Before Paddy could answer, Regulus streaked across the room and slammed his hand down on a button on the wall. Several loudthunksreverberated throughout the house, and Sameen yelped softly from where she’d been dozing in Peter’s arms.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Peter murmured. “Just Regulus making sure the house is protected from the sun.”
“The ancient one is right,” the vampire said, his voice strained as he rested his hand on Ewan’s shoulder. The young, newly made vampire looked downright exhausted, his face ashen and a pained expression twisting his features. “Dawn approaches rapidly, and we do not know how long the magic that allows me to walk in the sun will last. The youngling has no such boon, and he—more than I—needs to go to ground to rest. We will leave at dusk.”
“Hell, no.” Cade strode over to the vampire and drew up to his full height. “They could be torturing Mara right now. Killing her. We can’t wait.”
The pure agony of knowing he couldn’t help his mate, couldn’t do a damn thing without Regulus’s plane, without his pack, ate away at him, making him feel less and less like an alpha every second.
“Cade?” Eli staggered to his feet, and the strain in his voice mirrored his posture. “That casting to locate Mara was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I need to rest if I’m going to be any help at all freeing her.”
“We’re all exhausted,” Farren added. “We’re no use to her if we’re too tired to shift or even stand up.”
“And what if they kill her before tonight?” Cade ran a hand through his shaggy locks, staring up at the ceiling and letting out a mournful howl. “She’s out there, suffering. And we’re supposed to what? Sleep? Under thousand thread-count sheets in a fucking mansion while she’s probably in some dungeon two hundred miles away, alone and in pain?”
Eli snagged the practitioner’s book from the table and flipped it open. “Yes. Because look at these pages. After that blasted sigil inked itself on my arm, the symbols here started to make sense.”
Cade stared at the yellowing parchment. The symbols of the four elements surrounded a rough sketch of a woman standing on the top of a mountain. Chains bound her arms wide, and above her head, a waxing moon.
The moon had set only a few minutes ago, and Cade instinctivelyknewthat its fullness would match that of the drawing tonight. Not long after midnight.
The next page showed the same woman, no longer standing but slumped in the chains, with the symbol they’d all come to associate with spirit—the triskele, three distinct sets of swirls arranged around a center point—above her head.
“They’re going to perform the ceremony tonight.” The book slipped from Cade’s hands, and Eli caught it, then passed it to Farren, who scanned the page and handed the tome to Peter. “Isn’t that all the more reason to go now? What if we leave at dusk and we’re wrong about where they’re holding her? We’ll lose any chance to regroup and try again.”
Paddy shook his head. “Ya’ were only meant to have one chance.” He pulled up his sleeve to reveal the sigil inked on his skin. Pressing a frail, bony finger to the broken part of the circle, he shuddered. “Old Paddy has seen many an end. Over and under, again and again. Ne’re can water, earth, nor air, find the path without their pair. True love’s flame can never die, but not all is seen with the eye. On this night he holds no fear, for victory comes when truth is clear.”
“What the bloody fuck is that supposed to mean?” Farren asked. “Ye’re goin’ to die?” She shook her head. “No. I won’t let ya’.”
“Ya’ do not have a choice, lass. This is the way.” Paddy’s wrinkled lips curved slightly, showing at least three missing teeth before turning to Cade. “Never will be whole,” he said and tapped his nose, “until evil leaves this world. Paddy sees now. Ya’ aren’t alone. None of ya’ are.”
With that, he rose, swayed on his feet, and shuffled towards the stairs. “Paddy knows where to go.” Halfway to the second floor, he added, “To bed.”
Cade sank down on the couch the old man had been lying on and dropped his head into his hands. “Fine. But we’re leaving the second it’s dark enough for Regulus and Ewan to be safe.”
Farren took Eli’s arm, and Peter helped Sameen to her feet. Everyone headed for their rooms until only Liam remained.
“I trust ye’re not goin’ to boost one of the vampire’s cars and try todriveto Skye, right?”
“I’d crash before I made it five miles.” Cade pushed up with a groan. “I don’t remember the last time I slept.”
“My Caitlin can help with that.” Liam slung an arm around Cade’s shoulders and guided him towards the stairs. Cade bristled at the idea, but Liam let out a low growl. Almost challenging. “Ya’ keep sayin’ that family sticks, Cade. But that’s not all family does. We trust one another. And we ask for help when we need it. Ya’ taught all of us that...more than once over the past year. Ye’re knackered, and we need to be at our best when we go up against those bastards. Let me get Caitlin for ya’.”
Though the idea of anyone drugging or charming him ever again left Cade with an icy ball of fear sinking in his gut, his beta was right. Without rest, he’d fail his mate, and then...he’d lose everything.
* * *
Sameen
She was starting to find her bearings. The room Peter brought her to was across from Farren’s. Her whole body ached from exhaustion and whatever Eli’s casting had done to her, and the Thirteen’s brand felt raw. With every step, her t-shirt rubbed over the skin, sending sparks of pain all through her.
Peter stood awkwardly by the bed as Sameen untied her shoes. “I can sleep in the chair in the corner.”
Her head snapped up, so quickly, the room spun around her. “Wh-what?”
“You’re exhausted, sweetheart.” He cupped her cheek and skated his thumb just under her eye. “I would spend every single second next to you if I could. But you need to rest.”
“I want you to hold me.” Six words. Words she wasn’t sure she could say until they came out of her mouth. She squinted up at him in the dim light from the bedside lamp. “You make me feel safe.” With a shiver, she wobbled to her feet. “I just need a minute.”
