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“Because, as you have already guessed, he used magic to not only snatch you, but to disguise your whereabouts.”
“And Jak?”
“Unharmed.” His voice was as neutral as his expression. “I will admit to a somewhat angry response to his part in your abduction, but I controlled it the minute I realized he was an unwilling participant.”
“Meaning you beat him up, then healed him?”
“Something like that.” He returned my gaze evenly. “He does not now remember the event.”
Meaning the event, as he put it, had been pretty bad. “I told you Jak wouldn’t willingly betray me, Azriel.”
“He has before, so that is an illogical statement.”
Perhaps it was, but I nevertheless believed it. “What, exactly, did Lucian do to him?”
“Nothing more than luring him to the warehouse with the promise of a story, then capturing his mind.”
Which was why Jak hadn’t really sounded himself. They had been Lucian’s words, not Jak’s. I drank some Coke, enjoying the fuzzy goodness for several seconds before saying, “We need to find Ilianna. Until she’s free, we’re stuck doing whatever Lucian wants us to do.”
“I would suspect that he has her position well hidden by his magic.”
I frowned. “Does it take much magic to do that sort of thing?”
He shrugged, the movement brief but somehow elegant. “I am not knowledgeable when it comes to magic, but I would suspect so.”
“So perhaps what we need is someone who is not only knowledgeable in all matters magic, but who is able to detect such things.”
“Ilianna’s mother.”
I nodded and thrust upward. “We need to go see—”
I cut the rest of the sentence off as a phone rang. It wasn’t my phone—I hadn’t yet gotten around to charging the damn thing—but rather a phone coming from Tao’s room. It was answered after a few seconds, but that didn’t do much to ease the tension suddenly running through me.
I knew who was making that call. Knew why.
After a few minutes, Tao stumbled out, looking somewhat disheveled and far from awake. “It’s Mirri,” he said, thrusting the phone at me. “She’s not making sense. Is Ilianna missing or something?”
“Yes.” I grabbed the phone and said, “It’s okay, Mirri. I know what’s happened to her, and she’s okay.”
“Oh, thank god.” Tears filled her bright eyes. “I was so afraid something bad had happened to her. Where is she? Why hasn’t she contacted me?”
Something bad had happened, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. At the same time, I couldn’t not tell her what was going on. I hesitated, then said, “I’m afraid she’s being held hostage against my good behavior. She hasn’t been hurt, and won’t be, as long as I do everything her kidnapper says.”
“Oh, fuck.”
That, ten times over, I thought grimly. “I think we’ve worked out a way to free her, Mirri—”
The phone was snatched from her hand, and suddenly I was staring at a man with piercing, light blue eyes, pale skin, and silver-white hair. Albino, I thought, and then realized this was probably Carwyn.
“I want in on any rescue attempt,” he said, voice deep and fierce.
“I doubt that Ilianna would—”
“I may not yet be her mate,” he cut in. “But I will be. Whoever did this to her must pay.”
And that was both the stallion and the man speaking, I thought grimly. And yet I couldn’t do everything. If I were to have any hope of prizing Ilianna away from Lucian’s clutches, then it would have to be when Lucian was otherwise distracted.
“We’ve got to find her first,” I said; then, when he opened his mouth to obviously argue, I quickly added, “The minute we do, we’ll ring you.”
