His eyebrows drew down. “Are you laughing at me?”
“Yes,” she said, unable to stop herself from giggling again. He was angry that their daughter had chosen a worthy mate, only because it kept him from being able to kill the man touching her.
While Caro wasn’t all that thrilled with the idea that her child—who was still a baby in her eyes—had grown up so quickly and found a partner, she could appreciate that her daughter had chosen well.
“It’s not funny.”
“No,” she agreed, biting her lip again and holding back more mirth.
“Then why are you laughing?”
“Because you’re upset our daughter found a mate you can’t kill.” She cupped his cheek, both amused and even more in love than she was minutes ago. “I want to see her. I want to meet this man who thinks he’s good enough for her, too.”
“You won’t be laughing then,” Sethios muttered, pulling her closer.
She smiled. “Perhaps not. Ready for me to mist?”
He stole another quick kiss, then nodded. “Yes. Let’s go find our daughter.”
A statement she’d been dying to hear for what felt like an eternity. It was finally time to see the result of their sacrifice. To see the woman her daughter had become. Caro realized in a breath that worrying over her own wardrobe or hair paled in comparison to the reality of being able to hug her daughter again.
Nothing else mattered. Only the reunion ahead.
“Hold on,” she whispered.
“I’ll never let go of you again,” Sethios vowed.
Her lips curled, her eyes falling closed as her wings fluttered to life. She’d never felt more whole than in that moment, knowing they’d finally survived and were on their way to see the piece of them that’d been missing for far too long.
Except, as her wings began to pulsate, a strange sort of sensation settled over her. It tingled and vibrated, the energy an invisible strand that wrapped around her and held on. “Sethios?”
He didn’t reply, his body tense.
Power rippled over them.
Electricity sizzled through the air.
And his limbs began to shake. He held on to her as tightly as he could, but the violent shudders appeared to be forcing him to release his grip. She threw her arms around his neck, igniting her mist, intending to take him with her, only he went ethereal at the same time. Wings twice the size of hers exploded from his back in a flurry of black plumes, tinged with dark blue at the edges.
She gasped, shocked by the display, only to swallow the sound as he sent them flying to an unknown destination.
Caro tried to ask him what he was doing, but they were moving too fast for her to speak.
It was almost as though someone had wrapped a cord around him and yanked him through space and time. She’d only been along for the ride because she’d clung to him. Her legs wrapped around his waist, her arms tightening around his neck, refusing to lose him.
He didn’t hold her back, his agony at having no control over his actions vibrating through their bond. It’s Osiris, he managed to grit out into her mind. He’s... he’s compelling me to mist to him.
How?
The day in Maine. I felt him unleashing his compulsion, but he distracted me by freeing Skye from his mental hold. I’d assumed the power I felt was from him releasing her. But I was wrong. He embedded a persuasive link in me so deep I couldn’t even sense it.
She felt him trying to fight the compulsion, his mind frantically searching for the cord to sever it. But it was already too late.
White walls formed around them, their destined location revealing itself inch by inch, until they found themselves in the middle of a large living area with windows overlooking a white sand beach framed by the bluest of oceans.
“Ah, you’re here,” a familiar voice said, sending a chill down Caro’s spine. “And I see you found your lost Seraphim.”
Sethios’s blood boiled, his stupidity infuriating him. He should have seen this play coming from a mile away, but he’d been so consumed with finding Caro that he’d ignored the obvious.
