Eduard paused with his finger hovering over the button.
“She doesn’t know we’ve found him. If she gets away now, we may not find her. And I very much want to have a long conversation with your cousin.”
Eduard nodded then glanced down at the phone. “I don’t have a signal anyway. We need to decide how we are going to handle this.”
“My feet hurt,” Sawyer said quietly. “I need to get off them.”
Draco rumbled again and carefully lifted Sawyer into his arms. “What happened?”
“Running barefoot on rocks,” Sawyer explained. “I don’t recommend it.”
“He has a very deep claw mark on his side as well,” Saeward said. “And a lot of bruising. I did what I could to help.”
He seemed to worry that they doubted his care. Andvari didn’t. He could see that Sawyer could have been much worse, especially considering the blood he could scent from the bandaged wound in his side.
“Thank you,” Eduard said. He still seemed to be a little bit in awe of Saeward, not that Andvari blamed him.
“Cecil sent supplies,” Andvari said. He pulled the pack off his back and pulled out the thermos Viv had sent for Sawyer.
Sawyer groaned. “I can’t escape those damn things.”
Eduard
Eduard had taken to the air again, this time with Andvari on his back. They needed to get closer to civilization so he could call his father, but there was no way Sawyer was up for travel. He’d put on a brave show, but once Andvari had removed the bandage covering Sawyer’s side, Eduard had seen red. Between the bruises covering his body and his torn apart feet, Sawyer hadn’t had an easy time at all.
But that claw mark. It had taken every ounce of self control he possessed to not lose control then and there. He wanted to flay Magdalen alive, and then claw her to pieces himself. No one touched his mate. No one.
He could see a group of buildings not too far ahead along the coast, probably a small village. After making sure his magic was shielding them from potential onlookers, Eduard landed on a deserted strip of beach. Andvari slipped off his back and had the phone out and waiting for Eduard as he shifted back to his human form. He’d dialed his father seconds later.
“Eduard, did you find him?”
“No,” Eduard lied. “I’ve had an emergency call from a client though, and I’m hoping you can handle it while we continue our search. Could you head to your office and make a sell for me?”
Augustus paused for a moment then agreed. “Stock prices wait for no man. I understand, Eduard. Hold on.”
His father understood. He heard muffled voices and then a door closed. “I’m in my office, son. Alone.”
“We found him, Dad.”
“Oh, thank the goddess. How bad is it?”
“Bad,” Eduard said. “Magdalen was behind it all. She…” He breathed deeply, tried to control his emotions.
“I’ll remove her head from her body myself,” Augustus snarled.
“No. We need to question her. She tried to sacrifice him to Tiamat. We need more information and we need to know if anyone else helped her. You’re the only person I trust with this. It’s hard to imagine she did this without help.”
“I won’t let you down. What do you need?”
“The boats Henry had you send north. If I send you coordinates, can you find out if one is relatively close? We’re in Maine as far as I can tell. We were in the air for several hours.”
“Hold on. We’re satellite mapping them. Message me the coordinates and I’ll see who is close. I’ve been spreading them out along the coast.”
“We’ll need to keep this quiet.”
“I’ll take care of it. Now, tell me how he is.”
“Pretty bruised. He took a good beating. His feet are bad. When he got away—” His breath hitched once again. “She clawed him, Dad. She marked my mate.”
