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“Two? Like an Apprentice? And you?” Nix asks incredulously. “Are magic users so common that we’re just toting two over state lines? That Carnell is worth the effort of two? Fucking megalomaniac idiot.”

“Withers saw me at the first safe house.” Grayson bites back the part where the Arcanas had found him attractive—no need to risk Nix storming off into the city, nose to the ground, chasing down the few scraps of information he’s managed to gather.

Because that’s what this is, right? He’s traveling, if not in body, then in spirit.

“But why would he think there are two of you? It makes no sense,” Rowan says.

Grayson hates this part. “Ugh…he said he could tell I was strong, or some shit.” Grayson is well aware of his strengths and talents, and while he’s no braggart, he is a confident and successful person. But this? This makes his cheeks flush.

“Understatement,” Luca mutters. “So if you’re strong, you can’t be an Apprentice, is the logic?”

“Nimue calls what you did walking The Plain,” Finn says in response. “She doesn’t know of anyone who can do it. She thinks there was one in Germany. She’ll get back to me.”

Gideon hands him a bottle of water and a piece of chocolate—it’s exactly what Grayson needs. It always is. “Then what? You came back to us like you’d had a shock.”

“Oh yeah, so they were monologue-ing. Or I guess dialoguing, yeah? Lots of ass-kissing by Withers, and then he said there is a spell in place that if they break it, means Carnell will be a sitting duck.”

“You mean we haven’t been able to find him because he’s using a spell to hide his whereabouts?” Jay growls.

He is no doubt mad because they’d been here two weeks with no glimpses of their nemesis in the wild.

Someone like Carnell never goes under the radar.

Not in the news, not in the public eye, and most certainly not by the authorities.

Most especially not to the people Lauren Arnell Costas knows.

Men like Carnell live like kings and enjoy the public spectacle that wealth and connections bring.

But Carnell had gone off the radar, and now they know why.

They all remember the last time a spell had been used to hide someone, and there was not a happy face in the room.

“Did they say anything else about it?” Finn says, the notes app open on his phone again. “Were you lucky enough to hear what his next moves are?”

“He’s looking for us. He knew we were at the Archive, and the hospital, and…the golf club. He knew you were there, Jay.”

“Why hasn’t he come here then? Surely if he could find us there, he could find us here?” Rowan growls.

“I don’t know, but Carnell asked him if he could find me…just me.” Grayson squeezes Nix harder. “And he said yes.”

Withers was entirely too confident that he could locate Grayson again—on The Plain, and then in reality.

That idea alone was enough to have the family showered and dressed in short order. Determined not to be sitting ducks for the second time in as many weeks, they set about packing everything eight people had managed to spread out around their temporary den in just a few days.

In a flurry, Gideon quickly assigned tasks while Finn contacted Nimue to see if she would help them fortify yet another safe house.

There had also been a call to Lauren. Grayson was glad he wasn’t the one on the other end of the receiver when Gideon clenched his jaw and slid the glass doors closed to the lanai, phone to his ear.

His heart twinged, though, when he glimpsed Leo’s frown—thoughts of his mother flickering across his face.

Gideon was no doubt begging—demanding—her help in finding them another sanctuary on short notice, since the luxury Island Estates house was far from ideal as a defensible location.

The pack had never cared for excessive space, especially after hunkering down in a single room for a week not that long ago.

They would gladly do it again for even a fraction of added security.

Now, they just had to wait until she could mobilize her contacts on this end.

In the meantime, Nimue insisted that Grayson meet the Head of Novices at the Guild’s headquarters, sooner rather than later, and even with the mole within their ranks.

There were fifty-three administrative employees at the Guild and even more at the teaching facility.

It would take them a few days to determine who it might be, but Grayson’s training would not wait.

Not if Withers was on the active hunt for Grayson’s magic.

They also didn’t need reminders of what Grayson had been willing to do to protect his mates in the library’s Archive.

There’s a sizzle of that remembered power in his hands as he stuffs two pillows into a large garbage bag, and he absently wonders where the overabundance of nesting materials had come from. Surely not everything had come from home on the plane?

“Why are we running? Why not let him come here?” Nix mutters, and his eyes flash blue for a moment before he stuffs some of their nesting materials into a large garbage bag.

