The Blooders ran off.
“Why would Vivian take Verin?” Odin murmured.
“That's whatI'masking,” I growled and grabbed Odin's arm. “Why, Odin?”
“I don't know, Elaria,” he said calmly. “But we will find him. She didn't kill him outright so she must have a plan for him.”
“This makes no sense.” I let him go and started to pace. “None of this makes any sense!”
“El,” Slate called to me.
“Why try to kill me—twice—and then grab Verin?”
“Elaria?”
“What does she want with him? Is he just bait? Is she going to try to ransom him? Trade him for me? But then why not come after me directly? Maybe we've got this all wrong.”
“Elaria!” Slate shouted.
“What?!” I shouted back.
“You can find him. Sing, woman!”
I blinked. “Oh.”
Slate grimaced and rolled his eyes.
The jagged, electric intro of Kari Kimmel's “Run Run Run” dragged its way through the air around me. I didn't have time to thank Kyanite, the lyrics came up too soon. I started singing as the music rose into a pounding strut. My eyes drifted shut as I let the magic fill me—power pulsing through my body. It was a straightforward song—you can run but you can't hide sort of thing—so I didn't have to twist it with my intent. I just focused on my need to find Verin.
The music dropped into a finger-snapping beat, then climbed back into the warning—that she'd have to run faster and fight harder than she ever had before to get away from me. Fight. Here we were again, fighting even though he'd given up on us. But I wouldn't give up on Verin, not when he needed me. He had jeopardized all that he held dear to save my life. He'd lost his heart and nearly his life on my behalf. Giving me up had been agony for him and yet he'd stuck around to see me safe. And what did he get for it? He got taken. Well, I was about to pull a Liam Neeson and use my particular set of skills to find the Blue Dragon.
Then I had it—the feel of him. His scent. My consciousness rushed across Kansas along with the music, the land zipping by beneath me. Then we came to an ocean and that too, went whizzing past. I flew with the speed of sound, chasing the trail of the dragon I loved and the witch who'd taken him from me. I reached another shore and sped across that land; towns spread out beneath me, then thinned into countryside. Flat land rolled into forested hills, then the trees thinned out as well, to dot an open expanse of grass. I pulled up short abruptly and dropped to the ground. Before me stood a mansion of stone adorned with turrets and crenelations—a castle without a curtain wall. I guess that made it a palace but that didn't seem like the proper word for the place. Palaces were prettier and less fortress-like. This thing had been built to withstand cannon fire and sieges. Whatever it was, it dominated its demesne like a warrior queen.
I gasped as the music ended and went zipping back into my body. I opened my eyes to find seven men staring at me anxiously.
“She took him across the sea,” I reported. “I got the impression that it was an island, but I'm not sure. He's in a house that looks like a castle. I don't recognize it but I can follow the trail back.”
“Does it have a large tower to one side, made of paler stone than the rest of the house?” Odin asked warily.
“Yes.”
“Lots of stupid turrets and a big lawn that stretches out into hills?”
“That's it,” I growled. “Where are they, Odin?”
“Scotland.” Odin grimaced. “Edinburgh to be exact. Vivian has a place there.”
I slipped my contact charm in my ear and called out, “Cerberus Skylos.”
It was time to cry havoc and let slip the Hound of Hell.
Chapter Forty-Three
We reformed on the lawn, before the stone steps that led to the side door of Vivian's castle-like manor in Scotland. My men stood to one side of me with Cer and Odin on the other. Cerberus cracked his neck and knuckles, then stretched his broad shoulders in anticipation. The rest of us just stared.
“She wanted you to find her,” Odin concluded. “And she wants us to come inside.”
“Why do you say that?” Cerberus asked, still warming up his mammoth muscles.
