The red sobbed into his hands, and his garbled thanks were barely audible, especially over the escalating activities of the three demons lower in the Pinnacle.
I blinked away my own tearful reaction to the red’s broken cries.
I blinked again when the blur in my vision didn’t clear.Huh, still blurry. I blinked again, then waved a hand in the air.
Smoke.
Blue smoke.
My thoughts were slow to realize that the blue smoke didn’t sting me. And that no contestants with blue scales remained in the game.
Grandfather’s smoke warning.
Adeuto!
I blurred through a portal opened on sheer reflex.
She’d found them.
22
I’d portaled directly into the house. Not the smartest move, but I was a cornered animal. I was gone to panic.
“Adeuto,” I screamed, ripping back screens and searching under the bed.
I pulsed my magic and didn’t feel him.
I clutched my hair, spinning in a circle. Did they get away? I had to check the remaining hideouts.
Carefully.
I had to be careful. Carmine’s mother could be watching this place. Which meant even if I didn’t want to, then I would spend five precious minutes portaling around and washing and checking for company.
I ran outside and tripped over a body.
On my hands and knees, I stared straight ahead at the rolling expanse of sand dunes. A fear unlike that which I’d ever known froze me.
I’d tripped over a body, and I didn’t know who the body belonged to. I couldn’t turn and find Adeuto.
I couldn’t.
“Granddaughter,” coughed my grandfather.
Relief swept through me. Shame too.
I spun around and crawled back to his side. “Grandfather, where is he? Where’s Adeuto?”
Mother be,she’d done her best to get to his heart, but he wouldn’t die of these injuries.
“Got away,” he wheezed. “I held her as long as possible. She’s following him.”
His eyes rolled back as he lost consciousness.
I shook his shoulders. “What way?”
Nothing.
“I’ll come back for you,” I told him.
