Part One: The Beautiful Lie
Chapter 1
Rhett
Heat jolts awake under my skin before my brain catches up.
I open my eyes to see the sanctuary’s runes falter—warmth ripped from the walls like someone snuffed out an ancient candle. My fire magic surges in response, wild and restless, and I’m fully awake in seconds.
The bed beside me is empty.
The sheets are cooling too fast, warmth being pulled from them by something unseen. No lingering scent on the pillow, no trace of how she’d curled against me after we’d finally collapsed into sleep, exhausted from everything that happened with the Oath.
She was here. She was definitely here when I fell asleep.
Now there’s nothing.
I sit up, heart hammering. “Bree?”
My voice echoes strangely in her circular bedroom, like the space is bigger than it should be. The horned mirror she found weeks ago sits untouched on her dresser, only reflecting my panic. The reading nook where Theo usually plants himself is empty.
Even the air feels wrong—too still, too quiet.
“Bree!” I call louder, already throwing myself out of bed.
Nothing.
I grab jeans from the floor, pulling them on as I stride toward the door. The sanctuary’s wrongness crawls up my spine like a warning. My hands are already warm, fire magic responding to my panic.
The common area is empty when I burst through her door. All the connecting bedroom doors are closed, the silence too thick.
“Bree!” The shout tears out before I can think.
I tear through their rooms—Wes tangled in sheets, jolting awake; Jace cursing as he rolls upright from sleeping upside down; Theo blinking groggily in his doorway; Gray standing next to his bed like he never even tried to sleep. Not one of them with Bree.
“What’s happening?” Wes asks, voice rough.
“Bree’s missing,” Theo says, and something in his tone makes everyone pause.
“Missing how?” Jace demands.
“I don’t know!” I’m pacing now, heat radiating from my skin. “She was there when I fell asleep, and now she’s just—gone. No note, no trace, nothing.”
“The sanctuary,” Wes says suddenly. “It doesn’t feel right.”
He feels it too. The warm pulse of protection that’s become as familiar as breathing is flickering like a dying flame.
We spread out through the common area, but before any of us can suggest where to search, voices drift from the main hallway. Low, urgent conversation.
I storm toward the sound, the others following behind me.
Thane and Stellan stand near the large windows overlooking the grounds, both fully dressed despite the early hour. They’re talking in the kind of hushed tones that mean trouble, heads bent close together.
They look up when we appear—a pack of half-dressed, panicked men led by me in nothing but jeans and barely contained fire.
“She’s not fucking here!” I announce before either of them can speak.
Thane goes completely still. “What do you mean she’s not here?”
