Chapter 43
Alaric
The motel room smelled of musk with an undertone of piss. I had a nasty suspicion the last guests had been wolf shifters. This was the sort of low-rent place that attracted wolf pack outcasts.
The name, Moon Motel, was a dead giveaway, but since I was low on cash, I had to swallow my pride and take a room here.
At least there were no dark magic grenades lurking in my head. Thorrin’s pet witch had reassured me whatever spell my father had used to control me was no longer active. Knowing he couldn’t force me to hurt my soul-bonded mate was a huge weight off my shoulders.
I dropped my bag on the bed and checked the bathroom for cleanliness. Thankfully, it wasn’t too grim. The shower looked clean, even though black mold thrived along the seal.
I had hoped Thorrin’s pet witch’s spell would take me straight to Raven, but her magic didn’t stretch that far.
Or so she claimed. Instead, the potion she’d given me took me as far as Chicago.
One of the poorer neighborhoods, judging from the gang tags and human detritus loitering with intent nearby.
That the neighborhood was mostly human was in my favor. Dad wouldn’t spot me among thousands of impoverished humans. He’d never dare visit this part of the city, even with a security detail. Not with human-magical relationships at breaking point.
Thorrin gave me a burner phone before I left the island, so I pulled it from my pocket and sat on the bed to check the latest headlines about Dad.
A Magigram video of mages attacking human protesters had gone viral. The humans claimed they were peacefully protesting against the lack of action following a fatal demon attack on a church, while the mages claimed the humans had pulled guns on them.
Several humans had died in the chaos.
In the earlier stories, Dad insisted his security forces were not at fault and the humans attacked first. But amateur video footage from the scene cast doubt on Dad’s version of events.
His popularity ratings were plummeting fast. Not even an appearance from Brianna, calling for peace, made a difference.
If my father couldn’t end the demon attacks, he’d be ousted from his role as leader of both the Mage Council and the Supernatural Council.
I lay back and swiped through endless social media commentary, most of it outraged. Comments suggesting my father be hung from a tree by his balls brought a smile to my face for the first time in ages. If only.
The light faded fast as I fell down a succession of online rabbit holes. Before long, my stomach was cramping from the lack of food. When did I last eat a decent meal? Probably when Thorrin shoved a plate of eggs and toast in front of me this morning.
I briefly debated ordering a pizza, but who knew how long it would take me to track down Raven. I might need my cash for transport to Texas, which was my best guess for where they had ended up.
From what Adam had said previously, my father didn’t know the location of his farm. If the others had gone there, they would be safe. At least in the short term.
The tether in my chest ached as my soul yearned for its other half. The longer we remained apart, the harder it was to keep a lid on my magic.
Thunder rumbled above the motel, followed by a flash of lightning that illuminated the nylon carpet. The dim bulb above my head flickered and then died, and in the room to my left, I heard a male voice cursing about the power cut.
With no power, there was fuck all to do in this place.
I lay back on the hard bed and stared at the ceiling for a while, admiring the water stains and black mold patterns near the window. Raven would have found something to be cheerful about, even in this hellhole.
She’d probably tell me the water damage around the shower looked like an elephant and the black mold was a work of art or something equally stupid. I smiled to myself before I remembered I didn’t know where she was, and without something tied to her, I couldn’t perform a location tracking spell.
How ironic. I was the most powerful mage in the realm, yet I couldn’t even track down my soul-bonded mate.
For the millionth time, I focused on the tether between us. The farther north I’d gone, the weaker the connection. Now that I’d come to Chicago, while I couldn’t hear her or sense her emotions, I could feel her. Not close, but definitely in the same area.
I leaped to my feet with a renewed sense of hope. Maybe I wouldn’t need to travel to Texas after all.
But doubt soon crept back in. Why would she be in Chicago? It made no sense.
Slumping back onto the bed, I pondered why she and the others would travel here. Did any of them have family in the city?
Zane’s grandparents on his mother’s side were wolves; their pack lived deep in the Appalachians. The bear shifter’s clan I was less sure of, but I doubted bear shifters embraced city life. Nor the merman’s family.
Then I remembered a vampire history lesson from my first semester at Starfall. Professor Achilles, who’d taught back then, spoke of how the vampire royals had mansions in several major US cities, including Chicago.
When the bloodborne virus decimated the vamps, the mages tried to seize vampire-owned properties, only to discover there were powerful enchantments in place to keep trespassers out.
There had been several deaths, and in the end, my father had called a halt to the plan, unwilling to sacrifice any more of his minions.
Rasmus must have brought the others to the city so they could lie low in safety. My father wouldn’t expect them to be hiding in plain sight, right under his nose as he fought for his political life.
I almost laughed at the audacity of the plan.
Dad wouldn’t risk storming a vampire-owned and protected property. Sure, he could mount a siege, but that would be pointless. Zane would just teleport them all away to a new location.
Unless Dad’s mages caught Raven away from the house and its inbuilt protective wards, she was perfectly safe.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
Now all I had to do was figure out where the property was located and then make my way there.
Feeling energized, I jumped back off the bed and grabbed my bag, intending to dig out the last of my cash so I could order food.
But when I reached inside the inner pocket, something sharp sliced my finger.
It wasn’t until I emptied the bag that I realized what I’d found: a fragment of Raven’s amulet.
The stone had broken apart after…after the events of that night. I’d scooped them up before I left the room, uncertain whether they were useful to my father.
Satanite was rare, and anything of that nature he usually coveted.
The fragments of satanite in my hand stole all the light when I examined them. Each broken edge was wickedly sharp. When I brushed my bleeding finger against one smooth facet, the stone absorbed the blood, warming in my palm.
It was kind of creepy, so I dropped it on the bed and frowned.
Then it occurred to me: this belonged to Raven, so I could use it to cast a location spell.
Such magic was relatively simple if the person was in the same area, unlike the spell we’d used to find the vampire. All it required was a few basic ingredients and a metal scrying bowl.
I grabbed my phone and searched online for a witch’s apothecary. As luck would have it, there was one five blocks away, and to my delight, it would be open for the next hour. I just hoped I had enough cash to cover the cost of what I needed to find my soulmate witch.
I peered into the apothecary store and frowned. It was supposed to be open, but from the looks of it, the owner had already shut up shop. Damn the witches to hell. What was the fucking point in posting business hours if you treated them as a suggestion?
Pulling my hood down to avoid showing my face, I cursed. It looked like my spell casting would have to wait until tomorrow. Not ideal, but a decent night’s sleep would probably do me good.
Raven was with her other mates. Nothing bad would happen to her on their watch.
I checked my phone to see if Adam had replied to my message. I’d tried calling him several times, but he hadn’t picked up. Just as I was about to head back to the motel, a news alert flashed up on the screen.
Tiberius Vane Calls Press Conference After Fugitive Witch Detained.
What the actual fuck?
When I scrolled down the report, I saw a photo of Raven in magic-blocking cuffs held by two masked mages, and my heart stuttered in my chest. If Dad had her back, he’d steal her magic and start a fucking war with the humans!
According to the article, the news conference was taking place at the Mage Council head office at ten p.m. this evening. That gave me precious little time to get there and rescue my witch.
Or die trying.