"He's not here," I told him.
"Oh, gods," Mistral moaned.
He looked like he was about to keel over so I grabbed him by the shoulders. Right now I was too worried about the situation to think about the fact that putting your hands on a spirit was probably extremely rude. "Calm down. What happened?"
Mistral's eyes flashed with fear. "Animus. He's on the coast. Looking for Nautilus."
Kamari sucked in a breath, his eyes going wide. My stomach sank like a stone. I hadn't wanted Kamari to be correct about his gut feeling.
The chill of fear touched me, too. This was the spirit who had hurt my Granddad. It was a miracle we could restore his strength the first time. What would happen if Animus attacked him again?
What if he attacked Kamari?
A growl rumbled in my throat. That idea was unacceptable. Powerful spirit or not, there was no way Animus was laying a single finger on my mate.
My first instinct was a selfish one. I wanted to take Kamari and run. Screw the coast. My mate and our unborn child were more important. But deep down, that wasn't how I truly felt. I couldn't throw all those omegas under the bus, not to mention the innocent animals living there. Besides, I knew if I so much as breathed that idea to Kamari, he'd bite my head off. Literally.
I looked at Kamari, trying to gauge his reaction. There was a serious expression on his face. Not panicked, but surprisingly calm. Stoic. He almost looked like a statue, especially compared to Mistral, who was shedding feathers from anxiety like crazy.
"Well?" I asked. "What are we going to do about it?"
Mistral barked out a helpless, bitter laugh. "We?You two can't do a single thing. Haven't you listened to anything I said? You've seen Nautilus's wounded state for yourself. Animus is too strong! If a spirit can't fight him, what makes you think two little mortals can?"
"Oh, just shut up," Kamari muttered.
Mistral's lips pressed together in shock. Hell, I was surprised at his outburst too. Mistral gathered himself up, smoothing down his feathers. "Well, what doyoupropose?"
"I'm not abandoning the haven or the omegas in it," Kamari said. "And I'm certainly not going to stand around and do nothing while Animus destroys the ecosystem to feed his own ego."
Mistral looked appalled that Kamari would talk about Animus that way. Even though I'd seen Nautilus drained of his powers, part of me wondered if Animus was truly as powerful as Mistral said, or if the air spirit was just a coward. He'd said so himself earlier.
But still, for Kamari to run headfirst into danger when he was carrying our baby...
"Zak," Kamari said, fixing me with a determined stare. "I'm going. Don't try to stop me."
I snorted. "When have I ever been able to stop you from doing anything?"
A small smirk toyed at the edges of Kamari's lips. If this wasn't such an urgent situation, I would've kissed that smirk right off his face.
"This is important to me," Kamari said.
"I know. And I think you're an idiot for purposely putting yourself in harm's way."
Kamari smiled. "I know that, too."
I sighed, throwing up my hands in defeat. "But youaremy fated mate. You know what they say. Happy mate, happy fate."
"Nobody says that."
"Yeah, but I think we should start saying it."
Kamari and I approached the water, ready to shift, when Mistral's shrill voice cried out behind us, "How can you two be socalmabout this?"
Turning around to face him, Kamari said, "I'm not calm. I'm terrified. But I won't abandon the people who rely on me."
"Besides," I added, "what happens if nobody stands up to Animus now? He'll go on rampaging and stealing from other spirits, and if he's so jealous, who knows when he'll stop? To be honest, he sounds like a spoiled kid throwing a tantrum, and you spirits are the ones letting him get away with it."
Mistral bristled, his feathers puffing up. "Excuse me?"
