I said. “Does that mean that’s where the vault is? I don’t want to plan a whole other rescue across the world just to get there and find they’ve moved her again.”
Luis winced and shook his head. “Like I said, I’m pretty sure the vault was in the tombs near the Edemas estate. We never figured out if it was moveable, though. The treasure, due to its size, is probably still there, yes. The vial of blood? Who knows? Maybe thevaultis a stone chest or something. So, yes, it could have been brought to the castle. We have no way to be sure.” Luis looked at me with a sorrowful expression. “I’m sorry, that’s all I know. It’s the best I can come up with.”
Everyone fell silent. Each eye in the room was looking down at the floor. We all looked like we’d been defeated. I forced my eyes to stay up and stared out the window at the bright blue morning sky outside. I refused to give up. Maddy was worth going to the end of the world. To the very gates of Hell if need be. I wouldn’t stop. My lip curled back, and I growled low in my throat.
68
MADDY
The man beside me kept the hypodermic gun shoved painfully into my side for the entire drive. My ribs ached, and all I wanted was for him to take the fucking thing away. It was almost a relief when I saw the airstrip appear through the windshield.
This wasn’t a commercial airport. It was a small strip about twenty miles away from Clearidge. I didn’t even know this was here. A small jet airplane sat out on the tarmac. The steps had been lowered, and two men holding guns stood on either side of the stairs.
“Where are you taking me?”
Viola turned toward me and answered with nothing more than a smile, then turned back, and we continued the rest of the way in silence. The car pulled through a chain-link fence and parked right beside the plane. If I got on that plane, the odds of Nico finding me fell to almost zero, but there was nothing else I could do.
I dug down deep and mentally screamed at my wolf, begging her to help. Now was the time to shift. If there was ever a time that I needed her help, this was it. Instead of feeling her strengthflood through my body, I felt the fear of a young girl. Being so near the royals actually made her fall even deeper into herself. All I could feel from her was terror and anxiety. The anger and rage she felt toward them were not enough to overcome the horror of being in their clutches. So, instead of my hands turning to claws and my jaw becoming a weapon, I was just a human. Weak, bound, and captured. I sighed, and even in my disappointment, I tried to let my wolf know that I didn’t blame her.
The door opened, and the man beside me blessedly pulled the hypo-gun away from my ribs. He twisted a hand in my hair and yanked me out. Electric sizzles of fire shot through my scalp as he pulled. My feet shoved and scrabbled at the floor and the seat in front of me—anything to keep the pressure off my hair. I pushed myself out and fell onto the tarmac.
The same man leaned over to grab me again, and I snapped my teeth at his hand, just nipping his finger. He yanked his hand away, yelping in pain. “Asshole,” I hissed at the man.
“Oh,” Viola cooed. “She does have fight in her.” She knelt and put her face right in front of mine. “I like when they fight.” Viola stood and turned. “Bring her.”
The men grabbed me under my arms and lifted me, carrying me toward the plane again. My toes banged on each stair as they hauled me up. Once inside, they tossed me into one of the big leather chairs, and one of them snapped out a knife and sliced off the zip ties on my wrists. I gasped in relief and rubbed at the red indents the plastic had left in my wrists.
