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She’d vanished completely.
“Zinnia’s due back in less than a week,” Mags said. “She wouldn’t miss that, she’d be here.”
Jasmine always spent the days before organizing something for her sister—a party, a girls’ night…fucking something—then she’d wait for her to walk out of the forest. She wouldn’t miss that. The fact she wasn’t here now, planning her sister’s homecoming, said more to me than anything else could. No matter what she thought about me, she wouldn’t ignore everyone else, and she wouldn’t miss the opportunity to make a fuss over her sister coming home.
Iris stiffened. “You think something else is going on?”
“None of this feels right,” Rose said, her face going pale. “But I just assumed…” Her gaze slid to me.
They’d all thought the same thing, that she was staying the hell away from me, that she needed time to herself to heal.
“No, you’re right. This isn’t about her needing space, she wouldn’t let us worry like this. Something’s seriously wrong,” Mags said. “I think someone or something is stopping her from contacting us.”
Daisy grabbed Art’s hand. “Who would do that?
“Fuck.” Willow stood. “And she definitely said nothing during your sessions, anything, some kind of clue of where she could be?”
I shoved my fingers through my hair. “If she had, I would’ve said.”
“Shit, I know,” she said, her hands shaking. “I’m just…fuck.”
I glanced at Mags. She nodded. They needed to know everything.
“There’s something you don’t know,” Mags said. “She wasn’t just looking for those missing souls because she wanted to help Zinny, she was searching because when they were at Limbo’s gate, Death demanded Jasmine find them, he said if she didn’t, there was a risk Zinnia could be stuck there.”
“Goddamn it,” Else said.
“She knew there was nothing anyone else could do, so she kept it to herself. Only me, Bram, and Ren knew about it. We did what we could to help.”
“While she was looking, she talked to some powerful people,” I said. “And I just have this feeling…”
“You think someone she talked to did something?” Willow said, the horror in her voice, on her face, almost sending me over the edge.
“I don’t know.” I didn’t know fucking anything and I was on the verge of losing my fucking mind. The mating bond, the connection between us had been growing and strengthening by the day when she’d been here, but now? “She’s still alive, I feel it, but it’s…the connection’s muted.” Similar to the last time she passed out, but so fucking faint now it terrified me. I clung to it, like I had that night in her bedroom. It was my lifeline, because if I could still feel it, no matter how faint, it meant she was still alive. She was still breathing—she was still with me.
Bram nodded, the other males in the room nodded, grunted, obviously knowing what I was describing from having mates of their own. It didn’t matter that we weren’t officially mated, I’d spent enough time with her, holding her, kissing her, inside her, that we were connected on a deeper level.
“Family’s everything to her,” Daisy said, lips quivering. “She wouldn’t just leave…oh goddess.”
No, she wouldn’t; not even to escape me. If she could come home, she would have, I was positive of that.
“We’re still hunting for her,” Warrick said. “And we won’t stop until she’s home.”
The hounds were born trackers, with abilities that went beyond using scent to find their target, and so far, they’d had no luck either.
“I know we assumed she was concealing herself, but I think wherever she is, there’s some kind of power masking her,” Willow said.
“I think you’re right,” Mags said and stood. “Me and Bram will head to Agatheena’s. She might be able to help us.”
The witch boasted that she knew everything; I only hoped she felt compelled to prove it, because Jasmine was in trouble. I knew it down to my bones.
“We need to widen our search,” Iris said.
Draven nodded. “I’ll get the pack to search the forest. If she’s in there, we’ll find her.”
“And I’m gonna hunt down every person she’s been in contact with over the last couple of weeks,” I said.
“Everyone keep in contact,” Willow said.
