Page 151 of Change

Chapter Twenty-Five

Miles

Penned

“How could this have happened again?” Even though my arms covered my head, I could feel Brayden’s fury. It was easy to see him in my mind’s eye, shaking in his seat as he glared accusingly around the table. “This is thethird timeyou’ve lost her! And now, she’s in trouble and we can’t help!”

“Technically,” Damen began, obviously affronted, “the first time this happened, Bryce was the one who let her get kidnapped from under his nose. He succumbed to the poison.”

“Isuccumbedto the poison?” Bryce’s tone was sarcastic—something that didn’t bode well for their newly reformed friendship. “I’d like to see you take on the amount of poison I have in my life and survive. But you wouldn’t, because you’ve spent your whole life being pampered and protected by others.”

“Oh, knock it off, both of you,” Finn chipped in. “Maybe she’s okay? Kiania hasn’t said anything.”

“But would she even tell you?” Julian, surprisingly, did not sound sarcastic for once. “She doesn’t like you.”

“She hasn’t said anything to me either,” Damen replied, and I could hear his wavering confidence in his voice. After all, the fact that Kiania was not only resisting his summoning—but also hasn’t popped up with frantic news of Bianca—was the only thing helping the onmyoji keep his head on straight.

We didn’t know for sure that something was wrong. Maybe Ada, Gloria, and Bianca all couldn’t answer their cell phones.

At the same time.

It could be completely innocent and this feeling was a fluke.

“That tells usnothing,” Julian retorted. “Because shedefinitelydoesn’t likeyou. She’d keep it from you just to screw with your head.”

That was true also, and something that Damen was obviously trying to overlook. As was this, “She wouldn’t do this just to hurt Damen.” I lifted my head from the table, glancing around the room.

We were in Titus’s grand conference room, waiting for the dragon tofinallyrespond to his messages, as we tried to formulate the next part of our plan. My sense of unease was steadily growing, because even if Titus might ignore a message from one of us, it would never be for something regarding Bianca.

Maria, too, would never let a correspondence go unanswered. Having an unread message would bother her.

And while there was Kiania—who would avoid talking to Damen, and Finn, if she could—something else was wrong with this picture…

“KianialikesBianca,” I pointed out. “If we’re looking for her, and it’s on her behalf, she would answer if she could.”

The doubtful expressions on Damen and Finn’s face were almost insulting.

“She does!” I argued, pressing my palms onto the table. How could they not consider how close Kiania and Mu were in past lives? Something might have happened to cause Kiania to avoid Mu, but I doubted that it was because they disliked each other. How could they not see it? Didn’t they also notice this, “Do you really think Kiania set out to hurt Bianca? As she proved, she could have seriously harmed her any time she wanted with their bond, but she didn’t. Also, she didn’t have any hesitation when fighting Mr. Dungworth on Bianca’s behalf when Finn summoned her.”

“Mr… Who?” Finn’s brows were furrowed in confusion.

“Mr. Dungworth!” Did he forget? “The ghost wolf shifter that liked to haunt the girl’s locker room. Bianca was attacked while I was at practice. Kiania showed up and ate him.”

Finn’s frown deepened, and my confidence faltered.

“You were there, right?” I asked the blonde onmyoji. “I figured you were stalking her…” My voice trailed off as Finn’s expression remained unmoved.

“No,” he replied. “I never summoned Kiania for any wolf shifter ghost.”

Bryce seemed just as confused as me, so I knew he’d felt it too.

She’d definitely been summoned by an onmyoji.

Which led to the question, “If you didn’t summon her, who did?” I looked to Damen, but he appeared to be as confused as Finn.

So it hadn’t occurred to him yet.

“Bianca?” I was almost certain—which led to another point in one of my theories.