Did he know my mother? My mouth went bone dry, and it was my turn to be at a loss for words.
But the former Midnight king wasn’t paying attention to me gaping like a codfish. Instead, he put two fingers to his lips and blew an ear-splitting loud whistle. “Mackay!”
Uncle Mackay!I’d forgotten he was dead too! Spinning around, my excitement drained as I watched my uncle walk toward me, holding hands with a woman … who looked exactly like me.My mother? She had to be. Like me, she was tall and slender with long, silvery-white hair and covered in high mage marks. But … why was she holding hands with my uncle? Why wouldmy uncleand my mother…?
The second my mother saw my face, the color drained from hers, which was saying something considering she was a ghost.
My attention jumped back to their entwined hands, and my stomach turned to stone.
“No,” I breathed, backing up and nearly knocking into Honor.
Uncle Mackay and my mother? I shook my head in disbelief. Either my mother and my uncle had some Realm of the Dead love affair or … or … Uncle Mackay was actually my father…
I gasped, and my mind reeled.
It would explain so much. Like, why my dad had no pictures with my mom, why he never spoke of her, and why he never wanted to talk about what happened. Did he, the man who’d raised me—the man I’d always considered my father—was he my dad? Did he know what had happened? Did he knowIwas the high crime?
My mom and Uncle Mackay both started running, arms out, reaching for me. Suddenly, I didn’t care about who’d raised me or what really happened or anything. I just wanted to hug them.
“Mom!” I took off running across the grass, tears streaming down my face as my chest heaved, threatening to explode from the emotions rocking me. “Uncle Mackay!”
I never knew them, and yet … I did. All of my father’s stories about them centered around their love for me. So even if I didn’t know them, I loved them. We were all grinning, inches from each other. My heart was so full that I burst into laughter and leapt into the air, preparing to be wrapped in the best hug ever…
And then I was falling.
“No!” I screamed, reaching out as I flailed through empty space.
The light dimmed; blackness stole my vision.
My feet slammed to the ground, jarring my entire being. Screams and howls filled my ears. Acrid smoke singed my nostrils, and I opened my eyes, only to have them burn and fill with moisture from the heavy soot and smoke as well as my emotional pain.
I blinked, turning in a circle, and time seemed to stand still as I took in the destruction and rubble, trying to catch my bearings.
Through the hazy darkness and glowing embers, I spied Rage on my left, holding his ribs. We were back in the magic lands, but… Was this Dark Row?
I glanced down and recognized the white silk of Madame Surlama’s tent. As understanding dawned, I raised my gaze and took in the heavy cloud of smoke where Dark Row had been.
It wasgone.
All of it.
No way.
The Keeper had snapped us back to the magic lands, and now every single tent and stall appeared to be destroyed or burning.
Singed shreds of Madame Surlama’s tent lay at my feet amidst broken shards of glass and pottery. Several crumbling coals glowed red, giving us enough light to make out details. I kicked over a stained chunk of a clay jar and my guts twisted. The fragment was labeled “Virg—” and on the next line: “Blo—”
I didn’t need a Ph.D. in linguistics or even have psychic abilities to know what that was. Madame Surlama wouldn’t have just let that go.Who did this?
The stalls of spices, meat, bread, and all the other things sold in Dark Row … gone.
The scorched ground smoked, and all around us embers glowed through the silty darkness of night.
A high-pitched scream cut off suddenly, and three figures raced past us. The sharp popping of bullets pierced the air.
Holy crap!
I crouched as Rage pulled me into himself. The smoke hung too thick for me to see very far, and my heart rate picked up double-time when the lumbering form of a large bear shifter passed us followed by two Alpha Island guards chasing after him.
