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Rune focused his mind and felt for her mental tether. Brushing his mind to hers, he felt her shields still in place. He gripped her tether, focusing his power along it, directing an offensive spell he created to track targets that fled from his court.
Rune cut the connection, initiating his spell. His brow knit together. It held, unscathed. Welling his power, he made a second attempt, and still it held fast.
The inability to cut his mind free of her concerned him. Rune reached for the Familiar King’s mind next,Morbid.
Shadow Prince, Morbid’s deep purring voice answered in Rune’s mind.
I require your assistance on a matter.
I’ll see you after I’ve tended to Angelique. I’ll send Sadi ahead.
Rune’s thoughts drifted to Morbid’s wife and queen. Angelique became ill during her pregnancy with Sadi. She was poisoned, narrowly surviving it. The ordeal left her weakened. Angelique rarely left Chaos, spending her time hidden away in Morbid’s sprawling mansion.
Morbid carried a shard of Darkness and was gifted with Sight, the Familiar’s ability to see the future. With all he was, he couldn’t save his wife. There was no retaliation. The Court of the Black Rose didn’t go to war. He didn’t call on any of them. Morbid himself was formidable, yet he chose to do nothing.
The Familiar King was a far better man than him. Had Rune been in Morbid’s place he would have reduced the realms to ash.
Sadi phased into his realm minutes later as he dressed. His father was a Shadowman created as a caretaker to Hell. Rune, like his father, had Hell stitched into his being. Could feel anyone entering or leaving his realm.
All but other Shadowmen.
When the court was still whole, his father and brothers could feel when Rune entered or left the realm. His vampiric blood gave him away.
Rune made his way to his study. Sadi sat on his desk, the outline of her features lit by Hell’s twilight sky streaming in through the intricately designed iron trimmed glass that encompassed the entire back wall.
She wore a black leather under bust corset over a lace halter. Crossing her legs, the high slit in her skirt exposed the length of her leg. Practically a twin to his night breeze. The same dainty features. Same wine-colored lush lips. But Rune’s body didn’t respond to Sadi. The Ra’Voshnik remained silent in her presence.
Sadi’s midnight eyes glinted with excitement as she hopped to her feet. “Are we hunting?”
The corner of Rune’s mouth lifted. Hunting. A term Sadi used when their court went to war with another. Or when Rune was sent to deliver retribution on behalf of his court. She’d joined him on several occasions.
“No. I am having trouble severing a mental tether. If you could track the line back and give me her location, it would be appreciated.”
Sadi stood nearly as tall as Rune in her exaggerated heeled boots that covered her legs to mid-thigh. Her brow raised as she sauntered to him. “Her?”
Rune said nothing and stared straight ahead as Sadi tilted her head. He had no knowledge of how Familiar magic worked. Only that it worked within an entirely different mental plane, he had no access to.
She seemingly peered into his head, brushing her fingertips over the side of his face. Tracing behind his ear and following down his neck. Her finger slid beneath the collar of his shirt, pulling it open. “She bit you.”
Amusement lit Rune’s eyes. “I would like her location to repay her kindness.”
Sadi’s expression grew serious. “This is a beacon. But I’ve never seen one like this.”
“Are you certain?” It couldn’t be a beacon. Familiar magic wasn’t felt. Rune could feel it, had felt it when it struck his mind.
Sadi nodded. “The anchors are deep in your mind. When did this happen?”
“The Hunter’s Moon ball. I believed it to be a mental sending. Is she a Familiar then?”
Sadi pulled at his collar, examining her bite mark. “We have fangs, not as pronounced as yours, but a bite like this would have drawn blood.”
“Can you remove her beacon?”
Sadi stepped back. “My father should look at it first. It feels like Familiar magic, but it’s not constructed the way we would use it.”
Rune took his seat behind his desk. “How do you mean?”
Sadi followed, taking a seat on Rune’s desk to his left, resting her booted foot on his armrest. “Beacons are meant to be used as a backdoor into a person’s mind. We offer a distracting dream, sift through their mind, steal our information, and slip away.
