“Yeah, I guess,” I agree, although he and I haven’t had much time to talk, not with people chatting me up every five minutes and keeping us apart.
Isolde bites her glossed bottom lip, focused on whatever has her attention. Before I can follow her gaze, she walks off. “Be right back.”
Ry’s eyes remain fixed on Jax. “Wendy’s been pressuring him about the daemons. She’s desperate to find the gateway they’re using to get here before the Glaucus Precinct evaluation next month. It doesn’t look good that outside forces from Borealis have been brought in to handle this.”
The Council’s pressuring Wendy to solve this daemon case before the wedding, but something’s off. These daemons are different—harder to track, more elusive—like something magical is hiding the gateway they are using to get here. The Council doesn’t want to hear that, though. To them, facts are just excuses. They’ve thrown money at Wendy’s Blades, thinking that’ll fix everything, but you can’t just buy your way out of a supernatural problem. Meanwhile, Jax is drowning in work, and having Soter—who he can’t stand—on his turf isn’t helping anyone.
Ry straightens. “Incoming.”
Jax joins our group. Finding Leigh will have to come later; I need to check on my friend first. “What did Wendy say?” I ask.
“Wendy? Oh, she’s tired and pissed as hell,” Jax replies, half-heartedly.
“Another daemon sighting?”
Jax shakes his head. His eyes look guarded, but he blinks and is all smiles and laughs. “I thought we had strict orders not to bring you work stuff?” he teases.
I frown. “If there is a problem, I deserve to know. So does Leigh.”
“Last I checked, you retired.” He plucks invisible lint off his gold paisley dinner jacket. “Sorry, buddy, but what Wendy tells me is classified, and you’re not married to the queen yet.”
My expression hardens. “Jackass.”
Jax laughs, but it quickly fades as someone steals his attention. I’m nearly to the point of grabbing him by the shoulders and demanding answers.
“There you guys are.”
My sister wears a revealing red dress that matches her crimson eyes. “I didn’t know Leigh was such a big fan of pink.”
Jax’s throat bobs. “Hi, Desi.”
Desiree smiles. They may be exes, but they still talk regularly. Like me, she hasn’t seen Jax face-to-face in a while. He hardly comes back to Borealis these days, almost as if he’s hiding up here in the mountains. “Jax, can you believe we weren’t seated together at dinner? I had to make small talk with that tiresome Felicity woman. She kept telling me my drinking blood was making her lose her appetite. I almost bit her just to shut her up!”
“You look well, Jaxson,” Vane says. My sister’s vampire mate, who stands taller than Jax, is dressed in a flashy green-black suit and layers of ancient gold jewelry. He makes everyone, including me, look underdressed. Jax’s eyes immediately losetheir brightness, and his confident stance wavers. Honestly, I’ve never seen him so on edge. Is something going on beyond the case?
“You too,” Jax mumbles, and I wince at his disingenuous tone.
Vane pulls Desi close and kisses her temple. She grins like the luckiest girl in the world while Jax’s face goes ashen.
I can’t watch this; it’s just too painful. Jax looks like a wounded animal. Is Desi the reason he’s been acting strange? Last I checked, he had a boyfriend. Did that end?
I’ll ask him about it when we are alone later.
“I’ll be right back,” I say as I step away from the group.
Grabbing a smooth pink ribbon from one of the flower arrangements, I wrap it around my hand, tighter and tighter. Time to catch my bride.
I leave the ballroom,but Leigh isn’t in the hallway. She probably went to bed like she threatened, though I’d hoped to catch her first. This maze of a castle has at least a hundred rooms—I can’t believe she called it a chalet.
I turn the corner toward Leigh’s bedroom, and centuries-old stone walls rise on both sides of me. My mom paces the hallway with her phone pressed to her ear. Her brown hair flows down the back of her butter-yellow column dress, a welcome contrast to the harsh braid she usually wears at the hospital. She doesn’t notice me.
“Yes, I received the scans,” Mom says to whoever’s on the other line.
My jaw clenches. Is she working?
“You were right to call me. It looks?—”
I clear my throat, and Mom’s shoulders tense. She made me a promise. No work during my wedding. I should never have expected her to follow through. Work is all she’s ever done. Slowly, she turns around, her smile wavering. “Doctor Crux, let me call you back,” she says, ending the call with the Altum Healer.
