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“Motive matters, Killian,” Cade said. “We want to get her back as much as you.”
The other heirs nodded in agreement, but I disagreed with them. Barbie meant more to me than they could ever imagine. But no one knew what she was to me, and for her own safety, no one could know that my true mate had come. I’d kept her close until she was taken today.
A stray dark thought slammed me in the face. Could it be the work of my betrothed? My heart skipped an icy beat, but I shook my head, rejecting that possibility.
Not even Cami knew about the true connection between Barbie and me, though my cousin saw how much I was drawn to Barbie and was worried about it.
“She killed as many as she could before she was overpowered,” Louis said admiringly, plucking a white flower that sprouted from where Barbie had bled and sniffing at it. “She’s never one who rolls over and shows her belly.”
Silas nodded. Usually, he wasn’t impressed by anything. “We underestimated Barbie, but the lot that came for her didn’t,” he said, his jaw tight. “Which means they know more about her than us, and that her power scale might be close to ours.”
All the heirs had witnessed Barbie brushing off his alpha stares.
I traipsed around the clearing as I tried to piece together the entire scene of Barbie being taken from here, not wanting to miss any details that would lead me to her.
“The trail ended here,” I called, calculating the odds. “How did they all vanish with Barbie in the blink of an eye?”
Cade flashed open his turquoise eyes after chanting and meditating, whatever a high mage did to get results. His steady gaze was the calm before the storm.
“Teleport,” the mage heir said.
Just what I’d thought.
“There aren’t that many supernaturals who can teleport,” Rowan offered, ice in his silver eyes. “We can narrow it down.”
“And round up all the usual suspects!” Silas growled.
“And then we’ll drain those motherfuckers to the very last drop!” Louis promised.
“It wasn’t teleportation in the usual sense,” Cade said gravely. “Whoever they are, they used the ‘dark substance.’ I can still feel the residue of its foul spell after I deployed the detection spells just now. Dark substance is illegal in all the worlds except?—”
“CrimsonTide,” Rowan finished for him.
I knew that as well, as did the other heirs.
CrimsonTide, the neutral zone where no house ruled, was a breeding ground for the worst criminals, gangs, rogues, and terrible beings you wouldn’t wish to cross paths with.
It was as independent as Underhill. But Underhill didn’t bother us if we didn’t breach its territory. Yet those dangerous hybrids from CrimsonTide would cross to our five kingdoms, mostly on assassination jobs. They had no rules, no codes, and no morals.
Everyone’s faces darkened at the prospect that CrimsonTide had taken Barbie.
“What the fuck are we waiting for?” Silas pulled his lips back. “Let’s march into CrimsonTide now and take back our top bride candidate!”
Something like a kernel of hope sparked in the other heirs’ eyes as they answered the challenge. I didn’t doubt that in their minds, they all thought Barbie could be their mate. She was a wild card when it came to magic, and the heirs would only go for the strongest females.
I suppressed my cold fury, and my dragon growled, sharing my sentiment and rage. Barbie was no one’s but ours!
“What could CrimsonTide want with Barbie?” Cade ran his hand over his face, looking tired and worried, not his usual lighthearted self. “She’s new to the realm, a drifter from the mortal world. Even though she’s gained some notoriety of late, it shouldn’t have attracted such rapt attention from any party in CrimsonTide.”
“Who said the interested party is actually from CrimsonTide?” Silas snorted. “Anyone who has a deep pocket can hire mercenaries from CrimsonTide, so it won’t be traced back to them. When Barbie was in my house, she was safe. She became a target after she was dragged to the House of Chaos.”
Silas’s words were cutting, yet they rang with truth. The instigator behind Barbie’s kidnapping couldn’t be from CrimsonTide. It would be too easy. But then, who wanted Barbie so badly?
I had enemies. And I was tied to a powerful woman, a queen. I doubted that my overprotectiveness toward Barbie had gone unnoticed. Someone might try to use her to get to me. I’d brought this on my mate.
I contained the terrible storm within me. Seeing my mate’s blood soak the earth had nearly undone me, but I must pull it together so I could save her. I’d never accept that it might already be too late.
I’d tear the world apart for her.
