Page 122 of The Music Demon

Her expression softened ever so slightly.

“I’m coming to you because I need to keep it on the down low that I’m looking for somebody recently misplaced. And… maybe in danger.”

“Who?”

“Shivaun O’Malley. She’s a hunter with the, ah, demon division.”

“And.”

Lyric gave a condensed version of events, complete with his fears for her safety and the reasons behind those fears.

Litha cocked her head. “You love her.”

He answered immediately, without analysis or contemplation. “Yes!”

“I’d like to help you, um…”

“Lyric.”

“But this is beyond my pay grade.”

“Does that mean there’s somebody else?”

“Maybe. My daughter could probably do it.”

“Rosie?”

Litha laughed. “You think I have more than one daughter?”

Lyric’s eyes jerked down to Litha’s baby bump before coming back to her face. “Thank you,” he said before vanishing.

When Lyric returned to the Abbey he found that Sheridan was in Rosie’s office sharing the news like a tattletale.

Rosie looked up when he entered without knocking.

“Your mother says tracking Shivaun is above her pay grade, but you could do it.”

“She said that?” Rosie asked.

“Yes.”

“Where do you think she is, demon?”

“You sorry excuse for an ass’s hindquarters. I told her to stay away from you.”

Without a word, Rosie ushered Sheridan out of her office, physically, and shut the door firmly.

“Again, where do you think she is?” she asked Lyric.

“Gone. I could feel her. And then I couldn’t.” Lyric sank down into a chair looking lost, desperate, and scared.

“So you think she’s somewhere off world?”

“Off world?”

“Somewhere elementals wouldn’t normally be.”

“Ah.” He knew he needed to get himself together enough to think clearly. “That sounds right. If she was somewhere elementals would normally be, I could feel her.”