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So, I just nod and say, “I need to go back to House Blackstock. Then I’m heading to the valley to begin my search for Tamsin.” I feel my wolf surge to the surface, rippling just beneath my skin. “I’ll see you all at dawn.”
I call my magic and transport myself across the lake to my house. Colin and Daniel find me immediately, and I can tell by the looks on their faces that I’m not going to like what they have to say.
“We can’t find Aengus anywhere,” Colin says, his lips pressed into the thinnest of lines. “And Clan Cameron was less than friendly when we arrived.”
Daniel points to a bloody gash over his right eyebrow. “Nasty bastards hit me with a curse.”
“So, they’ve taken in that little deserter, have they?” A growl ripples up from my chest. “I’ll have to deal with him later, then. I’ve got to start my search for Tamsin now.”
Colin reaches out and claps me on the back. “You’ve loved that woman your whole life, Blake. If anyone can find her and bring her back, you can.”
I clasp them both on the shoulder. “I will find her. And I will see you in the valley at first light.”
I stride from the house, from the warmth and the light and the noisy comradery of my fellow warlocks, out into the cold, dark night. What comes next must be done alone. I release my wolf, shifting from skin to fur and doubling in size. Instead of using a transportation spell to travel to the Valley of Souls, I run, my claws digging into the frozen earth, my breath leaving a trail of heat behind me. My spirit and my magic need time to prepare for what lies ahead. And only connecting with my wolf can do that.
When I reach the valley a short time later, my eyes rove over the area. The field lies cradled beneath high mountain peaks which are usually a gray-green. But now everything sparkles in a layer of snow illuminated by the moon. In the center of the valley is a large stone platform that rises six feet above the ground, with steps leading up each side of it, east and west. It’s where the druids and the pagan priestesses performed their rites at the dawn of humanity, and it’s where the clans continue those traditions to this day. The whole place hums with magic, both from those who came before, and from the earth itself. The bones of the land, our ancestral home.
If I die tomorrow, I will take comfort in knowing it is here.
I climb the stone steps and shift back to human form, but only part way. My wolf lies just beneath the surface. I can still see with amplified night vision, can smell the warm rabbits burrowed under the grass and the snow. I drop to my knees on the platform, wiping it free from snow, revealing the ancient runes beneath.
As far as I know, what I’m about to do has never been done. Witches and warlocks can use transportation spells to travel to places they’ve been before, though the greater the distance the more challenging it becomes. A clear image of the destination must be visualized, and other sensory details can strengthen the spell. It requires excellent mental focus and can be quite disastrous if done incorrectly. People can get lost between realms, adrift somewhere, never to be found again. It’s why we hadn’t risked it with Luciana and drove to Edinburgh instead.
Since I have no idea where Tamsin is, it’s incredibly risky to attempt to transport to her. Most people would never even try. But I am not most people. I can connect to her just as I connect with Colin and Daniel, my betas, because we have an unbreakable bond. I don’t need a location to transport to her, because Tamsin is a location. She is home.
An icy wind howls down around me as I close my eyes and call my magic. I picture her in my head. Her platinum-blonde hair, skin like the moon, eyes of the mountains. And beyond that, I feel her magic. The heat of her emerald sparks, the way her magic wrapped around me like a storm when we joined together. The touch of her magic with mine, the way it felt when it intertwined.
On my knees on the hard stone, I turn my face to the wind and the sky, I open my arms, and I surrender to my magic and my wolf. My wolf is my soul, and my soul stretches across space, sensing for its mate. Power pulsates off me, rippling across the Highlands and then moving further. Expanding, searching, hunting across oceans and continents. Through forests and plains and deserts and mountains, wrapping all the way around the globe.
Time passes as my spirit wolf seeks the one it loves. I lose all sense of my physical body. I don’t feel the hard stone pressing into my knees, or the biting snow piling up around me. Panic begins to creep in the longer I search. Is Tamsin still alive? She has to be. I would have felt it if she’d passed from this world.
Then, finally, I catch the faintest tremor of her magic, her essence. I hone in on it, but it’s so, so weak. She’s alive, but her mind and her spirit are elsewhere. And in great turmoil.
“Tamsin,” I call through the line of magic that connects us. “I’m here. Come back to me!”
I need a stronger connection to be able transport myself to her. She has to come back to herself, to her body, from wherever it is her mind has vanished to.
“Tamsin!” I shout.
She doesn’t respond. She can’t hear me.
“I need you to fight, Tamsin. Follow my voice!”
I get no reply.
