Rubbing his thumb across his bottom lip that still tingled with the memory of her kiss, he inclined his head to her.I’ll take care of summoning my friend.
She gasped as he sent that thought to her.
The fact that Masakage wasn’t in his head, asking him what he’d said only confirmed what he knew.
His brother wasn’t here.
And that infuriated him. But at least he knew Masakage was a survivor. They might have him for a moment…
Gods help them when he regained his feet. His brother didn’t go down without a massively brutal fight.
Which made him wonder what sick game this was. What shifter would dare impersonate Masakage?
And why?
Not that it mattered. He would find his brother, and he would skin this imposter alive.
With that thought in mind, he headed for his horse and pulled out one of Candara’s potions and the small whistle he’d been given years ago.
The whistle was part of a relay set up for him specifically by Ronan.
Unlike the others, I know you won’t use this unless you really need to.
Because Ronan understood that it physically hurt for Xaydin to reach out to others for help. The only reason he was doing this now was for his brother.
For Gisela.
“What are you doing?” the imposter asked.
Masakage would have known the answer. “I’m letting Dash know that we’re on our way,” he lied.
He locked gazes with Gisela who inclined her head to him to let him know that she was in agreement with whatever he sought to do.
They were united in this.
Whatever was going on, they’d get to the bottom of it.
Discreetly, he blew the whistle, knowing that even here it’d travel to whatever fowl creature heard it and they would relay the call to Ronan who’d find him.
In the meantime…
He pulled out one of Candara’s strongest potions. The purple liquid swirled. This would taste disgusting. Why she couldn’t make an appetizing potion was beyond him. Sometimes he wondered if she took pleasure in making them as nasty as possible.
Shivering at the thought of tasting it, he steeled his taste buds and took a drink of it.
As expected, it was akin to drinking sludge shat out of the back end of something dying.
It took everything he had not to gag.
You owe me, brother.
While he knew it would be powerful, what he didn’t expect was the way it would slam into his stomach like a fist and cause him to fall to his knees.
Thankfully, his horse was used to such. But Gisela rushed to his side.
“Are you all right?”
He couldn’t answer. His consciousness was being stripped from his body and sent out toward Masakage’s.
