“I’m saying, after reviewing all the facts, I believe she has gone after the witches herself. With Andrea.” Ghost’s resolve cracks with every word. His weight shifts slightly from one foot to the other. This is a man unraveling from the inside out.
Kendrick’s brow furrows. “What would possess her to do something so reckless?”
The answer is obvious. To me, at least. “Mona saw what happened to me and Lily. She sees what’s happening with the others. Mona’s got too much heart and too much power to stand on the sidelines while people suffer.”
Kendrick’s voice rises. “We haven’t been sitting idly by. I’ve been hunting down every goddamn coven in the country. And Ghost—” he gestures sharply “—has been in the air more than he’s been on the ground.”
I shake my head. “She doesn’t know all that because you won’t talk to her.” I turn accusingly to Grayson. “You keep her in the dark for her own good. Fat lot of fucking good that did. And besides, something must have changed with her visions. She was fine last night. This morning, she woke up, and something changed. You have no idea what it was like down there in the cell. Not just what the witches would do to us, but being with Lily during the forced heat… wanting to help her and knowingI couldn’t. That kind of helplessness changes you. And Mona witnessed it all. Again and again.”
The realization strikes me hard. Slowly at first, then with the blunt weight of a sledgehammer across my temple. I’m such an idiot. My Mona didn’t leave me. She’s trying to save me—save all of us. She’s running headfirst into danger, and she’s going to get herself killed.
“Something changed with her visions, something urgent. She must have got some clue where they are,” I say.
“But why not tell us?” Orion murmurs sadly, more to himself. “Why not come to us for help?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, though I suspect it’s because whatever plan she came up with, she knew we wouldn’t approve of or let her anywhere near it. “We’ll ask her that when we find her.” I’ll track her to the ends of the earth, and I’ll drag her back kicking and screaming if I have to. She can’t just give herself to me, then walk away. I warned her. I told her that once she agreed, there’s no escape from this bond, not while I’m still breathing. I don’t care if she left for some noble reason. Nope. Don’t fucking care.
I need her. Here, now, yesterday, always.
“How do we look for her?” Grayson asks the group. My typically fierce brother—the one who never shows weakness—sounds hollow, drained of his usual certainty.
“I might be able to find her,” Ghost admits quietly. “My mother and I... I’ve been weaving a spell every night I’m here, trying to offer her some protection. Inadvertently, it also enhanced her magic. One of the reasons her dreams have gotten so strong. Haven’t you noticed the subtle change in her scent?”
I’m caught between rage that he kept this from us and relief that we might have a way to find her. Grayson and Orion begin shouting, significantly less impressed, but they haven’t spent time with Ghost like I have. They don’t realize this is how heoperates. Quietly, in the background, until he’s ready to share. Now that he’s mentioned it, Mona’s honey and jasmine scent has shifted lately—not just stronger, but richer, somehow. More potent. More intense, like someone turned up the volume.
Ghost cuts through the shouting. “It’s not like a GPS. But she's infused with my magic, so I might be able to use a tracking spell to find her.”
Kendrick steps forward, taking the lead. “If you find her, you'll be faster in falcon form. You track her down, and we’ll tag you with an actual GPS tracker, and the four of us will follow by car. You find our girl, and we’ll be right behind you.”
Ghost nods and explains what he needs. And without prompting, he shifts right there in the kitchen. As his scent shield dissolves, that distinctive sulfuric witch-magic smell permeates the air. I force myself to breathe through it, pushing back the memories threatening to rise to the surface. When he returns to human form, his expression holds a small amount of hope.
“I can find her,” he confirms. “I should be able to catch up to her by next nightfall. I can’t tell where they are exactly, but it’s about a day’s worth of flying, heading south.”
It’s not enough. If that witch lays a finger on Mona, what I did to Pierre will seem merciful. I need Mona here, safe, where no harm can come to her. I need to feel her heartbeat against mine, to breathe in her honeyed scent. The knowledge that she’s okay right now isn’t enough to calm me—but it’ll sustain until we find her. Until I bring her home.
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Chapter 34: Mona
The drive seems endless, landscape changing every dozen miles as we wind through quiet highways and forgotten back roads. It’s taken us a day and a half to reach Shenandoah Valley in northern Virginia, and I’m almost irate at Deidre for bringing us here for such nefarious reasons. The rolling Blue Ridge Mountains shimmer against the sun in the distance, beautifully cruel and mocking. I wish I could see it for the first time without knowing they’re the backdrop to my death march.
Perhaps that’s better, too, though. They’ll be among the last things I see before we reach our destination. Wherever Deidre’s underground silo is, we’re getting closer.
She slipped into my dreams last night. Her nostrils flared when she saw Andrea at my side, those blood-red lips pressing into a thin line.
“Andrea stays with me,” I said, bracing for the explosion.
“That wasn’t the deal.”
“You said no mates. And she’s my bodyguard—slipping away without her noticing would’ve been impossible. This was the only way.”
She paused, studying Andrea with calculating eyes. “I suppose it’s alright,” she replied, her anger dissolving entirely too quickly, as if Andrea’s presence didn’t bother her at all. Deidre’s sudden compliance only deepened my suspicion that I was walking into a trap, but I listened carefully as she outlined the remaining route, ensuring we’d see her by nightfall today.
Andrea and I haven’t talked much, but we need to.
We need to face what’s coming. The reality of the situation, of what we signed up for.
Reluctantly, I clear my throat, as it’s been over an hour since I’ve said a word. “When we get there, you’ll need to get everyone out.”
