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She shrugged. “You’ve met my mother. Who knows why she does anything? Anyway, Sardi was obviously weakened. He must have gone back to where he came from but has slowly regained his strength until he was able to return.”

“And what do you think he wants?”

“The same as he wanted back then. He’s always had access to this world, but his followers can’t come through without a portal.”

“So there’s only so much damage he can do here without a gate being opened. What about your sister, Catrin?”

Caleb felt her stiffen beside him. “What about her?”

“Can she open a gate?”

“She can, but she won’t.”

“You don’t think he can force her? Use torture?”

Caleb glanced at her face; the color had drained from her skin, and he knew she was blaming herself again, but there was nothing he could say to make it better. She needed to face the truth.

“I don’t know.”

Gina got to her feet and came around the table. She sat next to Regan and took her other hand. Regan looked into her sister’s face, and Caleb saw some message pass between the two of them.

“I keep telling myself that Sardi won’t hurt her,” Regan said. “I loved him once. I couldn’t love a man who would do something like that.”

“But he’s not a man,” Darius said. “He’s a demon.”

They were all silent for a while. Then Kael turned to Caleb. “Tell me what your father told you about Kyla.”

Caleb recounted his father’s words. Kael winced when he said that Ethan had described his sister as broken, but otherwise he remained emotionless throughout the story. At the end, he frowned. “And he never saw her again?”

“He said not, but he also said that at times he felt as though he was being watched and could never find who it was.”

“Why didn’t she come back?” Kael rubbed at his temples. “If she was free, why didn’t she come and find me?”

“Maybe she needed time alone,” Raven said from beside him. “Perhaps she didn’t want you to see her like that. She’d been a prisoner for a long time. Who knows what she went through.”

“We have to find her,” Kael said.

“Even if she doesn’t want to be found?” Caleb asked.

Thoughts of his mother had been going through his mind since his father’s dying words. He didn’t know what to think or what to do. He’d always wanted to know about her, but then again, he’d always accepted the fact of her death. He’d always believed she hadn’t left him voluntarily, that she had died.

Now he needed to get his head around the idea that she was alive. That she was just one more person who had abandoned him to his father’s tender care. It was hard to take in, and he knew he was being unfair, but the bitterness wouldn’t leave him. Regan squeezed his hand, but he didn’t return the gesture.

After all, here was another woman who would turn her back on him as soon as she was able. He pulled his hand free, and confusion flickered across her face.

“Yes.” Kael answered his question. “Even if she doesn’t want to be found. She’s not well, we can help her.”

Caleb nodded. “I’ll take you to my father’s house. It would be the last place she was seen. We can go from there.”

“We?”

Caleb released his tight hold on the bitterness inside him. “She may be your sister, but she’s also my mother.”

“Okay, we go together. First, we need to find this Sardi. Send him back to where he came from. Where would he go?”

Regan shrugged. “I don’t know. His allies here are dead. We need to know more about him. We need my bloody mother. She knows him.”

“Can’t you get hold of her?”