Dare (15 page)

“No, it’s not, but it’s the magical community’s.”

“I’m not asking you to get involved with the council. I just need help finding my friends. I was thinking there might be a spell or something you could do. If I can get them back and we go into hiding, Case can’t find us.”

“And you’re going to hide out forever? How does that work?”

“We’re not. I just need to get past my birthday. It’s in June.”

“And then what?”

I bit my lower lip. “I’m not sure. It’s never happened before. We’re defying everything I’ve ever known in the shifter kingdom.”

“You realize this is extremely dangerous?”

“I’m not scared of the council, but I am worried about the girls. I don’t know where they are, and I’m not sure anymore if Case would hurt them. He has become unpredictable. Desperation is making him dangerous.”

“Right. Well, I can do a
Locality Spell
tonight if you need. That is the easy part.”

I smiled. “You can?” For the first time in days, I felt a slight glimmer of hope.

“Yes. I can help you find them. You just need to bring me something that belonged to each of them. I can pinpoint where they are on here.” He pulled out a map from his back pocket.

“You don’t see those very often.”

“No, but I’ve tried the spell on GPS and it won’t work. Has to be something with zero interference.”

“No problem. I can get you something of theirs.” I had renewed hope that we could get through this nightmare.

“The rest. I just don’t know.” He shook his head. “You’re in deep with the council.”

I straightened my shoulders. “I’m a queen. They’re in deep with me.”

He laughed. “Yes, they are.”

“If I get the things that belong to the girls, can we do it tonight?”

He looked at his watch. “An hour?”

“Perfect.” I headed for the exit. “Can I get out of here?”

“Oh right.” He said a few words. I had been right. I was sealed in too. “See you in an hour.”

“An hour.”

In an hour, I would know where Case had taken Tegan, Abi, and Eva. I would reunite the Nox.

I walked out of the warehouse more confident than I had been since the kidnappings. Having witch help on our side might finally tilt the scale in our favor. We needed it. We needed anything that would give us an advantage over the Tribe.

Vix said she would have something for me to give Ian. Maya went with her for backup. We couldn’t be too careful where Case was concerned. The Tribe was making a new move every day.

I wondered if witch life was this tumultuous. There had to be more of them, but Ian was the one asking all the questions. I guess it was fitting. He was a detective.

“Dare, we’ve got clothes from all the girls. Will it work?” Vix slammed the front door behind her. There was something wrong. It looked like she had been crying.

“I think so. He wasn’t specific. What’s wrong?”

Maya sank on the couch. “I’ve gotten to the point I’m afraid to go anywhere. What if they take all of us?”

“That’s not going to happen.” I reached for the T-shirts from Vix. “We’re bringing them home. Where is Sloan?”

“She’s right behind us.” Vix eyed the door. “She wants to talk to you about something.”

Maya looked like she was going to cry again.

“What is it about? We have our hands full right now.” There wasn’t room for another problem or kidnapping.

Sloan knocked on the door and let herself in the living room. “I need to speak to you, Dare.”

I looked at the other two. “Can’t we all talk together?”

She shook her head. “I’d rather discuss it in private, your majesty.”

My ears twitched. “All right. We can talk in my room.” They never called me that unless it was related to magical protocol, something I was trying to get them to break.

I led Sloan to my room and asked her to sit on the bed. Whatever it was, we could still talk girl to girl.

“Has something else happened?” I asked.

She lowered her head. “I’ve agreed to bond with Ronan.”

I jumped away as if she had doused me with cold water. “What are you talking about?”

“He cornered me tonight when I was on patrol.” She sobbed. “He said I didn’t have a choice.”

I reached for her hands. “They always say that. Of course there is a choice. He was just trying to scare you.”

She sniffed. “Not like this. He threatened me. He said he’d kill my mother.”

“But she’s human. He wouldn’t do that.”

“I wasn’t thinking. He had pictures of her. He knows where she lives. He made me promise.” She put her face in her hands. “She’s all I have. I said yes.”

My stomach soured. I felt the panther side of me ready to tear through the streets and track down Ronan.

“A forced agreement can’t be upheld. He coerced you into saying yes. It doesn’t count.” I shook her shoulders. “We’ll get you out of it.”

“No. You can’t. It’s already too late.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can already feel it. I’m drawn to him.”

“But what about Daniel? You have a boyfriend. You’ve been with him for a year.” None of this made sense. She couldn’t just turn off those feelings.

“I think I care about him still, but I only want to be with Ronan. My bond with the Nox is evaporating.”

