What little furniture came with the rental house has been shoved out of the living room to free up space. Paper after paper have been taped onto the walls and carefully spread across the floor, flagged with colored sticky notes. If anyone were to walk in here, they’d think I’d officially snapped, when in reality, I’m seeing everything clearly for the first time.
When surrounded by chaos, you can embrace it without question, run from it, or break it down piece by piece until you find the method to the madness.
“Nikita Hargrove?”
Through my phone lying halfway across the room, I can hear the faint sound of Raiden’s fingers flying across his keyboard before he announces, “Deceased.”
Making a note on the Hargrove family tree on the wall, I scan it thoroughly for any loose threads I may have missed, but all of the females have been accounted for. Moving onto the next, I use my capped pen to trace each offshooting branch before seeing a couple of names I recognize and call out, “Who did the Bryher legion’s daughter end up mated off to?”
“Do you have a first name?”
“No, we have another gap. Mother is Sasha Bryher.”
A few minutes later he replies, “No daughter, they had a son. Quinn.” Another couple of seconds and he adds, “Deceased; parents, too.”
Frowning, I pause, tapping my pen against the paper. “I’msureI remember hearing they were having a girl. They were one of the few legions that didn’t completely lock their mate away from the world, but as soon as word spread that they were having a daughter and dragons started drifting into town like damn vultures, they moved away in the middle of the night without a word. It was all anyone could talk about for months, but then I relocated for work, and,” I trail off, looking around in a slow circle at the staggering number of elementals that have come and gone in the past ten thousand years, and how few of us are actually left. The crippling loss resonates through the aching void in my blackened soul, guilt violently twisting my stomach.
“Looks like the whole family died the same day, listed as a wild animal attack.” Raiden’s voice perks up at the end, dragging me out of my reverie.
“Either they hid the fact that they had a daughter as well, or-”
“Or they listed her as a son to make her easier to hide,” he finishes with a singular harsh exhalation laden with tentative hope.
Running my fingers through my snarled hair, the wheels begin turning in earnest. “If I’m remembering correctly, Gideon and Jasper Bryher were both military, had formal training. Taking one by surprise I could see, but both? Not to mention her other fathers?” I grimace. “We’re looking at a legion, not a lone dragon. That helps narrow down the suspect pool a little, at least.” My heart sinks as the full weight of the implications hits me. “How long do you think they had Amara before she managed to escape?”
Reluctantly, Raiden hazards a guess. “If those scars you described were from their hands, I’d assume minimally six months, but more likely it was years.” He pauses, and I give him the time to center himself without interruption. “No matter how resourceful she might be, I'm inclined to think they enjoy toying with her. I can't imagine at leastoneof them wouldn't have caught up with her in all this time otherwise.”
“You know what desperation can do to drive a person after that bloodbath you lead us on to save your sister.”
A dark, low sound promising murder escapes Raiden, but by the time he speaks, his tone is carefully controlled again. “I know. If they catch her before we can convince her to trust us to help, Amara might never see the light of day again.”
Chapter 7
Kodiak
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