Page 143 of Mage Massacres

He pointed to her chest, leaning forward to study her mate marks. I didn’t notice anything different about them, except they were all lit up and brighter than when we’d sealed our bond in Hell. They weren’t fading back to the iridescent white symbols.

“She didn’t tell me that would happen,” the mage muttered.

“What do you mean?” Sloane asked, rubbing at her chest.

“I don’t know.” He threw his hands in the air, repeating, “I don’t know.”

She pulled his arms down, raising her brows when he met her eyes. “It’ll be okay. We’ll cross that path when we get to it. We have enough going on, so let’s make some plans for the immediate problems.”

I nodded in agreement, steering the conversation onto a different topic. “Did you call Sarge? He said he wanted to join us when we went to the fae realm.”

“I sent him a text,” she replied, pulling their messages up on her phone.

“We’re in Oxford. Can you make it here by noon tomorrow?”

“I’m a dragon, Lo. Levi and I are

already here, and we found the mer.

Bring a jacket. It’s going to be chilly.”

“Meet us at the portal at ten. We have a loose plan.”

“Of course, you do. We’ll be there.”

Novak peered over my shoulder, reading the messages before we passed her phone around.

“How much help do you think he’ll be?” Stone questioned.

“Loads,” Vaughn replied. “We may have to stop him from tearing the palace apart to get to Freya, but we do need him. They sealed their bond years ago, so the land will recognize him as much as it does her.”

“Tell them the rest,” Barbie prompted.

Vaughn smirked at her. “Once we step into the realm, the magic will sense its heir, and Alania will send guards after me. Sam has been harboring Ruby, so when she arrives, we can handle the fake queen. We need all the Winter children to overthrow her. Sloane can stand in and speak for me, and Sarge can do the same for Freya. We’ll both be chained up in the dungeon, being damsels in need of rescuing.”

Sloane snorted, then scowled. “It’s not funny.”

“No, Princess. It’s not,” he amended. “But we’ll be able to find Nate and Amelia while we’re down there. I don’t know how serious Alric or Anahein was with the deadline they left you, but the month is almost up.”

“Let’s assume the deadline is real,” she decided, creating order for the chaos in her mind. “We need to find them and get them out. Once they’re out of the way, we can deal with Alania.”

She rubbed her temples. “Were you serious about the chains?”

“Yes. The magic won’t hold me captive, though. That’s how I got out the last time I was arrested in the fae realm.” Vaughn frowned, replaying his memories. “If we can get them out, then we can send them to my grandfather. He can take them through the portal to Charlie and Rig.”

“That’s why they stayed at Amelia’s?” York questioned.

“Yes,” Sloane answered. “In twelve days, Jack and Hyde will bring everyone to Northern Ireland. On day fifteen, if they haven’t heard from us, then they’ll come to our rescue.”

I nodded. That was a decent plan except, “How will they get in the fae realm?”

She shrugged once more. “I might have been anti-social, but Jack wasn’t. He knows more people than he can keep track of, some of which are fae.”

Stone tilted his head, observing her as she focused on the stars. “Why is this making you so anxious?”

“It’s not the trip or the plan,” she responded, playing with her fingers. “I want to make sure my father and Amelia get home, though I’m dreading another reunion with a lost parent. How many times does that have to happen before I call bullshit?”

“You think you’ll get sidetracked, and someone will get hurt…” I let my sentence hang in the air between us, knowing it to be true.