Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
Beck
I feel the moment the connection is cut. It’s like
someone turning off part of my brain. No. My soul. Someone cut a piece of it
away, and I can’t reach for it anymore.
I can’t reach for her.
I was standing at the edge of the forest, talking to Cian
and some of the villagers who found Bri’s body. The young woman was ripped to
shreds. This is no accident. This is murder, and a particularly vicious one.
Cian and I were discussing the possibility of an animal attack when our world
was torn asunder.
I push Sweeney to run faster, and the horse seems to
understand.
Behind me, Cian has his hands on my shoulders, holding on
for dear life, but my brother won’t tell me to slow down. He knows what’s at
stake.
Somehow, I can still feel my brother, though it’s merely an
echo of what we felt this morning. It’s like a door closed between us, and it
muffles the sound.
She wasn’t where she told us she would be. The minute we
felt something was wrong, we took off for the miller’s house only to be told
the queen never showed up. Neither has her guard.
We immediately made the run for home.
“I would feel it if she was dead,” Cian says as Sweeney
eases up and stops at the back of our brugh.
“Yes, she’s not dead.” I can’t even consider the
possibility. “She’s had an accident. She’s unconscious.” That has to be it.
“I don’t know.” Ci slides to the ground and starts jogging
toward the brugh. “We can feel her when she’s sleeping. She’s
unconscious then, too. This is different. Something’s gone wrong.”
I know. I don’t need to tap into Ci’s intellect to know
something is wrong with our wife. I shove down the bile rising in my throat at
the idea of something bad happening to our Meggie.
Nothing can happen. We just began our lives after years of
waiting for her. She has to be alive.
“I’ll go around the right. You take the left.” I sound far
more in control than I am.
Cian runs. I pull my sword and force myself to move with
caution. She cut the connection for some reason. That’s all. Sometimes she cuts
it so we won’t feel what she’s feeling. There are all kinds of reasons for that
to happen. She might think we need all our faculties to conduct the
investigation.
Except I felt a jolt of fear before the connection cut. It
slammed into me, seizing my heart and threatening to overwhelm me.
“Beckett!”
All caution is gone when I hear Cian yell. I run toward the
front of the brugh, and what I see stops me in my tracks.
Niall’s body is crumpled near the front porch, left there
like a piece of trash someone forgot to sweep away.
“Meg!” I can’t help the shout that comes from my throat. It
threatens to shake the ground.
No. That isn’t my shout. It was the thunder that accompanied
it. Clouds, gray and ominous, are suddenly darkening the sky above, and it’s
all coming from me.
I don’t miss the way the trees shake all around us.
“Something took her,” Cian says. “I felt her fear, but she
knew what it was. Not who it was. What. She didn’t know the name of the
creature who scared her. I don’t think it was a Fae.”
A pit opens in my gut. “Goblins?”
Ci shakes his head. “They wouldn’t dare. They’re afraid of
you, and she made a good impression on them. She trades with them. They take
that seriously.”
“Then it’s Torin.” It’s everything I fear. Torin will take
her and offer to trade. Her life for ours.
We’ll do it because our lives don’t matter without Meg.
“We can’t know that for sure,” Cian says.
“Then who was it?” My fear and frustration threaten to take
over. We have no idea where she is. Someone could be torturing her as we stand
here. We must find her. I take a deep breath because panic isn’t going to help
our wife.
“We’ll gather the villagers and start searching.” Cian’s
face is drawn in tight lines. “She can’t have gotten far.”
We look at each other and the words are left unspoken about
exactly how far she might be from us. There are whole other planes she could be
taken to.
“We should send word to Dante to have him search the Vampire
plane.” A few scenarios play out in my head. “There were a lot of vampires at
the arena who felt like they’d been betrayed. Any one of them could have stolen
her.”
“They’ll go into hiding then.” Cian paces, his irritation
obvious.
“Then we’ll have to use our assets to find her.” And then I
have a plan. A stupid plan, but the only one I can think of. “Have you heard
the rumors that Liadan has skill with magic?”
Cian goes still. “I don’t know that’s such a good idea. I
don’t like that woman.”
Cian never liked Lia, but I can’t concern myself with Cian’s
picky nature. “She’s the only one I know who can do a locator spell. I know
Meggie won’t like it, but I would make a deal with the devil if I thought it
might get our wife back. Can’t you say the same? If you won’t, I will.”
I start to run toward Liadan’s cottage. My brother falls in
step beside me.
We will do whatever it takes to get our wife back.