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“Darien thinks Spirit Terra colliding with our world is causing the falls to turn into portals.” Roman looked like he was having trouble believing what his own mouth was saying. “He said something about the Veil being thinner near places of constant movement, I don’t fucking know.” He waved a gloved hand in frustration, then cupped his forehead, massaging his temples. “It’s hard to explain this shit when I can hardly understand it.”

“You’re doing fine,” Ivy offered.

“I recall Tamika mentioning this,” Lace piped up, addressing the Devils in the room. “She said it has something to do with the elements, remember guys?” Travis, Max, and Jack grunted their agreements, though Jack looked like he didn’treallyrememberand was only pretending to. “By the sounds of what you’re telling us, Roman, Darien’s probably right.”

Roman drew a deep breath that snagged on its way through. He lifted his head and clasped his hands between his knees, looking aged.

“What happened after that?” Travis murmured.

His brother didn’t even look at him—he hardly had this whole damn time. Travis could admit he had a lot to learn when it came to reading people without the Sight, but he was no idiot—he knew precisely why Roman was being pissy with him. The main reason was this: Travis, the middle brother, was stuck here with him, in a city that was quickly imploding—the same city Roman had gone through hell to help him escape only a few years prior, giving him a fresh start and a life of freedom he so badly wanted for himself.

Little did Roman know he’d soon be even more pissed when they finally reached the topic of Paxton. How they were going to tacklethatissue was still up for debate—and they didn’t have the luxury of waiting to address it for much longer. Not when Paxton needed them.

“Then…,” Roman began, “we started walking. We almost made it here when we heard you screaming,” he said to Ivy.

Ivy’s forehead creased, heads turning to look at her.

“At least…we thought it was you. Turns out it was some sort of illusion—like what Shay can do. One my dad was casting.”

Ivy held up a finger. “Wait—hold up.What sort of illusion?”

“Sounds more like a hypnotist monster to me,” Jack muttered, flopping his melted ice pack between his hands.

“I was gonna say,” Kylar said, looking thoroughly confused.

Roman pressed on. “Darien hasn’t explained all of it to me, but he swore he heard you screaming, Ivy. So we followed the sound, and it led us to this brand new house in a new subdivision. The atmosphere felt like a Crossroads, so I triedto tell him not to go in. But it was like he was in a trance or something—he wouldn’t listen to me. He insisted on making sure you were okay, so he went in, and when I tried to follow him a few minutes later, he was gone. I ended up running up and down the street looking for him, thinking maybe he’d left, and when I made it back to the house I noticed that something about it was different. It was just a feeling, mostly. And when I went inside, I found Darien passed out on the floor, the whole place wrecked, his hand broken to shit. He said my dad lured him into that house and forced him to fight.” The horror on his face caused sweat to prickle down Travis’s spine. “My dad pinned him down and re-broke his hand.”

Travis’s jaw dropped.

Everyone sat there, stunned. Even Malakai, who usually had so much trouble shutting the fuck up, had nothing smart to say.

Darienbeing pinned?Darienlosing in a fight? It was unheard of.

Roman’s throat bobbed. He rubbed the stubble on his chin, looking like he’d seen a ghost. “I still need to ask him what exactly happened but I didn’t want to do it until he got his hand looked at. So I convinced him to come here. A Healer fixed him up—” He suddenly bolted upright in his chair. “Oh shit, that reminds me.” He glanced around.

“What?” Max asked, following his line of sight to the desk.

“We came here with Darien’s Healer—she’s the reason we ran into you guys. We were heading to this station so she could give us some painkillers and check the patient records for Shay.”

“Shay?” several mouths echoed. Now that Roman was mentioning it, Travis thought he remembered seeing a startled brunette slipping past their group while Darien nearly killed Malakai.

Too bad he hadn’t finished the job.

“Yeah,” Roman said. “I wanted her to see if Shay’s been here for any injuries—” He stopped talking, his features sinking into a frown. “Why’s everyone looking at me like that?”

“Shay followed us to the tar pits,” Ivy began. “She wanted to help us get into the tunnels, and when we were attacked by some hounds, she…” She cleared her throat, fingers tapping anxiously against her knee.

Roman squeezed the armrests of his chair. “Don’t say it.”

Ivy’s next words came out in a rush. “We got separated from her.”

“Is she dead?” Roman’s question sounded strangled.

“We don’t know for certain,” Aspen said, speaking cautiously. “We tried looking for her after the explosion, but we couldn’t find her.”

Roman slumped against the back of his seat, hands lying loosely on the armrests. “If you’ve got anything else bad to say, get it over with. I’m not sure I can handle much more.”

It was Kylar’s turn to take the mic. “Some of Don’s Shadowmasters went to your house.”