Page 24 of Ascendant King

Emilio shook his head. “No.”

So there was a chance that Benji didn’t actually have it, that my sister wasn’t justfinewith her mate using our mother as athrow rug. I felt bile burn in my throat. Nia nudged me sharply with her elbow.

“Harrison said that Benji and the rest of Ghost Pack had been gone for a while. He didn’t know where they were, but sometimes the guy in charge doesn’t know what everyone else does.” I tried to meet Emilio’s eyes, but he was busy looking down, showing deference to Nia.

She glared at him a moment longer before raising her chin and nodding, clearly satisfied he understood her position in the pack.

Emilio swallowed. “I’m not sure where he went, but Ghost Pack technically controls a few other towns and territories around Flores. No one’s seen them for weeks.”

“How long exactly?” I asked.

Emilio shrugged. “At least a couple of months, maybe more.”

Longer than I’d been in charge of the Los Santos Pack. Meeting him at Declan’s, I’d probably seen Benji more recently than anyone else.

“Thanks,” I said. “Go get settled with your family. We’ll talk soon.”

Nodding at the dismissal, he followed Heather, who’d come back to find her wayward wolf.

“Okay,” I said. “I’m back. What caught on fire while I was gone? I have my extinguisher ready.”

Nia shook her head, as though dusting her hands of the whole affair. Then, she gestured back toward the main house. I followed her into my office and looked down at the photos she’d left out.

A lanky man wearing polo shirts and chinos featured heavily, and a few drug deals were memorialized for me to examine.

“So,” I said, thumbing through the pile. “This is our Thorn dealer? Let’s go have our chat.”

Nia put up a hand.

I frowned. “What’s the problem?”

Chapter

Eight

“We lost him,” Coral said, standing on the street in front of a tall town house, one set of stairs leading up to the front door, another down to a basement apartment underneath.

“What?” I asked, frowning between her and her mage, Lily. “I thought Heather saidyoulost him, but Lily managed to put a tracking spell on him.”

“I did. I put one on him.” Lily looked down, glancing up briefly at Cade. “My prince, I put a spell on him, but when I go to activate it…”

She pressed her hands together, her tattoos flowing down her arms and weaving together like a spiderweb between her palms. Then, they shot out, a thousand glowing lines that disappeared into the air.

“That was supposed to point where he was?” I asked.

“It should lead us directly to him, like a yellow brick road,” Coral said. “I’ve seen it work before.”

I glanced at Cade, and he was frowning down at the magic, now slowly slithering back up Lily’s shoes until it hid under her pants, finally finding skin. “Cade?”

“Did he remove it?” Cade asked.

Lily shook her head. “No, the magic would have returned to me if he’d removed it.”

“Did he destroy it?” I asked.

Graceful pink swirls decorated the back of Lily’s hands. She squeezed them into fists. “I didn’t feel him destroy it.”

“And this is the last place you saw him?” I gestured to the basement apartment beneath an expensive town house. The private entrance was a selling point, but the only other exit would have to be a window somewhere, the city not requiring a separate door.