Fear. Sharp, panicked, and suffocating, it gripped my lungs and squeezed. It was the jagged, animalistic terror found in all living creatures of knowing the end was close and breathing down your neck.
I gasped for air as it felt like I was choking on blood or smoke.
Then came the next wave.
Revenge.It flooded me like a tidal wave. White-hot. Absolute. It wanted blood. It wanted atonement. It wanted Cooper. It wanted Lilah. It wanted justice andwrath. It tastedlike iron in my mouth and burned behind my eyes, but I couldn’t agree with the feeling any more if I wanted to.
My hand loosened around Tina’s hilt, and she clattered to the floor, the sound bouncing off the walls.
Underneath it all—threading through the terror, hatred, and wild chaos?—
Love. So much love.
It was so fierce and aching that it made my legs buckle. I was brought to my knees. It washer. It was the feeling of her wrapping her arms around me like she had missed me for years, instead of just the past few weeks we had been apart. It was her laugh at one of my jokes. It was her kisses, her moans, her humming, her purring. It was her smile. It was her love that never asked, justgave.
It was Byrd.
A sob cracked free from me. Not only was the bond steady and pulled tight, but I could feel her on the other side of it. Thready. Weak. Butthere.
She was still there.
Hastily, I sent my own love back to her along with a sea of relief that she was still alive.
Quinn, my Starlight, my pumpkin, my mate, I heard her voice immediately. It was the same sweet, honeyed sounds that I adored, albeit a little weak and raspy. Hearing her voice, no matter what state it was in, was almost as good as seeing her. It made my heart flutter and caused the tears to spill from my eyes.
Byrd,mi vida, mi tesoro,my mate, I’m so happy you are alive,I answered through my thoughts.
I know, but I don’t know for how much longer.Lilah’s done some spell to find my father’s extended family’s enchantment. It’s outside of Chicago. But, only I and Uncle Everett know how to get there and enter,Byrd said, making time screech to a halt for me. In the distance, I heard my cousins talking. The pressureof the magic holding me in place dissolved into thin air or was pulled back, leaving my shirt clinging wetly to my stomach. With nothing holding me, I dropped to my knees on the ground.
“Quinny?” Nat’s voice softly reached me through the haze.
I blinked once. Then again. Soon, my cousin’s face came into focus.
“Quinn, are you okay? Where’d you go? What’s going on?” She asked.
“Byrd’s alive,” I whispered. Then, I said it louder, like it was a spell of my own that I could cast over and over just to keep her that way. “She’s alive.”
“How is that—?” Talli started, but Everett interrupted her. “Can you get where she is? Any clues?”
I nodded and said to Byrd,Understood, Sweetness. I love you, and I’m coming to you. Do you know where you are?
There was a pause on Byrd’s end. Then, annoyance slipped through into our bond before I could feel her anxiety following close behind. I could tell it was about me and if I was still around.
I’m still here, baby girl.I felt her relief.Talk to me. What do you see around you?
After another brief moment, she sent back the details of what she could make out. A drivable camper. Raining outside, where it was already dark at around five o’clock Eastern. Even before Byrd mentioned the Forks mug, I could picture the very spot where I took Nat for her thirteenth birthday.
I know exactly where you are.
“Byrd’s in theTwilightsafehouse,” I said out loud to the others. They went into action immediately. Cody retrieved an Atlas from his backpack that I recognized as having all of our safehouses and placed it on the countertop. He flipped to the pages for Washington state and located the exact safehouse Imentioned in seconds. Maisie’s eyes flared with her overflowing purple magic as she held her hand over the spot.
“That’s her! We found her!” Maisie declared. “I’m locked onto all three of them now! Even if Lilah blocks Byrd, I’m connected to her and Cooper.”
“Where are they headed, Q?” Cody asked as I got up to join them at the counter.
“Chicago.”
Everett frowned. “Chicago?”
