“Don’t know a Rune,” he says with a shrug.
A few seats down to my left, a man slides off his stool, leaving a full drink behind as he casually slips into the crowd.
Hello, Rune.
“Thanks,” I say politely, throwing back the shot of sake before going after my target as casually as possible.
I can’t get a good scent off of him from here, but all my instincts are screaming at me that this has to be the guy. His dark hair is long and wild. For some reason, after meeting Alenor, I was picturing Rune in a similar way—a punk-y looking twink. But the man a few feet in front of me is tall and lanky, with both of his arms covered in intricate tattoos that go all the way down to cover the backs of his hands and wrap around his fingers.
He moves fluidly through the bar, managing to hurry without making it seem like he’s moving any faster than anyone else. I don’t want to take my eyes off of him to flag down Drax, so I send a thought through our bond, not sure if he’ll get it or if the bond even works that way.
Target headed for the fire exit at the back.
He doesn’t pause or look over his shoulder when he reaches the exit. Does he know I’m following him? I hesitate for half a second. Could it be a trap he’s leading me into?
He pushes through the door, and I hurry forward. Fuck it. If it’s a trap, then it’s a trap. I catch it before it can swing closed and follow him into the alley.
DRAX
“Mac’s got him,”I announce, shooting out of my seat as soon as I feel the tingle of awareness in my chest. It’s not quite words, but a sense that Mac is trying to alert me to follow him. And, like the tug of a leash, I turn and follow the direction I can feel my mate pulling me in.
I see the fire door swing closed without a sound. The mage must have cast a spell to disrupt the alarm so it wouldn’t make any noise. I look around the crowd, trying to spot Mac. But he must already be outside with Rune.
“Come on,” I growl, hurrying after them.
“Do we want to ruin everyone’s fun tonight?” Atlas asks with a chuckle when we reach the alarmed door.
I grunt thoughtfully. None of us have magic—not that kind of magic, anyway. I could glamour everyone in the bar to see something different, but I can’t glamour away a sound or the fact that it would trigger an emergency response.
“Or we could just do this,” Cassius says in a bored voice, snapping his fingers and vanishing with the power Auri gave him to travel between worlds.
“Duh.” Atlas chuckles and follows suit.
Duhindeed. I slip into the black space and immediately re-emerge in the narrow alley between the bar and the building next door. But the tug in my chest that ties me to my mate is gone and there’s no sign of the mageorMac.
“Where are they?” I spin around, looking for any sign of them.
The electric scent of magic burns in my nose and their absence is a physical presence of its own, a gaping hole in space that tells me without a doubt that the four of us are alone in the alley.
Roman sniffs heavily and Atlas drops to his knees to feel the ground, uselessly trying to sense what I already know.
The mage took my mate.
FOURTEEN
MAC
My eyesflicker open as the cloud of disorientation evaporates around me. One second, I was following a man through a glitzy bar, and the next… I don’t even know.
I sit up slowly, trying to get my bearings, discovering I’m in a cave-like room surrounded by cool, damp stones and I’m lying on a simple cot. Dim light emanates from a nearby opening, along with the sound of clinking glasses and liquid pouring.
Managing to push myself to my feet, I pause as I sway and the room swims around me for just a second. Magic. I was dazed.
After clearing my throat, I push on, following the light. I step into another room, slightly bigger than the one I was in, and there behind a wooden table piled high with books, jars, and mixing bowls is the man I followed from the bar.
“Rune, I assume?”
The man looks up, gazing at me with the blackest eyes that somehow manage to feel warm at the same time.
