"Okay." I pulled out my phone and thrust it into her hand. "Call everyone."
Hurrying as fast as I could, I ran down the hall and burst out into the sunlight. "Roan!"
He turned, holding Alex close to his chest. "He's okay," he said quickly. "But we have to go."
"Who was it?" I demanded as he grabbed my hand and pulled me along.
"I don't know. After what happened with the Buckners, we can't even be sure the kidnapper isn't Junta. It could be anyone from any race. We just need to get Alex back to the castle where it's safe."
I nodded, my mind racing as I tried to process everything that was happening. My son had been kidnapped, and we had no idea who did it or why. And if I kept calling him my son, even in my mind, my heart would be shattered if his real mother decided she wanted him. Maybe if she did she’d let me be in his life.
We went into lockdown, basically. Mrs. Grunst moved into the castle, Doryu shut down the school, and everyone was on high alert.
Plopping down onto the couch in the office, I looked over at Zander. "I want to talk to Dumadi," I said after we got Alex to sleep, and Mrs. Grunst had gone to bed in my room. She was staying there, and I was staying...well, I wasn't sure yet. No doubt in the warm bed of one of my favorite men.
"Why?" Roan asked, sitting on the edge of the sofa.
"I want to know if he knows anything about this," I said, pacing the room. "If he thinks it would be the Leyak."
"Okay, I'll talk to him," Roan said.
"No." I put my hand down on the table. "In the morning, we're going to Dumadi’s prison house, and we're taking the baby. We're going to let Dumadi see him at a safe distance and see if maybe that'll be enough to get him to talk."
Zander's jaw worked. Roan looked to Zander, and Doryu sat back in the chair. We'd settled into the living room to watch a movie, but none of us had been paying one bit of attention to it.
"What do you think, Doryu?" Zander asked.
"I think it's a good idea," Doryu said slowly. "But we need to be careful."
"I'll go with her," Roan said. "And I'll bring several guards."
Zander nodded. "No, let's keep this quiet. We don't know who is with us or against us. We'll go together. We can protect Alex from one Leyak."
"There are guards there, too. We will have to assume we can trust them." Doryu sighed. "It's a risk, but I think it's worth taking to try to get some information out of Dumadi."
"He may not talk," Roan said.
"I know," Doryu said. "But we have to try."
"Okay," I said, putting my hand on Roan's arm. "In the morning, we'll go." Roan led me to his bed, and we were both so tired we didn’t even think about sex.
Okay, Ithoughtabout it. But we didn’t do it.
The next morning, Cindy came and made a portal for us. The list of people we could trust was short, but she was at the top of it.
"Are you sure you're up for this?" Roan asked as we stepped through the portal into the prison house.
"I have to be," I said, looking down at Alex in my arms. "For him."
The safe house was a large cabin in the middle of nowhere. It was hidden by magic, and there were guards posted at all times. Zander had told us that it was the most secure place Dumadi could be.
We were led into a room and asked to wait just a moment by a burly security guard who bowed at Zander before leaving the room. A few minutes later, Dumadi was brought in. He looked...different than I remembered. The last time I'd seen him, his eyes had been wild, and his hair matted. I'd seen bruises all over his body.
Today he was positively robust. His eyes were still wild, but his hair was clean and styled, and he was wearing a pair of clean jeans and a plaid shirt.
"Dumadi," Zander said, stepping forward. "We'd like to talk."
He opened his mouth to reply but then spotted Alex in my arms. "Oh," he whispered. "Is that my Linna?"
