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Another day had passed, though, with no news. The hounds, the wolves, Agatheena, they all had nothing. I burst into a run, needing to burn off the rage, the fear inside that I’d never find her, that she was lost to me forever. She’d put me back together, and whether she wanted me or not, I would bring her back. Somehow, I would find her.

Chest heaving, I stopped and paced back and forth, only realizing in the moment that I’d come to Jaz’s field. I dropped my ass under her favorite tree, for no other reason than she’d been here. I pulled out my phone and worked my way through every picture I had of her, and fuck it hurt. I ached for her. Her absence was a crater in my chest. Squeezing the phone tight, I closed my eyes and again prayed to the mother. I wasn’t a witch, but if anyone could help, it was her. She didn’t answer, of course, she never did.

My breath burst from my lungs when something flowed in the center of my chest.

Jasmine.

What the fuck? I narrowed my focus to where I felt her, where the mating bond pulsed inside me steadily.

It flared again. I didn’t fucking move, didn’t breathe—

It happened a third time.

I shot to my feet. That feeling, it wasn’t muted, not anymore. She was using magic to reach out to me, she had to be. “Fuck. Fuck!” My female needed me, was calling me, I was sure of it, and I had no fucking clue where to look. I paced, my body primed to run, but I had nowhere to go. I made myself breathe. Think.

I swiped my phone open again and scrolled through the pictures I’d taken at Xavier’s house. That fucking house. There was something about it, something off. My instincts still told me that’s where I needed to be. I hadn’t looked at the pictures since I got back yesterday. Now I searched each one, enlarging them, studying every inch, looking for something…fucking anything.

I zoomed in on the next one. I’d taken it in the basement room. What the fuck was that?

Something tickled my cheek. I swiped at it and tried to make the image bigger. Was that? There was a shadow, a shadow that looked—

I zoomed in again. The unmistakable outline of a cheek came into focus, a chin, lips. I knew those lips, that chin, I’d run my fingers over that cheek. It was faint, ghostly, like looking at a faded reflection in a pane of glass.

Jasmine.

But not a ghost, because I felt her. She was alive.

Something brushed my cheek again. I tore my gaze from the screen. A small butterfly darted and dived around my face. What the hell? It was dark, butterflies weren’t out at night. It fluttered and swooped around me, not stopping. It was the same kind of butterfly that had been with Jasmine the last time I’d seen her. I was sure of it. It was darting away, then coming back, then darting away and coming back, like it…like it wanted me to follow.

My heart pounded harder in my chest. Was this really what I thought it was? Could Jaz have sent one of her little familiars to find me?

The butterfly darted around me again, flying away, then coming back. I held out my hand, and it landed. “I know where we’re going.” I cradled the butterfly in my hands and ran for my place and the hearse. She was in that fucking house. He was keeping her there and using his powers to hold her prisoner. That had to be it.

I jumped in the hearse, and the butterfly stayed on my hand as I started the engine and roared out onto the street. I needed to keep my cool or I’d wreck the fucking car. Fucking focus. I was getting her out of that house, and if I had to kill that fucker to break her free, I’d do it.

If he’d hurt her…

I gripped the steering wheel tighter.

Then I’d draw on all the twisted fucking shit Edward had forced me to do when he’d possessed me. I’d risk it all, even my sanity, and I’d get her back.

I’d make him bleed.

I’d make him scream.

And I wouldn’t stop until I had my mate home safe.

The drive to the house felt like an eternity. I had no plan, but I knew I couldn’t just storm in there like I wanted to. If I did that, he could vanish with Jasmine. He could take her away, hide her behind another of his blocks, and I’d never find her.

Parking the hearse a block away, I got out, pulled on my hooded sweatshirt, and followed the little butterfly to the house. Sticking to the shadows, I stood across the street. All the lights were on, and my fox tensed, tilting his head to the side, listening.

Xavier was raging. The butterfly danced around my face, trying to get me to follow. I ducked low and sprinted across the street and down the side of the house. Peering through the window, through the lace curtains into the living room, I spotted him. Xavier’s face was red with fury, and he was screaming Jasmine’s name. He paced away, then back, then called for her again. His hands and chin were stained with blood. My claws punched through the ends of my fingers, my canines descending.

I told myself she was okay…because she had to be. If she wasn’t, he wouldn’t be raging like he was.

He couldn’t find her. Somewhere, somehow, she was hiding from him in his own house.

I forced myself from the window and let the butterfly guide me. He darted up, flying higher until I lost sight of him in the darkness. Fuck. I strained, trying to see. The clouds parted, and light from the nearing dawn cast a dull light across the side of the house. There. He was swooping and swerving, struggling, then he rounded the corner back to the front of the house. I eased around the corner, looking up in time to see him disappear through the vents above a single window at the very top, in the small peaked tower in the middle of the roof.