Roman’s phone rings, and he storms from the room to answer it. Some of the tension in the room leaves with him. I turn back to Nevin who is sitting in the corner, slumped in a chair, looking guilty.
“What can I do?” he asks me, and I bite back my retort. It's not his fault she’s gone. It’s mine. I should have fought her stubborn ass. If she’d been with me like I planned, this wouldn’t have happened. I never should have let her out of my sight.
“Nothing,” I tell him, running a hand through my hair. “Go home, clean up, heal up. I’ll let you know if we need you.” He looks defeated at my words, but nods and stands.
“I really am sorry.” His words are barely out of his mouth when he leaves the room without a backwards look.
“Do you think he’s telling us the truth?” Kain asks, and the niggle of doubt in me grows.
“I don’t see why he wouldn’t, but at this point I trust almost no one. I’ll get Serafina to track him. She hates him enough that she’d tell me if she found anything,” I tell him, and he nods, trusting my judgment, which is more than I have for myself right now. The guilt from all of this is killing me slowly. I pull my phone from my pocket and send Serafina a coded message, she responds quickly with an affirmative to the command.
“We need to do something, I can’t just sit here and wait for someone to come back with answers,” Kain stresses as he paces.
“Gather your people together. I get the feeling that this is what Marie's vision was building to. We’re going to need every body we can get when the time comes, but she’s still alive, my friend. We’d know if she was gone for good.”
He nods at me and leaves the room, putting his phone to his ear, doing what he does best. Rallying his people.
I might not have always liked him, but he is a good leader. The best his kind could have asked for. I move back over to Marie and Creek who are flicking through books and marking spots on the giant maps we have laid out in here.
“Ley lines,” Creek says without even looking up from the book he’s reading. “This is going to take for fucking ever though.”
I sigh, trying not to lose hope.
“Do you think Clara could help us?” Creek asks, and I shake my head.
“I don’t think that Amelia is going to be all that open to helping us any time soon,” I answer him when it hits me. “You guys keep at it. I have an idea.”
I head to Remy’s room, and pull the bottle of bloods from her stash. She always hides things in the same place. I swear though, when we get her back, even if it means renovating this entire place, I am moving her to the main room. I’m not being without her again. I have had enough of this bullshit.
I pour a small amount of the blood from each bottle into a glass and head outside. Caleb’s been gone a while, so I’m hoping he has some answers. But if the magic hiding Remy is that dark, surely Morgan will be able to trace it. Her kind of power is as dark as it gets.
I pour the blood on the ground, uttering the key Morgan gave us. The whoosh in my ears is so loud, and my stomach flips as I move between the realms, but I don’t care. It's all just a means to getting her back. I’d give my own life if it meant she’d be okay.
I wouldn’t survive losing her, but she has the others now. If my life is what it took, I’d forfeit it in a heartbeat. Fate knows she’s done it for me.
My legs hold firm when I reach the Shadow Realm, but I find myself amidst chaos. I guess this is why we’ve not seen Caleb again. I stride down the hall of the palace to the throne room. I’ll find one or all of them there.
I weave through the crowds of rushing people, trying not to get crushed by the masses. I’ve never seen so many people here.
I reach the throne room, and they’re here, but the chaos continues. I ignore the lines of people and head straight for Caleb.
“Levi, man, sorry. I got back and Mireya was missing. We only found her a few hours ago, the guys are with her trying to find out what happened. All of this is the aftermath of that, and me putting out feelers to get any information from people about any whispers of what’s happening with Mara, now Mireya is back. Any news?”
“Nothing yet. Everyone’s running down leads, but Marie can’t find them. She said they’re untraceable.”
“Who is untraceable?” Morgan floats over to us and Caleb winces.
“Remy,” I tell her, and she glares at Caleb.
“Tell me everything.” She claps her hands and the hall empties, leaving me with just her and Caleb. I tell her about what happened, the mis-information about Amelia and about everything that happened after Caleb left.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell any of us what was going on? Mara is one of us, if she’s in trouble, we fucking help. I thought you’d be the first person running to help her, all things considered,” she chastises Caleb, and I can’t help but grin a little.
“We had everything with Mireya,” he tries to reason with her but she crosses her arms and glares at him.
“You know we could have been searching for both. Mireya wouldn’t have been outside of this level. We could’ve pulled in Deacon to help with Mara. You know he’s eager to see the witch again.”
“Fallon is missing too. We’re assuming she’s with Remy, because we can’t track either of them,” I tell her.
“You see!” she huffs. “Unfortunately, because of the way my power works if she’s masked like that, my power is too similar to that of the witches, I won’t be able to track them.”
“Ferry!” Caleb exclaims, and I look at him confused.
“What about her?”
“She’s Fae,” he tells me, like that explains everything.
“Right?” I say, trying not to grow too impatient.
“The Fae, their magic works differently,” Morgan explains, rolling her eyes at Caleb. “Ferry is… well, she’s kind of a runaway. She left Eteriya under a cloud of smoke and sought refuge here. Technically, she’s a princess of the Bronze City in Eteriya, but royal life isn’t what she wanted. I’ve always had a soft spot for her, so I offered her a place here. If anyone's magic can track something untraceable to the rest of us, it's the Fae. Their power is so very different to the rest of ours, it’s stronger, but don’t ever tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny it till my last breath.”
“She can help?” I ask, hopeful for the first time since this shit storm started. All I need is a direction to head in, and then I’m going to unleash the chaos inside of me on whoever it is that thought they could take her from me without consequence. They will soon learn that they were very fucking wrong. My heart picks up, the urgency of it all wearing on me.
“She probably can’t,” Caleb tells me with a grimace. “But, if anyone has enough power to find Mara, it’s her brother.”
“Then let’s get him here,” I say, and Caleb winces.
“That might be a slight issue, but let me get Ferry and we can work it out.” He disappears from sight and I sigh, dropping into one of the chairs beside Morgan.
“We will find her,” she says to me, her voice soft but unyielding, like she has no doubt in the world.