I closed my eyes, praying for patience. I didn’t want to hear how bad she felt about destroying my life. “Stop.” I opened them again and felt a little calmer. “Just tell me what happened. Tell me what you remember.”
Something on my face had Shannon swallowing down her rambling apology. “The fey girl just wanted her out of the way. She thought with Tessa gone, then you and the rest of the new council would be running around trying to find her. She said that her queen wanted time to figure out how to undo the spell that gave you the power to rule us all. She wanted to undo it. She didn’t like the idea that Cosette or Van or those other two fey girls could be more powerful than her. This was about Tessa and the rest of you having too much power.” Shannon shrugged. “You’re playing right into her hands. You’re doing exactly what she wanted you to do. Running around and paying them no heed when you should be watching your backs.”
I didn’t care about the fey—I just wanted Tessa back—but Shannon was right. I was playing right into their hands. We all were. We were running around, chasing any lead we could find, and she was gone.
Tessa was gone.
I would keep her my focus, but the rest of them needed to sort out Helen before this turned to war.
“Do you know where they sent Tessa? Do you know anything that could help?”
“I swear to Jesus I don’t know what they’ve done with her. We allowed them to touch our bonds. That was it.”
“Why? Why would you let them?”
“I owed a debt. That was my part. Imogene did it for her own reasons.” Shannon raised a shaking hand to wipe away a tear. “I let them into my bonds, and now they feel dirty. Full of must and muck. I had to or…I grew up next to the underhill. I know what happens when werewolves go there. So, I let them in, but that’s all I did. The witch did some magic, and when the fey had what she wanted, she killed the witch. That’s all I’ve got. I know it’s not much.”
This was bad. The fey took her. She was fine, but they took her. How was I going to find her now?
This was another dead end.
I punched the floor, and the white tile shattered. Bright red blood splattered against the shiny white, and Imogene laughed.
The sound had me freezing in place.
I was going to do something bad, and I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to stop myself or even regret it.
The wolf scented Imogene’s blood and wanted more. More, more, more.
“Dastien.” Michael said my name, but I knew he was asking a question. Was I okay?
No. No, I wasn’t okay.
I had to leave. I had to go. Quickly. Before I did anything I wouldn’t be able to live with.
I strode to the elevator, hitting the button for it so hard that the last fragments of the mirrored wall around it cracked.
“That’s seven years bad luck.” Imogene practically sang the words.
Dead. She was dead.
I started to turn, but Michael already stood over her.
“You’re extremely, pitifully stupid. Stay here. Shut up. And hear me when I say I won’t stop Dastien when he comes to kill you next time.” Michael left her there and came to me, but I could see her smug, self-satisfied smile.
I growled and started to leap toward her, but Michael shoved his hand against my chest.
“Go,” he said. “I’ll question them. I’ll see what else I can get out of them, and then I’ll call Cosette. We’ll figure this out. This isn’t a dead end. We’re unraveling this. So, just stay calm. Go for a run. Burn off some of this anger. Return only when your control is back.”
“If they don’t know—”
“They know something. But if the witch that helped the fey is dead, then we need you to find a way to break the magic covering your bond.”
“You saw what that magic did to Samantha.”
“Yes, but this is your bond. Some fey person is covering it, but it’s still your bond. I know we can find a way for you to fix it. That might still be the quickest way of finding her.”
I was happy to fix my bond, but Samantha’s attempt didn’t exactly go well. And we only saw her after we’d seen so many others. “How are we supposed to do that? We’ve seen everyone that we thought could possibly help. We’ve—”