Chapter 1
I’m having one of the top five most epic dreams of my life when it gets thoroughly derailed.
“Wake the fuck up!”
Nooo.
I was chasing Princess Sparkles, and she’d been leaving a trail of scent, and fuck, I know it was just a dream, but I’m harder than a granite baseball bat right now.
Peeling open an eye, I see Cosmo glaring down at me.
The room comes into focus, and I realize I’m still in the hospital waiting room.
Oh yeah. That whole shit show.
“How’s your sis?” I ask, stretching out my stiff limbs.
Though not the ‘stiff limb’ in my pants—I don’t think Cos is in the mood for a morning wood salute.
“Alive,” he sighs, “but we've got other shit to worry about. Come on.”
I watch as he stalks out of the room, trying to slam the door behind him, but failing because it’s one of those heavy soft-close things.
What’s wrong now?
I catch up to him at the hospital entrance. The air outside is cold, the sky just beginning to turn from black to gray, so I guess it must be, like six-ish?
Lexi and Dono are waiting in the car, the engine idling.
Hart twin #2 is not there. I guess Wes is still full ‘Children of the Corn.’
“Where’s Sparkles?” I ask, squeezing in the back next to Lexi, whose mouth is in a tight, pissed-off line. He stinks of smoke, like he’s been chainsmoking for hours. Or maybe it’s from all the All-Hallows Ball chaos.
“She’s missing,” he snaps at me.
The world stops.
WHAT. THE. FUCK?
“What do you mean, she’s missing? Since when?" I roar. “Has anyone tried doing the mind-contact?”
—THEO, BABE. LET US KNOW WHERE YOU ARE—
“Of course we have,” Cosmo grunts, gunning the engine. “And no reply. When did you last see her? Don’t fuck around, Max. Just tell us.”
Of course I’m not going to fuck around—this is Sparkles we’re talking about. I lean forward and shove at Donovan. “What the fuck happened, Hart? How did you lose her?”
My Hellhound is rabid right now.
Donovan leans away from me and slams his fist into the front dash. “The last I saw, she was with you, asshole. Then the protestors broke in, and I got knocked out. I don’t remember anything else until it was basically all over.”
“Bullshit!” I bark, shoving the back of his headrest. “I saw you, Hart. When I was hauling Aurora’s body out, I looked back.
Theo was right there with you. You think I was hallucinating?
I literally thought, ‘Okay, Dono’s got her, she’s safe.
’ I wouldn't have left her if I hadn't seen you two together with my own eyes!”
When Donovan twists around in the front seat to face me, his eyes are wide with genuine confusion. “Max, I’m telling you, I was unconscious. I woke up in the catering kitchen with a concussion and a face full of floor tile. I. Wasn't. With. Her. I couldn't have been.”
“Then explain what I saw!”
Why the fuck is he lying?
“I wasn't there!” Donovan yells back, his voice cracking with a mix of frustration and fear. “Do you think I’d lie about this? If I had her, she’d be here.”
The car goes dead silent for a beat.
“Was it Wes?” Cosmo’s voice cuts through all the crackling testosterone.
“I know you all hate my brother these days, but he can’t get the blame for this. He’s locked in the fucking penthouse with Ludo as guard dog,” Donovan snaps back. “You were probably spelled, Wes. Mind-twisted or something, because it wasn’t me, alright?”
Before anyone can reply, Cosmo’s phone starts screaming on the console.
He stabs the button, and the voice of Theo’s friend Willow fills the car. “Hello? Er, is that Cosmo? Hello?”
“Bloomhower, about fucking time,” Cosmo growls. “I’ve been calling you for the last hour. When did you last see Theodora?”
“Wha? Theo? What do you mean? At the Ball of course…shit. Is everything alright?”
“Obviously not. We can’t find her.”
We hear rustling noises. “OK, I’m going to Defectivum now. I’ll check her room. Is she not answering her phone? Shit, of course not, or you wouldn’t be calling me.”
“What’s going on, babe?” a sleepy voice asks in the background.
“I’ll call you back in a minute,” Willow says, hanging up.
“I don’t understand why you’re insisting Donovan was with her,” Alexis says to me. “Can you try explaining, but calmly and rationally?”
Douche. What is there to explain?
“I was carrying Cosmo’s sister, Sparkles was with me,” I tell Lex, as calmly as I fucking can.
“That’s when she saw Donovan. Theo went to him, and I took the sister out.
