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“There have been signs of manipulation in the other attacks.” She whispered.

“What?” Abanoub roared, and Rowan felt a thrill of caution scale down her back. There was something otherworldly about Abanoub that she didn’t quite recognize. Not quite on the level of Alessandro, but pretty damn close. Was he on the cusp of godhood? Is this how Alessandro had felt before he received his invitation?

“Each attack stemmed from someone within the shifter’s pack. Someone who could do actual damage. But none of them can pinpoint who or what vaulted them down that road. Whoever did this to you could be on the same boat, Abanoub.”

Relief etched the man’s face, and it was only when Louisa’s eyes motioned to something on his hand that Rowan took in the piece of jewelry.

It was unusual for shifters to marry when there was a possibility of a mate in their future. But some didn’t receive the mating feeling until several years into their lives. Some grew lonely.

Rowan looked around the spartan room and noticed that there wasn’t a trace of femininity in it. Had she died or was there something else going on? Knowing how touchy Tarik had already proven, Rowan watched his reaction when she asked, “Was it your wife?”

Tarik rolled his eyes as his father answered, “We were going through a bit of a rough patch.”

“Amira was a human. She didn’t feel comfortable living here among the sphinxes and had been trying to get father to move out with her to the city. She left last month after purchasing a condo with their joint bank account.” Tarik clarified.

“Wait, she married you, the head of the sphinxes and wasn’t willing to live with your people?” Louisa’s unprofessionalism had always been a point of contention between her and herpartners. They both glared at her and she held her hand up in self defense. “It’s crazy!”

“It was shameful.” Tarik hissed, “You might have loved her baba, but she was selfish to wish to take you from us.”

Abanoub cast his eyes away, and Rowan tried not to compare her personal situation with Alessandro to this one. Still, she felt her back straighten defensively and only when Kin shot her a questioning look was she able to fully pull her mind out of those visions.

“May we search the apartment, Abanoub? We might find a clue.”

Abanoub looked uncomfortable with the idea but sighed. “Yes. Tarik, get me the key.”

Chapter 19

His dragon was driving him insane.

‘Rowan’echoed in his head in a thundering heartbeat at any idle moment he could find. Only when he was engaged in something else could Alessandro find peace in his head.

As such, he turned his full attention to the ordeal of who had been behind their attack. In doing so, he discovered a report he must have overlooked when he had been more concerned about what the mutt’s tongue had been doing all over Rowan’s abdomen.

Concentrate.

“Stone, what is this about the change in leadership of the Coven being done in secret?” He asked his protégé when the young dragon stepped back into the library conference room with a bowl full of grapes.

The lean man peered at the report and frowned. “That’s a report we got from Mateo last night. He was on watch when it happened. He thought it would be a bigger deal with a whole public showing, but Blaise thought that since Cherry Young had been basically running the show for the last year and with what was going on with us, they might have decided a huge ceremony would be in poor taste. I also thought it was weird, so I put it in my pile to investigate later.”

Alessandro hummed as he fingered the piece of paper. “Summon Mateo, leave the grapes.”

Stone frowned but swiped a handful of the fruit before he turned to do as bidden.

It didn’t take long for the redhead to show up, not only paler than Alessandro had ever seen him, but shaking like a leaf and stinking of adrenaline and fear.

It didn’t take too long for Alessandro to realize that he hadn’t shown up alone, Blaise had also joined his underling with a mischievous grin on his face.

“Please, your majesty, anything but my wings. I don’t heal as well as others of my kind. Have mercy.”

Alessandro was careful to not show his exasperation to the kid. He knew the fear the younger generation showed him derived from exaggerated tales of the older generation who had seen him as his terrifying stage of unruliness. With Mateo’s recent loss of control, he was sure his Fire General had amped up some relatively harmless tale of their king’s wrath to include yet again ripping off the wings of some poor idiot who’d crossed him.

“I’ll allow General Blaise to continue to take charge of your punishment for the time being, but this is regarding anothermatter. What exactly did you see at the leadership change for the Coven?”

The relief that washed over the boy didn’t totally ease his tension enough to look directly at Alessandro, but he raised his head and he glanced at Blaise, who gave a nod of his permission to go into the tale.

“Well, it was weird. Security on the Compound rarely allows for us to hear or see much of what goes on from our watchtower, but that day the barriers glitched and we could see everything. I sent in a few of the bugs that were provided in case anything like that ever happened and recorded some footage of thousands of witches phasing in at the same time. Then the Elder appeared. She was there in full garb, with that freaky mask. You know, the one Elder Henrietta used to show up in when she was doing official Coven business? She walked around them for hours, making serious eye contact with each witch. At first I thought the equipment failed to catch sound, but everything that happened was in complete silence. There was only one clear shot we got of her passing by, but — and this is the real reason I reported it — I could swear that whoever was in the garb was not Cherry Young. I’ve seen her before and the witch has some serious weight on her chest. This person was flat.”

Alessandro turned his attention to the video Stone had been queuing up as Mateo spoke. It paused at the clip where a figure in a hooded cream white and golden cloak passed by wearing a golden mask. He supposed it could be called freaky, as it covered every inch of the face, even the eyes, but the coverage didn’t extend to the long blonde hair that peaked out around the shoulders that were not of Cherry Young.