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She blew out a breath. “I was left to work in the shop while they rescued my brother.”

“George came with us to bust out Alec and the rest of the hostages,” I told her. “And Alec got to be the one to kill Aldith. He may not have been able to walk, but sheer determination had him chopping off her head.” I got choked up remembering. “Your gran stayed with Fyr and your parents at the keep.”

“George and Alec told me.” She reached out and patted my arm. “I’m sorry about how they treated you.” She rubbed her own arms. The tunnel was getting colder. “I still can’t believe they had one of those fae bastards who’d stolen my brother working for them the whole time. And then you guys, the ones finally trying to rescue Alec, are insulted and disrespected.”

Yeah, that had pissed me off too. Still, I didn’t like the thought of Coco being estranged from her parents. “In their defense, they weren’t expecting three vampires and a vampire’s werewolf wife to show up on their doorstep. They’d just found out that a vampire had imprisoned their son for the last twenty years and then we arrive? I mean, I get the hostility. They didn’t trust us and wanted us to get the hell out. Which we did.”

“After you left, Gran and Dad flew over the area where Fyr believed he’d been kept,” she said. “Dad had flown over Snowdonia a million times throughout the years and just like all those other times, they found nothing. They flew back, feeling more defeated than ever. I think at that point, Gran wished she’d gone with you, but it was too late.”

“The property had been spelled,” I told her. “There was no way they could have found it. George flew directly over it and saw nothing. We had to get through the wards in order to find the house.”

She nodded. “After you rescued Alec and they all returned to the keep, George explained it to everyone. Apparently, Alec asked about me, which was what reminded them they should call and include me in the storytelling.”

I heard the hurt in her voice. I walked closer, looping my arm through hers. “I’m sorry,” I murmured.

She turned to me and smiled, but her eyes were glassy. “I was overjoyed he’d been found, but they were all there. Together. Celebrating his return. They got to hug him, assure themselves it was true. I was alone in San Francisco.”

She swallowed and then continued. “I kept checking my phone, looking at recent calls to assure myself that it had happened. My brother was alive and I had spoken to him. It wasn’t a dream.”

“Being by yourself while they got to celebrate together must have been hard,” I ventured.

She nodded. “I was happy for them, for everyone. I was alone, but I was in my comfortable home, working at my jewelry shop. I wasn’t starving and beaten, alone in a cell, so it felt wrong to be…I don’t know.”

“It’s not a pain competition,” I said. “You’re allowed to feel left out.”

The corner of her lips went up. “Alec says that. Whenever I stop myself from bitching about anything, knowing whatever I’m going through is nothing compared to what he’s endured, he reminds me this isn’t a misery competition, and I’m allowed to be annoyed by that jerk who cut me off in traffic or that bitchy customer who gave me grief.”

Grinning, I said, “He’s right. I don’t know Alec that well yet, but he’s an amazing person and quite insightful.”

She nodded, wiping a tear that had broken free. “He was always the best of us.”

When I’d crashed a Drake family dinner at George and Owen’s recently, I’d noticed the close relationship between Coco and Alec. He seemed to recognize that she, as the older sister, blamed herself for his abduction. He saw the deep well of sadness and guilt in her and he was the one trying to tend to her, to heal her as he was healing.

“Hey,” Stheno interrupted, “can I ask you something?”

Coco shrugged. “I guess so.”

Stheno studied Coco a moment. “You and Fyr, you hittin’ that?”

Coco was immediately flustered. “What? No. We’re just friends.”

“Hmmm.” Stheno looked as though she didn’t believe her. “I’m just saying, there’s something going on with that boy. He’s been different lately and yours is the only name he’s ever dropped.”

Coco blinked a couple of times at that but kept walking. I gave Stheno my best what the fuck look.

“I’m helping,” she explained, since I clearly wasn’t getting it. “Thinking about the possibility of a scorching hot dude is better than remembering being left out.” On an eyeroll, she added, “It’s like everything needs to be explained to you.”

I hated to admit it, but Stheno had a point. Coco was smiling now.

The dot of light continued to grow as we walked. Many hours later, as we approached the mouth of the tunnel, I began to see faint ghosts sitting on the tunnel floor. I said hello, but they were fading. They didn’t seem to have maintained sentience. I was happy that no one was jumping up to skewer me with a hidden sword.

The low light from the cavern beyond the tunnel seemed to be a flickering yellow. Bracken and I shared a look.

“Torches?” he wondered.

I nodded. “Looks like it.”

The fact that we could see the faint light from so far away said more about the absolute darkness of the tunnel than the brightness of the torches. It took us another hour to reach the end of our tunnel.