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“Yeah, while you were off pretending you didn’t have a mate, I scored a way to keep up with him in case he bolted or was kidnapped.”
“The Order would scan him for tech as soon as they grabbed him.”
“Which is why he agreed to a magical tracker that they can’t detect despite the downsides.”
“Which are?” He would drag every single answer out of her.
“It’s a slow-acting poison. If he takes it for too long or overdoses, he could die.” She cut off Alexei when he opened his mouth. “Kyle’s a big demon boy. He knew the consequences, and he agreed anyway. I’ll call the witch to scry for him, and we’ll have a location within minutes. Then, you and Dad can strategize on how to get Kyle back.”
“You should have told me.”
“I would’ve if you had stuck around.” Her phone rang, and she glanced at the screen. “Just the witch I needed to talk to.” She swiped to answer. “Hi, Mina. Whoa, slow down. Yeah, I was about to call you for the tracking… What do you mean Joelle already asked? When?” Alys’s face paled, her eyes going wide.
An icicle of fear stabbed along Alexei’s spine, and his stomach bottomed out. He wanted to rip the phone from her hand and demand to know what was going on. Where was Joelle? Hurrying out of the room, he went to the railing and looked over. Yulia’s entourage had left, but Alys’s car and the SUV that Eddie had driven were still there. “Joelle?” he called. A young guard looked up at him. “Have you seen Joelle?”
“No, boss.”
His gut twisted in panic knots, his lungs tightening, his blood heating as though he’d called his magic. Where could she be? The warehouse had the best wards money could buy. No one could get in to harm her, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t go out.
Alys put her hand on his arm, squeezed as if she needed to borrow his strength. “The witch called because Kyle’s on the move. He’s been taken out to sea. Worse, Joelle already had her scry locations.”
“Did the witch tell Joelle where he was?”Please say no.
“She did. That isn’t the worst of it. She and Joelle’s brother are out of town. Something about a reunion with her mother, the famous spellcaster. All the witches are there which means—”
“We’re the only ones who can stop Joelle from going after Kyle.Fuck. Of course, she would give herself to save someone else. It’s in her nature.” The fates would make him fall for an angel who had no problem martyring herself. Only he wouldn’t let her. No, he would track her down, lock her away, and then figure out what to do about Kyle. “Did the witch give you a location?”
“She’s sending coordinates to my phone. I can follow Kyle, but the signal’s getting weaker. Either they’re moving him too far off-shore or…”
“They’re killing him.” Which meant his one lead to finding Joelle would die with him. “We need to move.”
Eddie came running around the corner. “Joelle left with Yulia. One of the guys saw her get in the backseat.”
Alexei’s heart clenched like a fist. He’d lost her.
Because he’d been too stubborn to accept that fate had chosen the perfect mate for him.
Because he’d refused to acknowledge the mating pull for fear of locking her away.
Because he’d been scared that he would fail her just as he’d failed the other women in his life.
Because he hadrejectedher. His mate.
Now, he wanted nothing more than to hold her, to run his hands over every inch of her to prove that she was unharmed and then to spank her ass pink until she never thought of running out on him again. Everything else could wait until he knew Joelle was safe.
“If you follow the witch’s spell to Kyle,” he said, “I’ll try to find Yulia.” While leaving responsibility for one of his people to others made him feel awful, he couldn’t trust anyone to go after his mate.
Nita joined them. “Good thing I put a tracker on Yulia’s SUV. Snooty bitch doesn’t seem honest to me.” She held up a phone. “Now, you can go after both. Want me to come along, love?” she asked Alys.
His sister kissed her hard. “You’re with me in the Porsche. Let’s see the coordinates for Yulia.” She glanced at the screen, then her own. “She headed in the same direction as Kyle, going south along the coast toward the marina where his trail goes offshore.”
Alexei and Eddie loaded in the SUV and hauled ass after the Porsche to the marina. He didn’t remember half the ride except wishing they could run every traffic light and magic every car off the road without causing a tsunami. Volcanos and oceans didn’t go together without collateral damage. They zipped beneath palm trees, billboards, circling helicopters, and planes taking off from the local airport.
Guilt piled on top of anger, carving a hollow spot in his chest that burned. If he couldn’t get to her in time, if the Order got to her first. No, he couldn’t let himself think that. His magic would spiral out of control mourning the what-could-have-beens.
“Drive faster,” he told Eddie although they’d broken countless traffic laws. Everyone had their own attachment to his mate. She’d charmed them all, and he’d been a damn fool.
“We’re here.” Following Alys’s car into a parking lot at the end of the marina, Eddie nodded toward Yulia’s parked Humvee.
