Rune swung his head in the direction the shots had come from.
Holy hell.
There stood Carys beneath the catwalk, holding Ennis Riordan’s smoking pistol in her hands.
CHAPTER 35
Carys didn’t let go of her breath until Rune was standing with her under the meager cover of the catwalk.
Once he was there, she sagged against his warmth and strength, her arms hanging limply at her sides. Emotion overwhelmed her. Most of all, she felt a profound relief to feel his arms wrapped around her and his voice murmuring tender words against her ear.
He lifted her chin on the tips of his battered, bloodstained fingers.
“Carys,” he whispered, his deep voice urgent and raw. Emotion stormed in his blazing eyes. “You’re the last person I ever wanted to see here, in this place. I wanted to handle this for myself . . . for us.”
o;Someone took her?” Chase knew the answer without asking it. He knew who, as well, and the ice that had settled in his blood turned arctic. “Riordan.”
Lucan’s stark gaze confirmed it. “Gideon’s tap on the security cameras showed her arriving there with Ennis Riordan. She hasn’t been there long.”
“One second in that place is too goddamn long,” Chase muttered. “And we’re how far from touching down in Dublin?”
“A couple of hours. I’ve already told the pilot to push this bird as hard as he can.”
Chase thought about his mate, who’d stayed behind at headquarters with the other women. “Has Tavia been told?”
“Gideon thought you’d want to be the one to break the news to her.”
“Yeah. He’s right.” And Chase should have known Tavia hadn’t yet been informed. He would have felt her anguish through their blood bond. The way she was most certainly feeling his now. “It’ll be best if she hears it from me.”
As he got up from the table to make the dreaded call, he put his hand on his son’s strong shoulder. He couldn’t imagine what Carys’s twin must be feeling. The siblings had been so close as children. There had been strains in their bond recently, but it was on the mend now and their love had never dimmed.
Aric looked at him with eyes the same green shade as Tavia’s. His gaze was stark, unblinking. When he spoke, his deep voice was firm with resolve. “We’re gonna bring her back. She’s going to be all right. And those fucks who took her are going to pay in blood.”
The other warriors murmured their support, but the assurances did little to numb the dread clawing at Chase. He’d never felt so helpless, realizing that he was hundreds of miles and too many damn hours away from reaching her.
He knew Carys was strong. God knew she was stubborn. His daughter had never backed down from any fight, but she’d never been tested by something like this.
She had never faced the kind of evil that Fineas Riordan was reputed to deal in, and the thought of his little girl being taken—being touched by filth like Riordan—was almost too much for him to bear.
As the jet’s engines roared and the agonizing wait until landing began, Chase found himself pinning his hopes on an unlikely ally.
With him and the Order too far away to help, her best chance of survival could be Riordan’s own son. The same Breed male Chase had been reluctant to accept and all too quick to condemn.
Now, he never prayed so hard to be proven wrong.
~ ~ ~
“Carys!”
Rune’s panic flooded him like electricity in his veins.
Even though his mind knew she couldn’t be harmed by UV light, his heart had seized with horror when the invisible web overhead had exploded like a supernova.
His relief came just as swiftly as he watched Carys drop to the floor of the pit behind him, wholly intact. She landed on her feet with all the grace of a cat—and came out of her slight crouch with all the ferocity and power of a Breed female.
Her fangs glinted behind her parted lips. Her bright blue irises were devoured by crackling amber heat. She glanced past his shoulder in alarm.
“Rune—look out!”