They only stopped for the necessities — eating, drinking, and using the facilities. Luckily the Orclind was designed to accommodate nomads, which meant that the rest stops they visited usually had both showers and small shops that sold food, toiletries, and other essentials.
He was constantly on guard, even when they were in the middle of nowhere, and yet he couldn’t shake that prickling feeling of being watched. It never got any worse nor better. Unfortunately, that didn’t make him feel any more at ease. If anything, it made him more tense.
The only thing that kept him from reaching for his gun every time another car passed them on the road was Atria’s soothing presence. Now that he understood that fighting their connection was the path to madness, he let her scent, her soft sounds, that fizzling power he felt in the air around her sink under his skin andstaythere.
He took every opportunity to touch her — laying his hand on her thigh as he drove, stroking her hair when she passed him on their way into a shop, hooking his fingers around the curve of her waist when she stood beside him. Being with her was a balm to the edgy beast prowling inside his mind.
Well, mostly.
While his elvish half was mostly content now that he’d begun the binding process with near-constant contact, theorcishhalf grew increasingly antsy. He hated that they were so exposed, that he couldn’t see the threat he couldfeel,and the lack of a proper nest was a burr stuck in his mind. When he thought of what they’d done in the back of the car, he was alternately smug and embarrassed that he couldn’t find the restraint to claim her in a nest like she deserved.
His tension only increased with Atria’s sudden turn in behavior. Once lively and a bit bratty, his mate had sunken into pensive silence for most of the ride. He couldn’t say he was surprised.
The shock of everything was bound to hit her sooner or later. She’d held up remarkably well so far, but he knew the stress, fear, grief, and adrenaline drop would catch up to her. That was yet another reason he wanted to tuck her away someplace secluded and quiet. She would only retreat further if he took her back to the Tower or to his apartment, where she would be put under intense scrutiny. He needed to get her someplace safe and quiet before her inevitable crash.
His urgency mounted as his thoughts circled again and again.Get her home. Get her safe. Make her happy.
After a quick stop to pick up dinner, he was just pressing his thumb into the ignition switch when Atria laid her hand on his arm and whispered, “Norman’s dead, right?”
Kaz’s chest constricted so sharply, it nearly squeezed the breath out of him. The way she looked at him then was nothing short of torture: like hewasher hero, and that she trusted him to fix this, to somehow magically take back her ex’s betrayal or reanimate his corpse.
He had to force himself to answer her. “Yes.”
She didn’t blink when she asked, “And Ruby? Do you think they’ve found her?” Her lower lip wobbled and it was like she’d sliced him open from chin to navel. “Do you think she’s dead, too?”
“They might have found her.” The assurance poured out of him awkwardly. He was terrible at emotions and always had been. Trying to comfort his mate was instinctual, but it was also like trying to speak in a language he barely knew. “But when I last spoke to Teddy, he told me they were still looking. The evidence suggested she’d been taken.”
“Evidence?”
He pressed the ignition switch with slightly more force than the old junker deserved. “Security camera footage seems to show her just vanishing off of the sidewalk outside of The Luz.”
Atria stared at him, lips parted. Kaz felt a small flare of guilt for withholding the information, but when she asked why he’d done it, he answered honestly, “Because there was nothing either of us could do about it. And I… hate seeing you hurt, Atria. More than anything.”
He braced himself for her anger. She’d never given him quarter before, even when she thought he planned to kill her. He wouldn’t begrudge her anger, either. He’d withheld the facts from her. Atria had every right to be pissed off.
Kaz was ready for whatever she chose to dish out, but she didn’t rail at him like he expected her to. Her response was much, much worse.
Atria simply sat back in her seat, shoulders slumped, and stared blankly out of the windshield as he got them back onto the road.
Kaz waited, but she never rallied. Her fire didn’t return. His mate sat defeated until, after almost a half an hour of silence, she said, “My best friend— the only family I have is missing and might be hurt orworse.My ex-boyfriend, who I spent six years of my life with, betrayed me and was shot in front of me. We don’t know who’s hunting us. My life’s work might never see the light of day because someone wants to misuse it. I am— What— what am I going todo?”
“Atria,” he began, speaking in the hushed tone one might use with a frightened animal, “we aregoingto find Ruby. My brother is doing everything in his power to hunt her down. And he’s a fucking bloodhound with this shit. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that he’ll find her.”
“Theodore?”
“Sam.” Kaz grasped her limp hand where it rested on the console. Bringing it up to his lips for a firm kiss, he explained, “Sam stays out of the public eye because he’s… particular. He doesn’t like cities or attention. All he does all day, every day, is sift through data out there in the desert. Normally he hunts for patterns in financial information, but if he’s on Ruby’s case, there is not a chance on Earth that she’ll stay hidden. He’llfind her,Atria.”
He settled her hand on his thigh and gave it a firm squeeze.Be here with me,he silently willed her.Trust me, princess.
When her trembling hand covered his, he let out a relieved breath. “And now the entire Goode Coven is hunting for her, too. So you have two of the most powerful families in the UTA using every ounce of their collective might to find your friend. Do you really think she’ll stay missing for long? I don’t.”
“What if she’s dead?” Atria’s voice cracked. He felt that last broken syllable all the way to his bones.
He’d never been one to dance around hard shit. He said what needed to be said even if it hurt, but his little empath was already on the brink of collapse. He couldn’t bear to push her over the edge.
Instead of answering her with the brutal truth — that there was every possibility that she could be dead, or that, should the Goodes go public with her disappearance, her kidnappers might simply dispose of her to cover their tracks — he asked, “Do youfeellike she’s dead?”
Atria gripped his hand as hard as she could. Her knuckles bleached white and the tendons stretched taut when she answered, “No. I think I would know if she was gone.”
