I believed him. People were desperate in the outer city. Mateo and I had spent some time there a few decades ago, but our focus as of late had been on the Lycan packs who lived on the outskirts.
“I do not believe she is safe there,” he finished.
“In the outer city?”
“No. In that house.”
An image flashed before my eyes, pushed from his mind to mine. A peeling yellow house with broken shutters and fabric over the windows with a mean-looking woman standing in front of the door—a woman I’d seen before in fragments of Adrienne’s thoughts. My neck prickled at the expression on the woman’s face and the way in his memory my mate’s shoulders caved in on themselves.
I was struck with indecision. Did I fight the rising paralysis of dawn? For the first time I cursed that I had learned to sleep with the sun and given in to its drugging power.
“I’ll go back to keep an eye out,” Ralph said.
The shattered pieces of my heart throbbed. “Thank you.”
We were both too tense for me to grip his hand or shoulder like I wanted, so we settled for nodding at one another before he raced back to the carriage where Bernard was tending to the horses.
“I’ll meet you tomorrow night,” I called.
He lifted his hand in acknowledgment before jumping onto the driver’s bench and setting out again. I ran my hands through my hair, fisted the roots and bent at the waistwhile I roared.
A flock of birds darted from a nearby tree, all the humming insects went quiet, and farther off Ralph’s horses gave a startled whinny. Bernard watched impassively from the drive with his arms crossed in front of his barrel chest. “Feel better?”
I glared at him, but he shrugged and dusted off his arms before disappearing. With another growl I stalked into the manor, the image of Adrienne cowed by her own mother burned into my mind. I wanted to tear apart the walls stone by stone, to shatter each window and set it all ablaze.
Her music room I would leave intact. A beautiful pianoforte surrounded by ruins.
By the time I made it to my bedchamber and the balcony, my rage had not quieted even if the outburst had. It crawled beneath my skin with sharp pincers and venomous bites, taking chunks of my control with it. I took a deep breath, the burn of cold heavy on the wind, and then another, and another. Yet nothing could quell the fury inside my heart.
A pulse of consciousness reached out to me. Foolishly, I thought it might be Adrienne. But the tenor of this mind was so anguished I knew it could only belong to one person. Callum appeared in a gust of wind, his head of white-blond hair shining in the dark as he landed beside me on the balcony.
He stumbled and I surged forward to steady him, searching his stricken face. “What is it?”
A wheeze slipped through his lips and I drew him close, cradling the back of his head as if he were merely a boy. Though he tensed at first, his body conditioned to fight, after a moment he relaxed into the embrace. His hands fisted in my shirt as he drew away and I saw there the same expression I’d seen in the mirror.
Longing.
Desire.
Worship.
Desperation.
His pain was kindred because it was the pain I carried within myself. But it was also different—there was already a connection between his blood mate and him. They carried a bond Adrienne and I never would. The envy coated my tongue in ash before I swallowed it back, touching his cheek.
“Who?” But I already knew, didn’t I?
Callum’s head dipped as he finally released the weight of a secret he had carried for so long. “Lilith…Lilith Searah.”
I drew him once again into my embrace. His body jerked with sobs, blood tears seeping into the fabric of my shirt. My nephew sent images to me: the human who had been murdered tonight on a stone altar in the name of All Souls, Mael’s looming presence and madness, his questions, and the violation of his magic within Callum’s mind. Each vision was another piece of my heart breaking again until I was sure there was nothing left.
“You will keep her safe,” I breathed, stroking his hair.
“I do not know how.” Another broken sob wrenched from his chest and I gripped his shoulders so I could see his face. Blood streaked his pale cheeks, face twisted in agony.
“You do,” I all but growled. “You have gotten this far and you will go farther.”
He shook his head, gripping my wrists. “You do not understand.”
