Oh, mates! Where are you? Theo wondered.
“Theodore Justin Bailey,” Bywater said again. “You will come with me.”
“No!” Theo yelled. Okay, no mates coming to his rescue. “Let me go! What did you do to Garrett?”
Bywater’s eyes narrowed before he threw a third orb. Hitting Bo and covering him with black goo.
“Stop it!” Theo demanded. The asshole needed to stop throwing things at Theo’s friends. The only people that were by his side when Theo needed them. He turned to where Steve stood still smiling. “Why?”
Steve shrugged. “When the unseelie king sends you to recon in the human realm in the form of a tree, it’s just something you do.”
“You will be paid handsomely,” Bywater said. “Just as promised.”
“What about Josh?” Theo asked Steve.
“My goody-goody cousin?” Steve laughed. “He thought he was so special getting permission to go to the human realm to study at the university. Boring! I just need some money and I can make my own way there. And I won’t have to do chores around a mansion to keep my status.”
“Josh earned his place into the human realm,” Theo argued. “He’s proud.”
“He is still tethered to his vow to serve the chosen,” Steve replied. “I serve no one!”
That was the stupidest thing that Theo had ever heard. Even if Theo was still ignorant about the supernatural and this world that he found himself part of, he would have known making a deal with the bad guys would end up biting him in the ass. Theo waved a hand toward the men in front of them. “Are you sure about that?”
“Enough!” Bywater demanded. “Titus, take him!”
Again Theo tried to fight, but his feet would not move. Another dark-cloaked figure stepped up. This fae was intimidating. He was almost as big as Mitch. If he got hold of Theo, it was all over for him.
“Don’t come near me!” Theo ordered. “My mates will come for me!”
Bywater laughed. “Your mates have their own journey ahead of them. I wouldn’t worry about them. Well, I would worry, but they won’t be coming for you. Not before the unseelie king gets ahold of you.”
Theo glared, not really having an argument against that. Did that mean his mates were there or not? Had they been summoned somewhere else? Was Theo really in this all alone?
Titus, who must be Bywater’s henchman or something—he totally gave Theo henchman vibes—stepped in front of him and blew a blue powder into his face. Theo tried not to breathe in but was falling before he could blink.
* * * * *
Alek
“Why can’t we just cross?” Wylder demanded.
Alek shook his head, keeping his eyes on the water below the bridge. There should be a troll guarding their passage. If the trolls were asleep for the night, it was going to be a long wait.
“Hello!” Alek called for the third time.
“I can fly over,” Dario suggested.
“It’s not safe,” Mitch told him. “You know that. You could get stuck in your other form. It’s a miracle you were able to shift back once already.”
Dario nodded. Alek wanted to check on his mate but trolls were tricky and he needed to be prepared for an attack. Dario shouldn’t have shifted during the battle although he had saved their lives.
The beasts would have torn them apart. Even as good of fighters as he and Mitch were, they had been facing a rapid pack. If they hadn’t been killed, they would have been badly hurt. Someone had set the worst of the worse after them.
Alek was sick just thinking of what Theo might have faced.
And now they had a troll bridge keeping them from finding their little mate.
“Let’s just try it.” Wylder pushed past Alek to step onto the bridge.