“No.” I shook her harder. “No. You have to fight it, Sloan. You’re a stronger panther than this. It’s a stupid verbal agreement. You haven’t actually bonded with him yet. It’s just in your head. He’s in your head.” My eyes tried to pierce through her defeated gaze.

She peeled away from my hands. “While I still have any loyalty to you, I wanted to tell you. I have to leave the Nox, or else you won’t be safe. My devotion is going to be to him now. I can’t help it. I can’t help you.”

“It’s not real. You don’t love him.”

“But I feel like I do.” She slid off the bed. “I know it’s new, but I feel it as if it’s been there forever. He’s a part of who I am now.” She turned. “I have to go.”

“Graduation is in less than two weeks. Your birthday isn’t until August. You have time, Sloan. We can figure this out. We’ll break the agreement. There has to be a way. You can’t bond with him,” I snarled in her direction. It was meant for Ronan.

I wondered if I could lock her away until the madness had left her body. Until the logic locked so tightly on her soul, she would start to fight back.

She wiped a tear away with the back of her hand. “I have to go to him. I need him.” Her eyes rose to mine, the tears streaming down her face. “But please find a way. Please. I don’t want to be human.”

I reached for her, but she darted out of the room.

My worst nightmare had just happened. Everything I had been fighting for hit me in the chest, shoving me, punching me, telling me I was powerless in this fight. The council’s magic had gripped us when I thought we could defy it.

Maya and Vix appeared. “She’s gone.”

I nodded. “We’ll get her back.”

Maya burst into tears. “But if she bonds with him…” None of us wanted her to finish the sentence. The unthinkable had happened.

“T-shirts.” I snapped my fingers. “We stick together. This is the only way. Now let’s go find Tegan, Abi, and Eva.”

I pulled my shoulders back as Maya and Vix followed me out of the house. I couldn’t let them see their queen falter.

We drove in silence to the warehouse. There wasn’t anything else to say. Sloan was gone, and our unity had been breached again.

I parked the car next to the entrance and turned to my friends. “Wait here. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“You trust this guy? The witch?” Vix questioned everything. I shouldn’t be surprised she would worry about Ian.

“Yes, I do. He’s a good guy. He’s offered to help and we’re pretty much out of options. I don’t like sharing shifter problems, but what choice do I have?”

Vix shrugged. “All right, but if he pulls out any wacky hocus pocus stuff, we’re charging in there.”

I laughed. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. But thanks.”

“We’re coming in if you’re gone more than twenty minutes,” Maya added.

“Got it.” I hopped out of the car and walked into the warehouse, anxious to see Ian again.

“What’s wrong?” His eyes were soft with worry. “I thought you would be a little more excited about the spell.”

I handed him the T-shirts. “I just lost another girl.”

“What? Ok, this is getting insane. You need me to find four people?”

There were tears on the edges of my lashes, but I held them from falling. “No. It’s still just for three. The fourth left on her own. Well, she was coerced into agreeing to leave. She’s a completely different story.”

Ian placed a hand on my shoulder. “I’m really sorry all of this is happening. I wish there was something else I could do.”

“This is exactly what we need. If I know where they are, I can get them back.” I appreciated the concern and the sympathy, but it didn’t bring the Nox back. The spell would.

He turned away from me and flattened a map of Sullen’s Grove on a piece of plywood stretched across two sawhorses. He rolled the T-shirts like fabric burritos and placed them along the border of the map.

“If this is the only thing I can do, let’s get it started.”

I watched as his eyes closed and his hands hovered over the map. Within seconds, there were three lights of different shades of green dotting the map. They glowed.

Ian opened his eyes and pointed. “There you go. That’s where they are.”

I stood closer and studied the shimmery lights. “Thank you.”

“Not a problem. I’m happy to help. Really, Dare. Any time.”

I pulled out my phone. “Is it ok if I take a picture? Will the dots show up?”

“Yes. You can, but I need you to assure me you’ll delete it as soon as you have those locations nailed down. No cloud-loading or anything.”

“I would never. I understand how confidential this is.”

I snapped a picture of the lights and made sure I could zoom in on the streets. I smiled, knowing I could finally rescue them.

“You’ll call if you need something else?” Ian offered.

“I will. Thank you.” I stepped over one of the fallen beams. “Good night.”

“Good night. Be careful.”

“I will.”

I hurried to the car. After Sloan’s exit, Vix and Maya needed something to cheer them up. This would definitely do it.