Page 135 of Claim Me

“It’s like she just disappeared,” Ayla said when it first happened. “I don’t understand. She was here and now she’s gone.”

We were standing on a rooftop, observing one of the O’Neely residences, when she initially lost the connection. Not a home owned by the main patriarch, but by someone high up in his family clan.Daithi O’Neely, Ayla called him.

“She was in there, though,” Ayla added. “I’m certain of it. But she’s… she’s not there now.”

“What about Issy?” I asked.

Ayla just shook her head. “No. I haven’t been able to track Issy for the last few days. I’m not sure what they’ve done to her, but her aura is… untraceable.”

I fully intended to break in and grab Fallon, but I paused when Ayla lost her aura. We needed to keep the element of surprise. And my barging into an O’Neely home would ruin all of that.

“It’s only worth showing our hand if we know Fallon is in there,” I told Kaspian earlier after bringing him up to date on what we found here. “But Ayla can’t sense her anymore. I don’t want to alert them to my presence unless I know I can save Fallon.”

Kaspian agreed with my plan, telling me he would be here soon with reinforcements.

I now watch with an arched brow as all those reinforcements step through the portal.

“I’m surprised Cara and Larus didn’t demand to join,” I comment as I fold my arms over my chest.

“They’re my seconds. If something happens to me, I need them in Iceland to act as King and Queen of Gold and Garnet,” he replies.

“I’m sure they loved that speech,” I drawl.

Nox snorts as he joins us. “Cara said she didn’t agree to be his second just to be put in time-out when somethingfunhappens.”

Bane twirls one of his blades, his dark eyes flashing with dangerous intent. “How are we doing this?” he asks, cutting straight to the point as the portal closes behind the last of the mercenaries.

We’re back in Manhattan again, playing on the rooftop of the abandoned building Ayla seems to favor. I learned why when I met Amala—the witch who taught Ayla how to break the forced-mate-bond magic. Apparently, the exiled witch cast a deterrence spell around the upper floors and roof of this building, making it an area that most supernaturals avoid.

“I have to live somewhere,” Amala explained with a shrug. “And I certainly don’t want to live in Staten Island.”

She stands beside Ayla now, her purple hair blowing in the breeze from being so high up in the sky. Like Ayla, she seems undisturbed by the fifty-plus-story drop off the side.

It’s a sentiment the mercenaries Kaspian brought with him don’t seem to share.

Well, the gryffin-god hybrid seems at ease. The others, not so much.

Meanwhile, Nox and Bane seem fine. And Kaspian just seems impatient.

It’s a feeling I understand.

I’ve been standing around for hours, waiting for Ayla to pick up on Fallon’s aura again, while also hoping she somehow made it back to Iceland.

Alas, no one knows where she is.

And something is brewing in Staten Island. Ayla said she could feel the power rippling through her coven, leaving her uneasy.

Even Amala could sense it, despite being exiled.

“The patriarchs are doing something,” Ayla told me, her hands rubbing up and down her arms as though she felt cold. “I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it. Something big is coming.”

Which is why we need to work quickly.

Ayla pulls up a map of Staten Island—one she casts in the air using magic. We’ve already mocked it up in color to show the various patriarch homes. I point at each one to say the clan name and also show where Fallon’s aura was last felt.

“Who is this Daithi O’Neely?” Kaspian interjects. “Why would he have Fallon?”

“He specializes in obedience spells,” Ayla replies. “As to why he would have Fallon, I’m not sure. But something drew her aura to his home.”