It’s taking him longer than Grayson, who has stuffed two bags full already, because the omega is picking a blanket up, folding it, smelling it, rubbing it on his belly, and then smelling it again, before repeating the process if it doesn’t meet his standard. “I’d like to show him a thing or two…”

“That’s a bad idea—a bad, bad idea,” Luca whispers-squeaks from the space behind the bedroom door.

He is trying to stay out of Gideon’s eagle eye because he’s supposed to be packing suitcases full of clean clothes in the laundry room.

Grayson’s sweet beta hasn’t left his side since the traveling episode, not even in the shower.

How Luca thinks Gideon isn’t going to notice the clothes aren’t getting packed is beyond Grayson, but he appreciates the love.

“Baby, he has a trained magic user! And Carnell probably knows big dudes with guns. We aren’t ready, right, Gray?”

“Not at all,” Grayson agrees. They aren’t ready in the slightest. There’d been a discussion about a plan, and in Grayson’s amateur opinion, it sucked.

“Jay and Gideon’s plan might work, though.

Right?” Luca asks, voice full of doubt, his mocha scent more coffee than sweet chocolate.

He’s crouched behind the door, making himself as small as possible—naked except for a beanie he found in Grayson’s suitcase, his headphones, and his lilac Uggs.

He’s as cute as his instincts are dead-on.

The plan sucked.

Gideon wanted to take the fight to Carnell on his home turf—walk right into the lion’s den. Which is better than having his troops show up at our den while we’re sleeping, Jay had added.

That was something Grayson could agree on.

He’d seen the light of insanity in Carnell’s eyes and the decaying madness in Withers’s.

They believed it would be too much of a temptation for Carnell to resist. If all went to plan, it would be the perfect time to grab the two key players—Jay and Gideon—in Carnell’s delusion.

And given that he preferred to play with his food before eating it, he’d bring them back to his fortress.

Then—boom—Gideon would do what he came to do.

But to Grayson, it sounded like they were sacrificing themselves just to force Carnell’s hand, keeping the pack out of the line of fire. It was insane. Then again, when they’d presented the other options…he hadn’t felt any better about those, either.

Still putting themselves directly in the line of fire? No, that sucked hard. And he wasn’t the only one who had drawn that conclusion.

Cinnamon scent blazing, Leo slams the door to a room down the hall, and then the clanging of pots and pans starts up a cacophony in the kitchen.

Probably because the best plan involves Jay appearing publicly around his home city, with Gideon as his handler.

Creating opportunity after opportunity for Carnell to swoop in and scoop them up.

Currently, they have Margot on a social media blitz, scheduling a few official appearances, including a Make-a-Wish fan interaction with a radio appearance at a popular radio station.

It’s all in the hopes that Carnell will make a play for Jay. It’s fucking dangerous, and the image of that sniper in the mountains flashes through Grayson’s mind, this time from the top of a downtown high-rise.

Jay had never looked more like a traditional Pack Alpha than when he had brooked no argument and forbade Leo, Rowan, and Luca from being at his side for their safety.

Only Gideon will accompany him because his son was safe from Carnell’s machinations, and it has pushed Leo into a rare display of extreme anger for the second time since they’ve landed in Clearwater.

Grayson can only remember one other time in their pack history when there had been no democratic vote on the idea, and that had been Nix’s choice, not Jay’s.

It doesn’t feel any better now than it did then.

At the loud noise, Luca and Nix both freeze, eyes wide.

He can’t blame them, as an angry Leo is a sight to behold; attractive and forceful.

So much so that if Grayson were a betting man, he’d bet Gideon and Rowan are sitting on the couch with proverbial popcorn in hand (the former) and a hand inside his sweats (the latter).

Grayson prefers to be out of the way until the initial burn has simmered into a stony silence.

“What’s Leo doing in the kitchen? He’s not going to actually cook anything, right?” Nix whispers incredulously and runs protective hands over his belly as if to shield their babies from the idea of Leo’s unskilled culinary assault.

Grayson has to agree, that’s probably the scariest thing he’s heard all day.

***

Souls Once Torn (Gideon)

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