Despite Anson’s spells, I felt her power when I entered the room. Dark Gemini Witch power, a seer who had no doubt already foreseen this moment and the moment after, as this farce played out. Her eyes glittered with knowledge, as if to say, I am here only because my message is for you and no other.
I scraped back an empty chair and sat down. Pulled in the power that thrummed through my veins in reaction to hers. “You have my condolences for the loss of your sisters.”
“We foresaw the danger but were unable to prevent it.”
“Amal is a powerful enemy,” I agreed. This female was the messenger. For her, being here, being in the Farmer’s Market when Noa passed by, even having the horrid Bone Woman effigies on her table that caused Noa to pause, turn back, ask questions… every step revealed the arrogance of seers, the repellent expediency.
They rarely wasted time or cared about the outcomes they’d already foreseen.
“You have a message for me?”
“Dread Lord. Wolf.” Her eyelids fluttered, on the verge of a trance state. “You cannot change your path.”
I leaned back. “What path is that?”
“One we foresaw for you. What we did not see… then… has come to pass. She will leave, wolf… and you must let her go.”
I breathed in, clamped down on the rage building. “I don’t fucking see it that way.”
“You are blind to it. But you will see the truth at the end. See it when she does not want you to see. Reach her when she needs you the most. Trust her in the abyss and she will bring you both back.”
Agony ripped through me, as if the witch plunged a knife to cleave my heart apart. The darkness rising in my head writhed with power. I pushed the chair back, unsteady as I stood.
The woman smiled. “Do you believe in fate?” she purred. “Because fate believes in you. Do not disappoint, wolf.”
“What was that about?” Fallon demanded, as I left the interrogation room and stalked down the hall.
“Fucking seers.” I’d had my fill. “Any news?”
As if in answer, her cell buzzed. She held the phone to her ear, tipped it down and punched the speaker function. “Say again?”
“We found a cave. A coat Noa was wearing.” An unknown male’s voice. I guessed it was a Carmag ranger. “Mace went inside. He found blood, but the cave is empty.”
Fallon snapped, “On our way.”
“Look for the sentry. Three miles north.”
It took us longer because I slowed the pace for Fallon, although she threw me angry glances meant to strip the skin from my body. The muscles in my back were tight. Blood, and empty—the only two words that mattered. Whose blood? And was this what the witch predicted—Noa, needing to leave? Seeing it when she didn’t want me to see? Trusting her in the abyss?
Did that mean she would become one of Barend’s creations?
My chest heaved with a controlled breath. Anson was searching the cave, and as we walked, new details filtered through the pack bond. No blood on Noa’s coat. Tons of old clothing, dishes, evidence of a river nymph living there—which explained why Ago had searched upstream. A nymph was aiding Noa.
Heat from a natural hot spring warmed the cave. From the dishes, the food lying about, at least two people had been living there. Possibly three, with Noa’s coat being found. The evidence was inconclusive—other than the strong reek of hybrids. And Ago. Their combined scents contaminated the scene enough to make details hard to separate out from the chaos.
But Ago had found the cave. Had Noa been there when he did? Was that why blood from a nymph coated the rocks? Because the nymph had resisted?
And the blood inside the cave?
First impression from Anson was that most of the blood belonged to a vampire—he had a medical testing kit for the field. Old blood, he said. The fresh blood belonged to a nymph. Impossible to tell if she survived, although the blood smears led to the river, and once submerged, her wounds would start to heal.
We approached the cave, had to wade through icy water and climb over rocks to reach the opening. For a heartbeat, I couldn’t push past the haze of anger—fuck, I couldn’t breathe when every breath filled me with her sweet scent. Noa. She’d been here. In this muggy dark, pulled from the icy water by a river nymph—friendly?
Fallon was glancing around. The light was dim, but then brightened from the dozens of candles burning in niches. A pool of clear, aqua-tinted water wafted plumes of steam that beaded my skin. I swiped them away. Scanned the haphazard piles of clothes and blankets—gods, did a fucking packrat live here? Some nymphs were collectors, easily bribed by a pretty bauble or a piece of cloth.
I circled the cave, picking up on the heavy, moldy scents, the energies, a talent that the dread lord status enhanced. Beyond what Anson’s technology detected. What gritted my teeth was Ago’s scent, his glee filling my nose, fueling the fury burning lines of fire along my spine.
Focus! Don’t fall apart like a fucking asshole.
