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“Then where…”
Sierra waves for Caleb to follow her. “We can talk about it back in the reading room.”
“Sure.” Caleb draws out the word, suspicious and fighting a burst of temper over the lack of answers. Silently, they leave the guest quarters. Maddy’s nowhere around.
Neither says anything, but Caleb follows them back to the reading room with the Faerie book on the table. Maddy isn’t in the reading room either.
“Enough.” Caleb brings his fist down on the corner of the rough-hewn table, and he immediately regrets it as pain shoots up his forearm. “Where’s Maddy?”
Sierra offers a weak smile. “Now, Caleb… She… Well, she ran out of here, and—”
“Caleb!” Maddy bursts into the reading room. “You made it back!”
Cora enters behind her. He nods to her before he opens his arms to Maddy, and she rushes into them. He presses a kiss to her cheek, and she squeezes him in her arms, stronger than Caleb’s used to, but he grins despite the pain of the crushing hug. It’s not so bad, if he’s honest.
Then she brings her mouth to his, and they share a long kiss. Caleb loses himself in the sweet magic that is Maddy, in the very reason he takes every risk he does. Her pointed teeth drag over the flat of his tongue, making him swallow back a groan. He almost forgets there are other people in the room except a loud gasp has them drawing apart.
A cloud of white smoke has filled the room. It grows quickly, rising past their knees in a blink.
Caleb scowls, pulling Maddy closer. “What’s going on?”
Maddy waves her hand in front of her face, fighting against the thickness. “Whatever it is. It’s not good.”
Sylvan frowns. “This is vampire magic.”
As quickly as it appears, the white smoke disappears.
“Oh, no,” Maddy gasps, and she points at the table. “No!”
Caleb spins the direction Maddy’s looking, and his stomach drops to his toes even as he thinks his last meal is going to make an appearance.
Sierra coughs, and Sylvan curses darkly.
The table is empty, and the magical Fae book is gone.
“It’s the handiwork of vampires,” Maddy snarls. “And now we’ve lost the map to theonlychance we had at beating Orion!”
Chapter13
Madeleine
How could they dare to comehere? Attacking Veritas is an outrageous move. Veritas is a safe haven, a neutral location as a library for all supernaturals. While she rages on, Caleb tells the story of his trip through the portal.
At the end, Maddy stomps her foot, fighting the urge to launch into a dozen laps around the room. Or maybe running through the streets, searching for those criminals she didn’t devour. “How could they?”
Caleb scowls. “How could they…what?”
She waves her hands wildly. “How could they attack Veritas? In broad daylight? How?”
Sylvan stands near the table, and he smooths his hand over the surface where the Faerie magic book had been before the cloud. He closes his eyes as though he’s listening to a tune from far away.
Cora and Sierra stand at the edge of the room, shifting from side to side.
Maddy meets Cora’s gaze. “Veritas isn’t even safe from attack by the vampires. What do we do now?”
Cora presses her mouth into a tight line, and her incisors catch the glimmer of the dim light in the room, but she doesn’t answer.
And neither does Sierra.
