Rufus and Solomon confirmed the same.
Relief shot through Evander at this news. He frowned faintly and looked over their shoulders. “Where’s Ginny and Shaw?”
It took a good twenty minutes racing through corridors and boxes for them to search the opera house from top to bottom.
Ginny and Shaw were nowhere to be found.
Dread pooled inside Evander’s belly with every passing second.
Something was wrong.
“Your Grace.”
Evander whirled around where he stood on a landing of the grand staircase.
Richter approached with Laurenz, his expression troubled. “This was attached to the knife that dark mage hurled at you.”
He passed Evander a slip of paper.
Evander’s blood turned to ice when he read the brief message.
We have something of yours. Withdraw from Vienna immediately or they die. You have until dawn.
The note crinkled in his fist.
Rufus appeared, his expression pale.
“I found this near a side entrance, along with Shaw’s shoe.”
Lying in the middle of his palm like a glittering accusation was one of Ginny’s earrings.
“Is that—?!” someone asked hoarsely.
Solomon was approaching with Viggo, his gaze locked unblinkingly on Ginny’s earring.
Evander swallowed, fury and guilt curdling his stomach.
“Ginny and Shaw are missing. The dark mages took them.”
He passed Viggo and Solomon the paper wordlessly.
Solomon’s face drained of colour. He made a sound like a wounded animal. Viggo gripped his shoulder, holding him in place.
“We’ll find them,” the Brute said, his voice hard as iron even as apprehension tightened his face. “Both of them.”
Evander’s nails dug into his palms.
The enemy had planned to abduct Ginny and Shaw from the beginning. It had to be Winchester. The timing was too preciseto be coincidental. They’d been watched and tracked from the moment they arrived in Vienna, maybe even longer.
It was clear they wanted him to run. To abandon the investigation and flee back to England with his tail between his legs.
Resolve tightened Evander’s jaw. They didn’t know him very well.
And they were going to regret ever touching his people.
“The dark mage we captured,” he said icily. “We need to question?—”
“He’s dead,” Richter said darkly. “He drank a vial of poison when we left the box.”
