“Where could she be?” Maia asked.
Slowly, as if everyone had the same thought, they all turned and looked at Cassian.
“I do not know where she is.”
“When did you see her last?” Eugenia asked.
“Last night, on the terrace,” he answered.
“Did she say anything to you?”
He nearly laughed because Samantha had spent the entire night avoiding him. “No. She did not.”
“Did anyone talk to her last night before she retired?”
“She told me she was going to return the crystals and retire because it would be an early morning,” Maia answered.
“Crystals?” Samantha’s mother asked.
“Yes. She had two that were not needed for the meditation during the lunar eclipse, but instead of returning them that day, she kept them in one of her pockets and with everything so busy…but remembered last night that she needed to return them.” Maia turned to Eugenia. “Samantha likes to have her hands free in case she has a need for fire or wind, so she has dressmakers add secret pockets to all her clothing.”
“Where are the crystals kept?” Samantha’s father demanded.
“In a cupboard next to the vault,” Eugenia answered as she rose from her seat.
Samantha had appeared pale and ill last night. Maybe it was worse than he realized. Had she collapsed and had been lying on the stone floor?
“I will check,” Eugenia said. “Everyone, wait here.”
He wanted to follow, but he also did not have the right. He may love her, but she was not his and the pain of worry was excruciating as Cassian watched Eugenia leave followed by Samantha’s family.
As they waited, there were questions asked and people wondered.
“Did she watch the sunrise?” Petra asked. “Could she still be outside?”
They looked at him.
“She was not on the bench in the Witches’ Garden this morning. I went there because I wanted to speak with her.”
Maia raised an eyebrow, as did Nina, but thankfully they did not ask anything further.
“She was not by the cabinet,” Eugenia announced when she returned. “Does anyone remember anything that Samantha may have said of where she might go this morning?”
Some shrugged, others shook their head.
“Where has she been? What did she enjoy?” Samantha’s mother asked.
“Besides the garden, she enjoys being in the Sacred Grove but I would have passed her if she had been in the temple,” Cassian answered.
“I will go search,” Nina announced. “I know the grove better than anyone.” She rose from the table and exited with her husband, Orion, before anyone could object. Not that they would.
“What of Iza?” Ajax asked. “You took her there.”
“She gave no indication that she wanted to return.”
“What was told to her?” Samantha’s father demanded.
“That she has an old soul,” Cassian answered. “We had been talking about the silver in her hair and she wondered if it was true, about having an old soul.”
