Rubbing my cheek against his cooling flesh, I stopped when another sob racked my body until I was able to pull myself together. Pushing my face closer to his neck, I kissed his jaw gently. “He said, she travels the journey alone.” I kissed his jaw again. “He never once glanced at you. If someone was going to die, if it was someone’s time, others would normally say goodbye, even if it was secretive. He never did for you.”

I nuzzled my face against his neck. “Which means you’re going to live.” Gently, I sat up, his arm sliding down and catching on my hip. Staring down at his face, I ran my fingers over his cheek. “And it means my journey isn’t done yet.” Placing one last kiss on his mouth, staying there against the lips and skin and scent, which were him but also not, I wept. I only pulled away when I was afraid he couldn’t breathe. Resting my hand on his cheek, I whispered, “You made the call to say goodbye, and now I’m doing the same, because I have no clue what I’m getting myself into.” I echoed his previous words. “I love you. Just remember that.”

Staring down at him, I took a fortifying breath before rolling away. I had to talk to a Mage. Grabbing my case and gun off the bed, I took one last look before exiting the room just as quietly as I had entered. And stopped dead in my tracks.

Bindi was still in the other room, but Cahal wasn’t with her anymore. I knew this because he was standing with his back against the wall beside Ezra’s door, hands clasped in front of him, head bowed. His eyes weren’t closed, but he never once glanced at me even though I stood less than a foot from him. And I knew without a doubt that his hearing could have picked up whatever I had said inside the room for however long he had been standing there for. And I didn’t really have time to deal with his intellectual questioning.

I waited for his fury at my intrusion, but he said nothing and moved not at all.

Maneuvering around him, not turning my back on him, I crept across the room. Unlocking the door swiftly, I slipped outside before he came back from his grief to delay my quest. Bonnie was standing there silently. I had no clue where she came from, but I motioned for her to follow as I began racing down the twisting hallways.

Everyone moved for me, all Mys alike, getting the hell out of my way without me having to say a word or glance in their direction. I ran with purpose until I stopped in front of Antonio’s office door. I debated a polite gesture, but then just barged in. Eyes scanning the room, I saw that it was empty.

Shouting in frustration, I stalked the room, wondering where the hell I could find him because I didn’t know where his suite was. He could possibly be in the dining hall or a conference room or in the pools. Any was a strong possibility. Or, unfortunately, he might not be at King Cave at all, doing God knows what.

I stopped and rubbed my face. I needed him. I needed another damn hint to keep me sane.

Scrubbing at my scratchy eyes, deciding I would try the pools first since they were closest, I blinked and stopped. Bent down, peering closer at the coffee table. On it was a rusty brass doorknocker. Beside it a note, written in a man’s scrawl I didn’t recognize.

Reading it slowly, my breath caught. When death knocks, knock back.

Oh, hell yes. Grabbing the rusty brass handle, which was in the shape of a horseshoe, I felt Mage magic sizzle in my hands. I did as the note said. I knocked with it. Something tried to appear before me, but it quickly fizzled out.

I stared. Then blinked. Realization dawned.

I needed to get the hell out of King Cave and try this again. It was dark magic. Nothing like that worked inside the cave. Only pure Mage magic worked.

Without hesitation I raced from the room, Bonnie hot on my heels. I bypassed the main areas so I didn’t draw even more attention to myself, and then stopped to walk sedately through the cave’s main entrance. It was hard to keep from running as soon as my shoes hit the sand, but I stayed steady and began heading down the beach as if I was only going for a normal stroll, so that no guards were alerted.

Feeling the boundary of the Mage’s protection magic drawing closer, I peeked over my shoulder. The guards were talking amongst themselves, not paying me any mind, so I quickly slipped to the side, out of their view thanks to the sand dunes, and raced through the protection ward. I felt the familiar zap, especially when it encountered my hand that fisted the knocker. It didn’t want to pass through, but I grunted and yanked with all of my Shifter strength. And still, as I fell on my butt when it released, I was pretty sure it only did so because it was going out instead of in.

Jumping to my feet, I didn’t bother wiping the sand off my black cargos, and I grabbed my case and gun I had dropped. And raised my hand. Placed the knocker a few inches taller than me, less than a foot ahead. I used it, knocking into thin air.

My eyes widened as a golden door shimmered and wavered in front of me, quickly becoming a solid gold door with a glimmering doorknob. I glanced around it, but it only looked like a door standing tall in the middle of the beach. Eyeing it, I pocketed the handle, then palmed my gun.

Hearing footsteps racing my way, I didn’t look back and quickly opened the door. It swung open and a blast of cold winter air blew against my face and body, making me shiver. Tiny flakes of snow drifted through the doorway to instantly melt against the heat of the beach. Through the open doorway it was night, the full moon shining down on a ton of trees, the forest’s floor covered in snow. Directly in the center of it, almost fifty yards away, was a log home, two stories tall with a wraparound porch, snow covering its overhang and roof, smoke billowing from its chimney and its windows lit merrily.

It looked like a Christmas card, it was so picturesque, but I could feel the taint of black magic surrounding it, ruining its beautiful effect. But that didn’t matter because I needed to get through the door before whoever was almost on me stopped me from doing this. So I stepped through, my feet crunching and falling down into six inches of snow, Bonnie following dutifully even as she hissed.

Instantly, the door disappeared, only the forest behind us. It was eerily silent. Unlike the normal sounds you would hear in a location such as this. Even the wind made no noise through the trees as it blew snow down on me.

The feeling now surrounding me was reminiscent to what Southern Coms called bad juju.

Flatly, it felt wrong.

I shivered, not from the cold, and started trekking toward the log home. Bonnie moved with me, growling softly and scanning the area. It was my destination and I wasn’t about to stop now. My husband would live. No matter the cost to myself.




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