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I searched for my magic, my wolf. When I couldn’t find any of it, I started to panic.
What was going on here?
I searched harder, becoming frantic when my wolf was nowhere to be found.
“What did you do to me?” I cried out to Turk.
He looked at me, surprised that I’d interrupted his monologue, before he started laughing.
“Oh, you’re looking for your magic. That won’t work here. Shifters aren’t meant to go to the Underworld, it’s only accessible through dark magic. It was a mission to get you this far, believe me. I couldn’t take you any farther. You’re a shifter, so the magic just won’t let me, but this far down, you can’t reach who you really are. You’re nothing more than human now.”
I stared at Turk, and for the first time since I’d woken up, dread filled my body. If I had no magic, I couldn’t defend myself. I couldn’t escape and warn Bishop. I couldn’t attack Turk.
I was nothing.
Who would come for me? No one would find me down here, if they even started looking for me. They wouldn’t, of course. I’d broken it off with Bishop and said goodbye to Elaine—they thought I was in New York by now. I hadn’t let anyone back home know I was coming, so they didn’t know to wait for me and that something was wrong if I didn’t show up.
I was lost and forgotten and stuck halfway between the Earth and the Underworld with a psycho half-demon who wanted me to mate him.
Things couldn’t get much worse than they were now.
23
BISHOP
Something was wrong. My bond with Rory was missing. Not just strained because of our fight, butgone. As if it had been ripped away.
In its place, I felt something… bad. I wasn’t sure what it was, but whatever I felt wasn’t supposed to be there. It took me half the morning to realize that what I felt wasn’t the absence of our relationship because she’d broken it off. Something was very wrong.
I had to figure out what it was. My whole reign as alpha had been to fight for what was right, to look after my own.
Rory had completely overreacted.
Of course I knew she was looking for Turk early on, but I didn’t know or trust her then. She was in my territory, and I didn’t owe her anything. I eventually told her when I believed she was in Minnesota for the exact reason she told me. She would have done the same thing in my situation. Yet, she’d run away from me because she was scared of what was going on, and I’d let her.
I drove to her place to talk to her. When I got there, the door was wide open.
I frowned.
“Hello?” I asked, stepping into the house.
Nothing. She wasn’t here—her magic was gone, and so was she.
My chest was hollow, and emptiness swirled in the pit of my stomach. I’d always been happy to be on my own after Aster. Now that Rory was gone, I felt empty, as if parts of me that I hadn’t realized I needed were missing. Parts I’d been happy to live without before, but now…
Suitcases stood at the bottom of the stairs. It made my stomach twist. She’d been on her way back to New York? Without talking things through, without saying goodbye?
My heart ached at the idea, and anger followed on its heels. If she’d wanted to go, then fine, she had to go.
Her suitcases were still here, though. She’d been ready to leave… but she hadn’t gotten that far. Something must have happened.
I walked through the house. There was no sign of struggle, no sign of a fight. I sniffed the air. Someone else had been here. The scent was familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on what I picked up. Her scent, for sure, and someone else’s.
The idea made me livid. Someone else had touchedmyfemale?! I could rip the guy’s head off!
She was gone. So was he. It had to have been against her will, or she wouldn’t have left her suitcases.
Rory was a pain in my ass, and I was pissed at her for picking a fight with me where it hadn’t been necessary, but she was in trouble.
