Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
ZOE
The sound of men talking wakes me, and I have a few precious moments when the light flows through the slats of the wood blinds and I think Seb is behind me.
But when I sleepily turn over, it’s just his pillow.
More low murmurs. Seb must already be up.
More than one male voice is out there. Are his brothers here?
I stumble to the bathroom and do my morning routine.
I’d meant to stay awake until he returned from his rounds, but I must have drifted off in the wee hours of the morning.
He probably took pains not to disrupt my sleep.
After all, today is the day I must charge the ring and combine the spells.
Today, we find out if everything we’ve been working toward will pay off.
I dress quickly in leggings and a long-sleeved T-shirt and pull my hair into a ponytail. Then I go in search of Seb. But when I leave the bedroom, the first person I see is Fiona. She rushes to me, her eyes rimmed in red.
“Fiona, when did you get here? Where’s Seb?”
She grabs my hands in both of her own. “Now, I don’t want you to worry, because the entire brotherhood is here to help…”
I try to see around her into the living room, but she holds my hands tighter. “Where is Seb?”
“He was captured last night, Zoe. I’m so sorry.”
Terror tumbles through my body like shattering glass.
My breath catches in my throat, and I yank my hands away from her and run for the living room.
Eleven sets of eyes turn to me, including Connor’s and Remus’s, but Seb isn’t among them.
I zero in on Remus. “You were with him. You were supposed to back him up. What the fuck happened?”
Remus stands and walks toward me, tears welling in his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t tell me you’re sorry. Tell me what happened—and I mean every detail.” I hold up my finger between us and say the words through my teeth.
He nods and gestures toward the hall. “Somewhere more private. The team is busy planning how to get him back.”
I nod and quickly follow him from the room. The last thing I care to do is distract them from saving Seb. We wind up in the library down the hall, the quiet eerily like a tomb. “Now, tell me everything.”
“It would be faster if I showed you,” Remus says.
“Showed me?”
He closes his eyes for a beat. “I can play my memories for you, in your head. I think, in this case, I will never be able to describe for you with words what happened in a way that will explain why I couldn’t help him, Zoe. I really want you to see it.”
I nod. “Okay.” I don’t like the idea of having him in my head, but he’s right. I need to see what happened.
He breathes out a deep breath. “Do you consent to me entering your mind?”
“Yes.”
“Just relax.”
I do, and in seconds, it feels like I’m standing against the wall while three members of the Saint’s Order talk about initiating a fourth.
One of them is Jeremy, and by the end, when my former doctor uses that cursed ring of his to knock Seb out and seal him inside a glowing blue cage, I want to scream.
Remus pulls out of my mind as easily as he went in. Tears drip from my chin onto my shirt. “I…I…know who that was.”
“Huh?”
I swipe the moisture from under my eyes. “The witch who attacked Seb and knocked him unconscious. That’s Dr. Jeremy Branch. He used to be my doctor. He must be providing magical services to the Saint’s Order.”
“Shit,” Remus says. “It sounded like he’s the one who was using Donovan’s blood to make the rings.”
A chill brittles my bones and causes my joints to ache, like fear has plunged me into a frozen pond. This is so much worse than I thought. “He’s going to use Seb as his new source of blood.”
Remus growls. “I need to tell the others. I’m so sorry, Zoe.” He rushes from the room toward the other brothers.
I stand, frozen, staring at Seb’s books and the desk where I’d first drawn the ring.
Jeremy, you brutal nightmare of a human being.
All this time. I pull my phone from my pocket and dial his number.
I get his voice mail. I dial again. Voice mail again.
I’m tempted to leave a message threatening to sever his balls from his body if he doesn’t return Seb to me, but then I remember how devious he is.
All this time, manipulating me. I shouldn’t offer him any information that he doesn’t already have, and that includes how much I care for Seb. He doesn’t need to know.
I end the call and stare at my phone, then I dial my mom.
“Zoe, it’s so good to hear your voice.”
“Yours too, Mom. I, uh, have you heard where Jeremy is today?”
“No.” She pauses for a beat. “We fired him, honey. It didn’t end well. He’s not checking in with me. Why?”
I roll my eyes toward the ceiling and think fast. “A few loose ends from our last session I wanted to tie up. I guess it’s not important.”
She huffs into the phone. “You know, I gave that boy the benefit of the doubt. I told myself that he was his own person, separate from his father. But, in fact, the acorn did not roll far from the tree. He was just as devious.”
“I wasn’t aware Jeremy’s father was on your shit list.”
“Oh yes. We went to college together. Were friends once until he started practicing dark magic.”
A memory of another conversation I had with my mother lights up in my head. “Wait, is this the guy you said was using dragon scales in his spells?”
“Yes, I forgot I told you that. That was Jeremy’s father. I knew he was into some dark stuff, but I never thought Jeremy would follow him down that path. He seemed so much more like his mother. And she was the sweetest woman, Zoe, truly she was.”
I remember when Jeremy’s mother died three years ago. I wasn’t close to him, but whatever forces were at work in his life, he had indeed chosen a dark path.
“Mom, I have to go,” I say. “I’m sorry. It’s a work emergency.”
“Okay, darling. Call whenever you’re free.”
I end the call, rage boiling in my veins. That fucker. By the goddess, I will make him sorry he ever knew me. My vision flickers to gold, and I know what I must do.
I run for the back door and out to the tree, digging in the freshly turned earth until I reach the ring.
I unwrap it from the banana leaves and rest it in my palm, where it buzzes against my skin.
The magic of this ring is ready. It wants to be released.
I close my fist around it and return to the house, slipping back up to the main floor where I can hear the Zodiac Brotherhood discussing next steps with raised voices.
I slow my steps as I pass the front room where they are meeting.
They don’t know where Seb is. Ellison speculates he’s been taken to the compound in Maryland where they saw Roman, whoever that is, but Remus is convinced he’s close because they wouldn’t want to risk traveling far with him.
Too many opportunities for him to break free.
I frown. There is one way to know exactly where he is. A person simply needs a high enough vantage point to see everything.
Quickly, I pad to our bedroom and silently close and lock the door behind me.
I take a seat on the bed, holding out the gold ring in front of me.
I can’t see the spells I’ve laid like I could when I was in the Gold Room, but I can feel them.
I can smell them. I can hear them. This magic is alive, just sleeping.
All I have to do is wake it and tell it to party.
I concentrate on the ring and then chant the spell to ignite the magic. Power flows through my voice, and symbols glow in the air around the ring. I can see the ribbons. But then I pause to take a breath, and the gold symbols fall to my palm like stardust and disappear. Shit.
I sit up straighter and try again.