“I have errands to run,” I told Killian and Sy, nodding at the heirs, keeping my manner cool so no one would become suspicions, though my heart was pounding hard and dread filled my veins. “I should go check on Bea at the forge.”
My friend and her team were working nonstop to produce more blood blades, even though they knew Ruin could raise his army from the dead.
“We need you here, Barbie,” Silas said, his tone brooking no argument. “You and Sy need to stay in our sight. It’s the only way we can protect you.”
He was such a control freak.
“You know no one can really sneak up on me, right?” I asked.
“I’ll go with you, Barbie,” Sy offered.
“No, you stay,” I said, perhaps a little too quickly and harshly. “I’ll just hang out with Bea for a while. I barely get to see her anymore.”
Sy pouted, but Rowan pulled her into his arms, and the two were instantly lost in another kiss.
I rolled my eyes, forcing my usual levity. “Get a room.”
I had to act normal. I had to be my normal, irreverent self.
“We will, soon.” Sy grinned against his lips.
“Don’t wander,” Killian said. “Come back soon, or I’ll have to hunt you down.”
He gave me a light, familiar spank as I turned to leave.
“Hey!” I protested on instinct, and he laughed.
The other heirs looked on, shaking their heads in collective distaste.
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
Sy
Barbie hadn’t gone to the forge.
I knew it the moment I stepped inside. Bea bent over her workbench, a team of assistants hammering relentlessly at half-done blood blades. The air was thick with the acrid sting of molten metal and ozone but utterly devoid of Barbie’s distinctive scent of honeysuckle and chaos. My stomach instantly dropped.
I’d felt this wrongness since she’d left the penthouse, a gnawing unease in my chest where our connection used to live. I’d dismissed it as paranoia, let Rowan’s kisses distract me from the growing hollowness. But now it screamed the truth with deafening clarity.
Barbie was gone.
“Barbie never came here today, did she?” My voice came out anguished enough to make Bea drop the blade she was holding. It clattered against the stone floor.
“No,” Bea said, her face paling beneath the soot and metal dust. “I haven’t seen her since…” She paused, her eyes widening in dawning horror. “Killian was just here. He took one look around, and then he…he just ran.”
I spun on my heel and sprinted. Bea’s voice called after me, but it was a distant echo. My feet barely touched the ground as I flew through the academy corridors, my panic igniting creation magic that sparked and fizzed at my fingertips.
I burst into the war room. The heirs were scattered across the sofas like battle-weary soldiers. They hadn’t slept since the battle, and someone—probably Silas—was snoring loud enough to wake the dead.
“Barbie is gone! My sister’s gone!” The scream ripped from my throat, raw and terrified.
The heirs jolted awake as one, exhaustion vaporized by pure instinct. Louis was the first on his feet, his pale blue eyes sharpening with alarm. “What? Gone where?”
“Little monster.” Rowan shot up so fast his chair cracked against the wall. He was at my side in two strides, his hands firm on my shoulders, trying to anchor me. “Breathe. You were just here. I thought you’d gone to the bathroom.”
“I went to find Barbie,” I gasped, the words tumbling out in a frantic rush. “She never went to the forge. She lied to us.”
