She was my queen. My reason for seeking the throne. My purpose for ruling all the others.
Because she wanted me to.
Except she hadn’t wanted me to disappear all those years ago. So why the hell had I done that? Had I misinterpreted her desires?
Or was it something else entirely?
I’m missing a key detail,I decided.Did my link to her humanity give me a hero complex? Did it shift my mindset over the centuries into a desire to find peace between immortals and mortals? Why would I choose to lead in that way?
Because I had absolutely no yearning for it now, even with my rekindled link to Ismerelda. If anything, I desired the opposite. I just wanted to find her and shelter us both from the madness of the world. Hide and exist in our own quiet peace, and fuck everyone and everything else.
“Here’s a list of all the cars registered in the lot,” Cedric was saying to Damien, their conversation pulling me from my thoughts.
“They’re all still there,” Damien replied, his focus on the screen—one of which he was now manipulating like Cedric had. The two of them appeared to be scanning through ample datasets and video feeds, their knack for technology showing.
It almost made me smile. Mostly because Ismerelda had pretended not to understand laptops mere weeks ago, and that had very much been a lie.
She possessed skills similar to her brother’s. Perhaps she would even be better than him if properly trained.
“Here.” Damien enlarged a black sedan with tinted windows. “It passed through checkpoint seven’s camera feed but didn’t reach checkpoint eight. The parking lot is between those.”
Cedric pulled the image away from him, then fast-forwarded to show the same sedan going back through the feed.
“That’s thirteen minutes later,” he said. “It stopped somewhere between the two, then backtracked.” He made a motion that flung the detail back to Damien while he pulled up another screen. “I’ll track it while you review that feed to see if there’s a clear indicator somewhere on there. A vehicle identification number. A shot of the driver. Anything.”
Damien was already zooming through the footage before Cedric even finished speaking, the rest of us watching.
The rest of us being Ryder, Darius, Jace, and several others,I thought, glancing around the room. I had no idea when they all had arrived, but they were here now and had clearly been brought up to speed.
I scanned the group, searching for anyone noticeably missing. Because that lycan or vampire might be our culprit, or perhaps related to the incident.
The lycans were all huddled together, talking quietly amongst themselves about the hallway scents. Nothing apparently stood out to them, just like none of them particularly stood out to me, either. They all appeared to be accounted for, with Jolene and Luka leading the discussions.
Darius and Jace spoke in hushed tones with Kylan and Khalid, the four of them reviewing next steps, most of which included hunting Ismerelda down.
But there was also a hint of strategy lurking in their conversation, their need to push forward and find a way into the underground an import?—
A buzzing in my mind instantly stilled all my thoughts, my psyche searching for the source.
No. Not a buzzing,I thought, frowning.An… engine?
I glanced around, seeing if anyone else could hear it.
No one seemed to be reacting to anything in particular, their stances and discussions remaining unchanged. Cedric andDamien were also still focused on the screens, their words clipped as they passed things back and forth.
Meanwhile, the rumbling grew louder in my mind, the sound reminiscent of a growl.What is that?I marveled. It was too impactful to be a car engine. Too much like an explosion, except controlled.
It roared through my senses, making me wince.
Then a soft, sweet voice groggily whispered,Plane…
Ismerelda?I straightened.Are you awake?
I… I don’t…Her words trailed off, that roaring sound disappearing.
“What is it?” The demand came from directly in front of me, causing me to blink as I realized Ryder was right in my face.
“Back off,” I snarled, needing to concentrate on my mate.Ismerelda?
