There is a reason, but you don’t want to hear it,Iskar stated.
Riley’s words about multiple mates echoed through me, and I pushed them away. Yet the rage they summoned didn’t quite ring as true as it once had. I shelved it—because I had bigger concerns.
I asked the primary question that was bothering me.How dangerous is it, if Riley Jumps without knowing the place where she is going?
Not much is known about Jumpers,Iskar said.I have heard of others—well, one, really—that Jumped without a location reference. But all the texts talk of how important it is to have it.
I swallowed.Could she die?
Yes, she could. I already told you that. You just weren’t listening.
Dammit. He had, and I wasn’t. The thought of those kids in Isobel’s hands was driving me wild. Then I’d pushed the idea on Riley. No wonder she was so damned mad.But she didn’t say no.
She is brave. She came after you.
Yes. Yes, she had. And if Cara couldn’t find Isobel’s location, she’d go after the kids, too. I knew it.
But then I remembered the way she’d smelled. The underwear she had tucked under her arm.
They are mated, Marcus. Get over it.
Get over it?This time, the rage rose pure and raw, and the thing within me stirred.
All right. We’ll have to leave this conversation for now. But you are being a fool.
The entrance to the suite opened, and the Watcher herself came through. From where I sat, I could see her through the window.
She looked exhausted. She pulled a beer from her fridge, came through to the balcony, raised a brow at my feet until I put them back down, and then lowered into a chair.
I’d never seen her drink beer. I thought the brews were only for visitors. I took it as a sign. “They don’t know where the kids are, do they?”
Cara took a long pull from the bottle before answering. “Actually, the Dragons have questioned the mercenaries we captured, and apparently Isobel is now hiding in plain sight. She is staying in an underlord’s stronghold. A Dragon named Brock owns it. He now runs the empire once owned by his mother, who was very powerful. But the stronghold the mercenaries were headed to was not the same one where she was going. Nobody seems to know exactly where Brock took her.”
“Can Jacques track them down?” I asked.
Cara frowned. “They have him working on it. But even if they find where she’s keeping the children—Brock is very powerful, and his strongholds are well protected. The Dragon Legion is not what it once was. To pit them against Brock’s pinions would be reckless.”
“So a direct assault won’t work.” Again, a statement, not a question. I had an idea of where this was headed.
After all, I’d already been there.
Cara rubbed her face. “If they find where the children are—the council will try to get a visual from inside. They want to send in a strike team, with Riley.”
I straightened. A strike team? My gut twisted. “They’re not going after the kids. They’re going after Isobel.”
The Watcher pressed the cold beer bottle against her forehead. “I spent most of my time arguing that even if we figure out where she is, we don’t have anything we can send that can take her down.”
My gut twisted tighter. “What did they say?”
“They pointed out that we do.”
I stared at her. “We do?”
She closed her eyes as a bead of condensation from the bottle ran down her cheek. “They want to use the Perditor against her.”
Ice traveled down my spine. “But if they send Nikolai—”
“Yes.” She sighed. “I warned them that a battle between Isobel and Nikolai would take out whatever realm it occurred in. Using him as a weapon would be foolish in the extreme.”
