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I materialized beside him, barely solid, my form wavering at the edges like smoke in the wind, the changeling’s returned pieces of my life had given me something of a form back. But Angel’s fear crashed into mine—raw, desperate, and defeated.

The place was a three-ring circus of death. Body bags lined up like dominoes. Forensics teams in their white suits crawling over everything. Cops everywhere, most of them looking like they wished they were anywhere else. And Victor, looming at Angel’s shoulder like a very pale, very intense statue with super pointy teeth, projected disdain.

I couldn’t see the danger. Not even with a vampire at his back, and Nox’s energy pulsing from Angel, likely curled up in a tattoo form on his back. Hiding, but aware.

Then Angel turned to me, eyes wide. “Ivan is missing.”

“What?” Ivan was missing? How? He was supposed to be guarded by a supernatural badass and his immortal goons. “How? Where?”

Nox exploded from beneath Angel’s collar, all fur and indignation, and launched himself onto my shoulder. His weight made me stagger.

Victor took a step back, his gaze tracking the cat. Had he not seen Nox before? Could he see me?

Victor’s eyes met mine for a fraction of a second, then slid away, unfocused. Maybe he’d seen Nox materialize and then vanish again. That would probably spook me too.

Nox kneaded my shoulder, claws pricking through fabric that wasn’t quite solid.

“Not helping,” I grumbled at him. “My brother is missing.”

He meowed. It sounded like disagreement.

Victor grabbed the phone from Angel, hitting the button for the speaker. “Xavier,” Victor said evenly. “From the beginning.”

“Sylas walked him home from the community center.”

“It’s less than two blocks,” Angel snarled, his shoulders tight as coiled wire. I clamped my hand around his wrist. He shuddered at the sudden chill, but it did nothing to cool the fury burning beneath his skin.

“Sylas said the fog came out of nowhere,” Xavier continued, voice strained. “One second, clear sky. The next, thick as wool. It swallowed Ivan whole. When it lifted, he was gone. Even his scent—vanished. Like the mist washed him out of the world.”

Silence pooled around us, heavy and cold. Wade and Ezra appeared, gazes questioning. Remi slid into the edge of our circle with the glow of magic in his palm. His magic protecting our privacy.

“How can fog blind a kitsune?” Victor asked. “Can’t they track magic?”

“The fog erased any scent of him, or any lingering magic,” Xavier said through clenched teeth.

What did that mean for Ivan?

A choked sound tore from my throat, half fury, half terror. I wished I could lunge through the phone and shake the demigod on the other end. Shake the whole damn world until it coughed my brother back up.

“We’ll find him,” Angel promised.

“Everyone is already searching,” Xavier said, his voice tight. “Wolves, cats, the kitsunes. Every available shifter within my ward is tracking the air, the ground, the rain. There’s no trail. No scent-line. Nothing yet.”

Angel growled. “You’re fated to him! Can’t you feel him? Pull on whatever cosmic string ties you together and find him!”

“We are not bound,” Xavier bit out, each word sharp and final. “There is no tie. Fate is a direction, not a tether. I cannot feel what isn’t there.”

What if it was Erlik? What if he’d thrown Ivan into a jar to dissolve, too?

Or the changeling—who would nibble away at him until there was nothing left of my brother to save. Leaving him like one of those dust motes of shattered emotions and forgotten memories. The handful that had followed me through the Veil and were currently taunting Nox as he swiped at them from my shoulder.

“I won’t let my brother become a permanent cat toy,” I snarled.

No one heard me but Angel, and my comment seemed to confuse him.

Nox pressed his head against my jaw, nipping my chin.

“We’re on our way,” Angel snarled into the phone. “I’ll pull the entire SED if I have to.”