“Nope.” Riona gave her a look. “Honestly, had Zeke showed up in the middle of the night, he and Luna would have woken the whole household with their antics.”
She was right.
Still.
“She was here,” she swore, heading outside. Determined to find Constance’s car parked somewhere out of sight.
Yet she stopped short the moment she walked out the door. “Did you hear that?”
Riona joined her and shook her head. “Hear what?”
“I don’t know,” she murmured, but it sounded familiar. She drifted toward the tree. Needed to hear it again. Desperate to, actually. “It’s a familiar sound....” Her heart clenched. “Something I’m supposed to hear.”
“I don’t hear anything.” Riona strained to hear. “Nothing at all.”
“You wouldn’t,” Madison said softly, certain she was right. Her gaze dropped to Riona's sketch. To the jagged cliffs. Frothing ocean.
Then to the tiny opening in the cliff that she hadn’t noticed the first time.
“What is this?” She pointed at it and looked at her sister. “What did you draw here?”
“I don’t know.” Riona shook her head and frowned. “Or maybe I do.” Her eyes got a little strange as she gazed at it. “It’s a cave that overlooks the sea.” Her eyes got stranger still. “A place where only the right person can stand and....”
She trailed off when Madison heard the sound again. Only this time, much louder, echoing over the sea.
That’s when she realized.
“Gods above, this image is of King’s Roar.”
“King’s what?”
“Remember, I told you....” Yet she realized as she trailed off that she hadn’t shared that part for no other reason than it had felt like hers and Cian’s alone.
“It’s definitely King’s Roar.” The sound grew louder. First, the one she had heard when Cian had stood behind her. A mournful wailing. Heart-wrenching agony. Then it became more.
A cry across the Atlantic for help.
A mighty roar.
Cian’s roar.
“I have to go.” She shoved the sketchbook into Riona’s hands, looked her in the eyes, and worked to remain calm when she was anything but. “I have to go, but it’ll be all right. I promise. Everything will be okay.”
“But, what...”
Riona said more, but she didn’t stick around long enough to hear it. Instead, she ran as fast as she could straight at the old oak and roared right back, hoping Cian heard her reply.
More than that, hoping she wasn’t too late.