I didn’t have a choice, at that point the kid had stopped breathing.
I don’t know how long I did CPR, but eventually we were both bundled into an ambulance.
Ended up at the hospital, fell asleep in the waiting room after they said baby Drakeward was going to be OK.
” I look around the vehicle at each of three men.
“End of my story. Now start spilling yours, starting with you, Donovan Hart. Fuck, I trusted you to keep her safe.”
He growls. “I truly don’t know what you’re talking about, Larsen.
I guess I got pulled out of the ballroom early with the others who were injured.
When I came around, I was in the catering kitchen with the other bleeding witches.
Obviously, I went straight back to find Tee-Tee, but everything was dying down by then. ”
This makes absolutely no sense.
“That’s when I ran into Alexis,” he adds.
Lexi takes over the story. “I’d taken Willow, Naomi, and a bunch of other kids back to the academy; then went straight back to the Ball.”
Hmm. “And you, Cosmo?”
“Jordan,” he says heavily. “She wouldn’t leave my side until I finally got her in a limo with some of her friends. After that, my father summoned me. I couldn’t exactly refuse.”
Pussy. “Why the fuck not? Theo is way more important than your cunt of a father.”
“Because, if you take a moment to think, you’ll remember I’m supposed to be completely under the power of dark energy.”
The look on his face is pure despair, but I have little sympathy for him right now.
Gods damn it all.
The phone rings again.
“She’s not in her room,” Willow says through gasps of breath. She must have run all the way there. We hear a banging in the background.
After a second, I hear some muffled words.
“Ludo’s here,” Willow tells us, rejoining the call.
“They've lost her, Ludo. They can't find Theo.” She’s talking to the janitor.
“There was a crazy riot at the ball last night, and she got lost in the chaos. Umm, hold on. Ludo is writing something on his phone.”
We wait.
I can hear my own heartbeat thumping in my ears like the drums of war.
“Gods,” her voice cracks. “Wes is missing as well. He did some kind of spell on Ludo then left. Ludo says he’s only just regained consciousness.”
The air in the car suddenly feels like it’s been sucked out through the vents.
Wes.
“That fucker…”
Suddenly it’s obvious it wasn’t Dono who was with Theo.
Realization hits everyone in the car.
“He’s taken her,” Lexi growls, and I can hear the beast in his voice. “I’ll kill him.”
My cousin turns to Donovan, eyes burning, and I see the soldier coming to the surface. “Where has he taken her?”
“I don’t know, but don’t jump to conclusions. If she’s with Wes, it’s probably fine. They’re just…reconnecting.” Donovan’s voice trails off like even he doesn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. “I’ll call him.”
As I stifle the urge to punch the back of Donovan’s head, Cosmo pinches the bridge of his nose, looking like he’s in actual pain. “Striker is pulling up security footage from the Capitol,” he mutters. “Maybe she’ll find something.”
Willow’s voice comes through the speaker again. I’d forgotten she was still on the line. “OK, Ludo’s got another message…he says he’ll scour the grounds and buildings here.”
“We can go to the Rotunda and try and retrace their steps,” Alexis decides. “And, Hart, if your brother has hurt a hair on her head, he’s going to pay. Drive, Drakeward.”
The hellhound inside me whines for attention, so I take on board his suggestion. “I’ll shift, see if I can scent her.”
“Great idea,” Cosmo drawls. “Turn into a giant fucking monster in the middle of Havengard City.”
Yeah, OK, maybe he has a point, but I don’t know what else to do.
Fuck.
I smash my fist into the back of Donovan’s seat. It’s not enough, so I do it again and again.
“No answer from Wes. Can you knock that off, Max?”
I can’t. I keep punching until finally my knuckles split.
The pain is good. Stops the pain in my heart from breaking me completely. This is a fucking nightmare. Sparkles…anything could be happening to her.
Anything.
It’s only minutes until Cosmo pulls the car into the lot next to the State Capitol. We’re out and moving instantly.
There are police and WMO cars everywhere. Yellow tape doesn’t keep us out, nor do the pissant ‘peacekeepers’ who try to block our path.
Cosmo drops his name, and they reluctantly stand to one side.
Good choice.
“I’ll see what I can uncover with the actual Conclave members,” Cosmo says. “You all search the buildings.”
—Sparkles? Where are you, baby?—
Nothing.
“Spread out,” Alexis commands. “Search everywhere.”