Just like that, the space where it had been collapsed in on itself as the last trace of it vanished into nothing as I roared in anger.
For what seemed like the longest time, I didn’t move or speak. Because for one precise moment, everything in me went unnaturally still. The kind of silence that only came when something fundamental shifted into place. Then it broke, not outwardly but deep beneath my skin as something dark settled. The cold pieces aligning with a clarity that left no room for doubt.
This hadn’t been random or a coincidence, it had been planned, and she had been at the center of it. No matter how desperately I wanted to believe she had acted against her will, that she hadn’t chosen to leave me, it was the last thing she said that shattered that hope completely.
‘I’m sorry’
I exhaled once before turning away from the empty space where the portal had been, my focus narrowing instantly to what remained rather than what she had taken from me.
Because my emotions could wait.
Answers could not.
Which was why my gaze moved across the bathroom again, sharper this time, stripping it back piece by piece and dismissing anything that did not belong to the moment. And that was when I saw two things that didn’t belong. The first was a file, one I recognized that shouldn’t have been anywhere near her possession.
I didn’t need to open it to know what it confirmed, although it looked as though it had been crushed in someone’s hands. The papers curled and creased before being carelessly discarded on the counter beside the sink. Of course, I recognized it instantly, the last place I had seen it was my desk in the office at the heart of the city, which left only one question… how had it ended up in my girl’s hands?
A low snarl curled through me at the thought of a certain demon, the one who had clearly been pulling her strings from the very start. And while anger burned within me, it was no longer the only thing crawling beneath my skin. Something else had begun to surface alongside it, something unfamiliar, yet undeniable. A sliver of something I was not arrogant enough to misname…Guilt.
Because I could only imagine how reading that file must have made her feel. Her entire life reduced to sheets of paper; I had made it my mission to uncover. An intrusion she would have every right to resent, and one I could not deny was mine.
I shook the useless emotions from my mind once more, knowing it wouldn’t change things now. So, my focus shifted lower, drawn by something far less obvious this time. A small, torn scrap of paper abandoned on the floor as though it had been discarded in haste or left behind by something that had not required it anymore. I crossed the space without thinking, crouching as I reached for it, my fingers closing around the fragment as my gaze locked onto the marking etched across its surface.
It was only a small piece, incomplete, yet distinct enough that something in me reacted instantly. A sharp, intrusive flicker that pushed against my thoughts, as though recognition hovered just beyond reach. It pressed there, insistent, like a memory I couldn’t quite grasp, no matter how hard I forced my mind to chase it.
It was a partial symbol, but even without identifying it, I knew exactly what it was. A direction, or more importantly…a trail to follow.
I straightened slowly, the paper still held between my fingers as Torin’s voice cut in, low and steady.
“What is it?”
My gaze remained on the marking for a moment longer before I answered, my tone even, although there was no mistaking the weight behind it now.
“Her means of escape,” I answered, my tone like ice as I walked from the room, knowing there was nothing left for me there, not without her. Because she had become the very purpose of it, the reason the space had ever held meaning at all. The time we had shared the night before and into that morning had been everything. Something I had no intention of denying and certainly no desire to lessen. But now, with her gone, the room felt wrong, empty in a way that only confirmed what I already knew. That it had never been the space that mattered, only her.
So, I wasted no time already barking orders, although with someone in my life as efficient as Torin, I needn't have bothered.
“I want this entire city searched, all the places she might have gone, her home included.”
“I’ve already got our people heading out now. Do you want me to put surveillance on her mother’s shop?” I shook my head and told him,
“No, we will go ourselves, as I think it’s time…”
“I introduce myself.”
22
PROTECTING FAMILY
The car moved through the city with speed, yet knowing I would get there sooner did nothing to quiet the storm building beneath my skin. Because stillness felt wrong in that moment. Especially when every instinct in me demanded movement. Demanded I take to the skies and search for her myself rather than remain confined to a seat while she was out there beyond my reach.
Of course, my mind was completely occupied with thoughts of her. Consumed by my Siren and our short time together,including last night.
She had been utter perfection, despite what she might have feared in the beginning. Of course, I had never intended for anything to happen between us that evening. I had known how nervous she had been, felt it in the way her body had tensed beneath my touch. Also, in the hesitation behind her breaths. Which was why I had been more than prepared to give her time. To let her find her footing at her own pace, because simply having her there in my arms had already been enough.
But I hadn’t anticipated the shift that followed in the wake of her nightmare, one that had clearly shaken her. Nor had Iexpected the way she had turned toward me afterward, choosing not to retreat but to close the distance instead. Her touch had been uncertain at first yet deliberate in a way that tested every ounce of restraint I possessed. Because she had been the one to kiss me this time. The one to reach for me, and I had never known control like it. Not when everything in me had demanded I take more, claim more. Yet I had held back, forcing myself to give her space even as she slowly stripped it away.
And when the moment had begun to deepen, her touch growing bolder, I had been the one to pull back. Not because I hadn’t wanted her, but because I had known she was vulnerable. That I knew fear still lingered beneath her skin, and I would not have taken advantage of that. But then she had said it, that she did not want to disappoint me, and with that, whatever restraint I had left had fractured completely. Because the idea that she believed she could ever be anything less than perfect in my eyes had been enough to unravel the last thread of control I held.
