Page 111 of Twist of Fate

Yes.

The promise held him in place.

Tyson stepped beside him. “The king is waiting for our report. We need to move.”

“He will return,” Asterius said.

“I know.”

“You look as though you intend to chase the car.”

“I do.”

Asterius raised his brows.

Connal forced himself to turn away from the road. “But I will not.”

A second vehicle waited at the far end of the service lane. It carried them away from Koios’s facility and through miles of human streets before Tyson directed the driver onto an isolated road.

Only then did Connal raise his hand and open a portal.

Asterius crossed first, followed by Tyson. Connal remained long enough to look back in the direction Luke had gone. The bond offered only the faintest awareness that his mate remained somewhere in the human realm.

Then Connal forced himself to step into the Unseelie.

The portal closed, and the fragile awareness vanished.

Magic surrounded Connal with the familiar certainty of the Unseelie realm, woven through the castle and responsive to his presence. For the first time since finding Luke, none of it offered comfort. He reached instinctively for his mate and found only the barrier between realms.

Connal started toward the audience chamber. Asterius and Tyson hurried to keep pace as the castle shifted to clear his path.

“Easy, brother,” Asterius warned. “You’re about to tear through a wall that’s trying to help you.”

Connal forced his pace to steady. They reached the audience chamber moments later, the doors opening at their approach. He crossed the threshold without waiting to be announced.

Silenus looked up, his expression sharpening as he took in their faces. Power rested easily around him, contained but unmistakable.

Connal stopped at the base of the dais and inclined his head. “My king.”

Asterius and Tyson followed suit, Tyson’s bow more measured but no less respectful.

Silenus studied them. “You went to the Oracle.”

“We did.”

“And what did you learn?”

“The drive contained results meant to demonstrate the capabilities of a tracking system,” Connal said. “It does not merely detect magic. It maps individual anomalies to their precise locations.”

Asterius stepped forward. “It recorded the fire we encountered in the human realm.”

Silenus’s expression hardened.

“The actual system is active elsewhere,” Connal continued. “We believe the drive was intended to prove that it works before the system is sold.”

Silence settled over the chamber.

“This exposes us,” Silenus said quietly.