“So which way did he go?” I asked.
Kiara’s arms slackened at her sides as the arrow twitched erratically. “I don’t know. I can’t locate Jasper. He put some kind of defensive ward around him to prevent him from being tracked, and the Crystals of Harmony are too strong for my own power, so I can’t trace their magic, either.”
“What about Ozzie?” Emma pressed.
“Hm.” Kiara bit her lip, and wiggled her fingers. The spinning arrow immediately came to an abrupt halt before it quivered and vanished.
Her eyebrows raised in surprise as she said, “No defensive spells here.”
“Is he with Jasper?” I asked.
“No.” Kiara shook her head. “I don’t believe so. If so, the arrow would’ve lit up, and not vanished.”
“Ozzie’s scent is stronger than Jasper’s,” I noted. “He was here more recently.”
“They left at different times, then,” Emma mused. “I think Jasper took the stones and left first, then Ozzie followed him.”
“I don’t think Ozzie had any idea what Jasper was doing. Maybe he was trying to stop him,” I theorized.
“That makes the most sense,” Emma added. “Ozzie can’t keep a secret, and if he knew Jasper was going to take the stones, he’d have let it slip.”
“Why didn’t Ozzie come back and tell us Jasper was gone?” I asked.
“He knew we’d react badly. Ozzie said that Jasper has been distant, keeping him in the dark lately,” Emma said. “You know the mechanics between mates are weird. If you betrayed our friends and ran off, I’d probably try to talk you out of it on my own, before I got anyone else involved.”
“That’s not the only problem.” Kiara frowned. “By the arrow vanishing, the locator spell is indicating that Ozzie can’t be traced at all.”
“And what does that mean?” Emma asked crossly.
“It… it means...” Kiara hesitated.
“What?” Emma demanded.
“If Ozzie hasn’t put any wards up to protect himself, but I can’t find him anyway… that means either someone else is concealing him, or he’s already dead.”
Emma gave a soft noise of terror, while my veins took over a freezing chill.
Kiara shook her head and said, “I might be jumping to conclusions. We can’t prove anything.”
“But Jasper’s alive?” I pressed.
“Yes. The arrow didn’t vanish, so he’s still out there,” Kiara said.
Emma chewed her lip, and I said, “Something about this whole thing is off. I don’t believe Jasper would allow any harm to come to his mate.”
“Mates can betray you.”
Amantha had overheard. She strode up behind us with Finlay in tow. Amantha put her hands on her hips and said, “With the right motivation, even mates can be convinced to turn their backs on each other. This is Jasper’s fault, and he’s put Ozzie right in the middle of it.”
“Jasper wouldn’t let anything happen to Ozzie. They risked everything to be together,” Emma argued.
Finlay gave a cruel laugh. “Love means little in times of war. He was offered a good deal by Gabby, and he took it.”
“That can’t be the whole truth. If Jasper truly was a traitor, why hasn’t he told Gabby where we are? He could easily give her our location, and we would’ve been dead,” I said.
“I don’t know. You’ve gotta be right and there’s more to the story,” Emma said.
Finlay let out a growl. Amantha didn’t look like she was convinced. “Jasper has been acting weird since we got here,” she insisted. “He probably didn’t say anything about the estate to cover his own ass, since he was staying here with us and didn’t have anywhere else to hide.”
