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“I mean, what if his name isn’t Johnathon or he’s not even from Fire and Fluorite?” I clarified. “You might be trying to force something to come to you that your magic can’t grasp because we don’t have the right facts.”
Grayson smacked the papers over his open palm. “This right here proves he exists, and I already knew he was working with a witch based on the delivery of his message, so he could just be shielded.”
Markus’s jaw tightened while he held onto Lia. “There’s only one way to find out for sure, and that’s to find this fucker who wanted to kill my sister. We need to check this guy out.”
A flicker of something ignited in my chest when he so easily called me his sister—just like when he’d used the nickname for me.
“I agree with you,” I said once I’d recovered from the unexpected emotions. “Let’s see if Ryder knows anything about what you found and then head out.”
“What might I know?” the shifter in question asked from behind us.
I turned around to find him standing only about ten feet away, dressed in a suit with his arms crossed.
Before Grayson could be extra stubborn, I snatched the folder from his grip and handed it to the faction leader. “Have you ever heard of this guy?”
I felt irritated eyes glaring holes into the side of my head, but we’d already proven our point with Ryder the day he’d thought surprising us with an attack was okay. Ever since, the respect Ryder had shown us made him deserving of this information being openly shared with him.
Ryder shook his head and gave the papers back. “Can’t say that I do. There are thousands of shifters in this House, and it’s not like Johnathon is an unusual name.”
“We’re going to go after him,” Grayson said in a tone that told us this wasn’t up for debate.
The faction leader met my mate’s dark sneer, seemingly unfazed. “Do you want some of my men to go with you?”
Grayson glanced down at me, his gaze softening just slightly. “Do you?”
Something unfamiliar spread through my chest and I stood a little straighter while I nodded. “I don’t think that’s a bad idea.”
Ryder nodded. “I’ll call for Tuck and his team. There are six of them in total and they’re the shifters I trust most in this pack.”
“Thank you,” I said as he started to turn away, presumably to find Tuck, then my attention went to Lia.
She wasn’t a fighter. Her powers only lasted for so long, and then she was too vulnerable unless she decided to shift, and even then, she had her limits. Though she didn’t often shift, given she liked people assuming unicorns were extinct.
“You should stay here,” I said to her without pulling any punches.
Her fiery gaze shot up and she glared at me. “No.”
“Yes.” I could feel power growing inside me, pushing up from my core and filtering through my words. “Unless you’ve changed your mind about shifting.”
She crossed her arms, and a line formed between her eyes as she tried to fight against my innate abilities. “I liked you better before you started embracing your alpha side.” Then she looked up at Markus, who nodded and smiled encouragingly at her. “I’ll change if I need to, so I’m going with you.”
I raised a brow and tilted my head. “Are you sure?”
Last I’d heard her say, she was trying to stay hidden and since she hadn’t had any visions, I wouldn’t have thought anything would have changed in that regard.
“I think denying who I am might be why I haven’t been able to see what I want,” she admitted sheepishly. “Something cracked inside me on our first day here when you were attacked. Instead of shifting to help protect you, I used my magic to put up the shield, which was helpful in the moment, but if Ryder hadn’t called his wolves off, I would have soon been useless to you. I would have failed at protecting you all, because I was trying to keep my secret.”
There was too much self-loathing in her tone, and I couldn’t stop myself from moving forward. I wrapped my arms around Lia, pulling her away from Markus and into a tight hug. “It’s not your job to keep me alive. You got me to Fire and Fluorite. You did exactly as the vision suggested you do.”
She shook her head against my shoulder. “Vision or not, my job here isn’t done. I know that.”
The surety of her tone felt so familiar—like how I’d just known staying here and fighting for this House had been the right thing to do. So I didn’t argue the point with her any further.
“Then you do whatever you feel is necessary,” I said while stepping back and offering her a genuine smile.
When I turned back around, Grayson’s attention was on a group of four men and two women who were walking toward us. Five of them stopped far enough back that I couldn’t really make out their faces, but they were all wearing matching tan cargo pants and black T-shirts and boots.
The leader, whom I recognized as the “Uncle Tuck” Sammy had run to when we’d first arrived, came toward us.
