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Bram shakes his head. “I called him again two hours ago. I’ve neither seen nor heard from him since before Anka’s disappearance. For his sake, I hope he had no part in Anka breaking her mate bond. If Lucan survives, he will come for the bastard.”
“Would losing Shock truly be a loss?”
“For humanity?” Bram shrugs. “On the surface, I’d say no. But he isn’t quite like the rest of his House. Oh, he’s dodgy. And he doesn’t play well with others. No one knows much about him. By design, I think. But if you’re asking whether the Doomsday Brethren would suffer without Shock, that’s harder to say. He hasn’t helped much so far, but I have a gut feeling…”
“He is powerful.”
“In more than one way. That’s why I coerced him into fighting for us, despite the fact his family is full of Mathias supporters. But maybe Lucan was right about the bastard.”
“Time will tell.” In the distance, Lucan’s mournful howls echo through the otherwise silent house. “I grasp now why your friend is losing his humanity and soul.”
’Tis bad enough that Gray took my mate, but if he also persuaded her to break our bond… I could not bear thus. After mere hours without Olivia, I am on the brink of insanity. My bone-deep anxiety grinds down my hope. For the millionth time since her disappearance, I pace. What good is immortality if Gray’s spells felled me?
“I’ve always heard that losing a mate is—”
“I have no words,” I choke out.
Bram approaches. Our gazes connect. He claps my shoulder, and I feel him in my mind.
Normally, I would shove him out with a harsh word and an intimidating glare. But his face softens with regret. “Rion?”
“A week ago, I stood in this very room and convinced friends and foes alike to put aside our differences to join my ‘noble cause.’ I knew war would be a bitch, but I expected we’d last longer than a week before suffering losses like this. But here we are, and everything’s already turning to shit. Shock has proven as unreliable as Lucan feared. He’s my best friend, and I worry he won’t recover before his energy runs out. Anka and Olivia are both missing. And you…” He shakes his head. “You wanted this least, and I strong-armed you into it most. I’m sorry.”
The cocky, golden boy of magical royalty, Bram Rion, apologizing?
From the beginning, I wanted no part of him or his Doomsday Brethren, but if Rion can be honest, I should be as well. “The fault is not yours. ’Tis that of the Anarki. Had I remained hidden in the forest, Mathias would have found me. And I could not protect Olivia alone. This morn proved that.”
“None of us could have known Gray would—”
“I knew. Not for one moment have I trusted him.” Yet had I separated him from Olivia, she would only have run to him.
Now that he has shown his true colors? I will come for her sire relentlessly. He will learn the Anarki were—by far—the easier opponents to evade.
Bram nods. “And you were right.”
“When I get my hands on Gray, I will happily rip out his entrails with my bare hands.”
When Bram opens his mouth to reply, a little white bird whisks in, chirping beside me. “Bring the Doomsday Diary to a tunnel on the south bank of the Thames at two a.m. Come alone, or Olivia dies.”
I still. “That voice… ’Tis not Richard Gray.”
“No.” Bram sounds grim. “That is Mathias.”
So I was right, Gray is allied with the dark wizard. And he no longer needs Olivia to open the book. We foolishly did that for him.
Fear unlike any I have ever felt chokes me. I sink to Bram’s stylish sofa, dread charring out my belly. “Jesu, Mathias has his hands on my mate.”
And perhaps other things. Between Bram’s vision and the pictures of Mathias’s victims, I know precisely what he does to women.
Haunted by those images, I drop my head in my hands. The thought of him hurting my Olivia… Murderous doesn’t begin to cover how I feel. “I must save her.”
“We’ll try everything possible.”
“Try? Nay. I will rescue her.” I leap to my feet. “The bastard can have the book. Tell the damn bird that.”
Bram grabs my arm. “You can’t give it to Mathias.”
“You cannot stop me!”
