Bea appeared in the doorway behind me, panting from the run. “I haven’t seen her since the battle ended.”
“Maybe she’s with Killian?” Cade offered, sitting up slowly as he clung to logic. “He’s missing, too. Perhaps they’re in that private realm of his, the one where they never invite us.”
“Selfish assholes,” Silas muttered, shaking his head in disgust.
As if summoned by his name, Killian stepped through the space, his storm-blue eyes wild with a panic he wasn’t even trying to contain.
“Where is Barbie? Has anyone seen my mate?” The question was a desperate demand.
“Barbie tricked all of us,” I said, my voice breaking on her name. “I’ve been feeling this horrible wrongness since she walked out of your penthouse. I think she left the realm. I believe she…”
The words stuck in my throat. Saying them would make them real, but they were already real. She’d gone to Ruin. To face him alone, or worse, to offer herself as payment for our survival.
The realization struck me like a truck running me over. Was that why Ruin had retreated so suddenly? Had my sister made a deal with that evil monster?
The same horrific understanding shattered across Killian’s face. He staggered back as if stabbed in the heart, all color draining from his features until he was as pale as a ghost. His hand flew to his chest, clawing at the place where the mate bond was woven into his very soul.
“I can’t feel her.” The words were a strangled gasp. “The bond…it’s gone quiet. Muted. It’s like she’s?—”
He couldn’t finish. He couldn’t give voice to the unthinkable.
“My sister is alive!” I snarled, my magic erupting around me in a blinding, defensive flash of white light.
“Search the grounds!” Rowan roared, turning to the stunned generals and aides. “Turn over every stone?—”
“She isn’there.” Killian’s voice had gone hollow. He stared through the walls. His face might have been carved from ice, but I could see the cracks spreading. “My mate is far beyond this realm, but I can’t pinpoint her whereabouts. Distance alone can’t muffle our bond like this. Something has been done to her. It blocked me fromher. I have to find her!”
He turned toward the door, body coiled to spring, just as a panicked shout erupted from the far wall.
“Your Majesties! Highnesses! Everyone!” Pucker phased through the solid stone wall, his form flickering erratically with distress. “I tried to talk her out of it, but she made me vow. You know how she gets when her mind is set?—”
Killian moved in a blur of lethal intent. His hands shot through the ghost’s throat, fingers clenching on empty air where a mortal’s windpipe would be. Physics was meaningless against his rage, yet Pucker still recoiled, cowering from the chaos king’s violent intent.
“Where. Is. She?” Killian’s voice was deathly cold.
“She’s gone to meet Ruin!” Pucker wailed.
The confirmation was a blade to the gut. I had known, I had felt it, but hearing the words made it terrifyingly real.
“How could she?” Bea whispered, her voice trembling.
Killian dropped his futile attempt to throttle a ghost and spun toward the door. I was already moving, a step behind him. We had to get to her now, before our father broke her all over again.
“Wait! Wait!” Pucker’s voice rose to a shriek. “She left a letter!”
I skidded to a halt, darting back to snatch the envelope from Pucker’s hand. My fingers trembled as I broke the seal and pulled out a page filled with Barbie’s chaotic scrawl. Her handwriting had always been atrocious, but stress had made it worse. I had to squint to decode her chicken scratches.
“Your Majesty,” Pucker ventured nervously, “Barbie said if you tried to, ah, murder me—though no one can murder me twice anyway—I should remind you of the safe word. The one for when things get too hot and dirty.”
“We don’t have a safe word.” Killian glowered, his storm-blue eyes blazing with dragon-gold. Tyson was surging to the surface. “She is always safe with me.”
“They’re very popular among mortals for role-play!” Pucker protested weakly.
“Give me the letter, Sy!” Killian commanded, his voice layered with a dragon’s rumble.
“No, I’ve got it!” I clutched the paper to my chest, turning away from his reaching hand. “Let me read it. To all of you.”
I cleared my throat, trying to steady my shaking hands. Rowan moved behind me, his solid presence a warm anchor as I forced my eyes to focus.
