Page 59 of Enchanted Shadows (The Enchanted Kingdom #6)

E mric put a hand on my shoulder. “She’s missing. We have an entire team out looking for them. Hunting down Bram and Calix. We’ll find them.”

Miles let out a loud curse from beside me. “How did Calix even get back into Wylan?”

Emric shook his head. “We have no idea. We didn’t allow any more ships from Agria to make a return trip since your first trip.”

Why hadn’t the queen of Agria warned us that Calix was free? Or had they known?

“Krew has Team Two out combing the mountain for Kessara,” Emric continued.

“Team Three running the perimeter. Seems likely she’s hiding.

” He stopped to swallow. “For the first time in four years, the wall of Kavan Keep is closed. Not to keep people out, but to make sure Calix and Bram have no escape.”

I let those last words settle in, something that Krew had promised would never happen. But even with all the details, a recurring thought was screaming in my head: I never should’ve left. Without another word, I headed for a cart.

“Not without me you don’t.” Miles was apparently not about to let me get on without him. “I’m driving. You’re going to push it too hard and we don’t need to injure any kids in the street in our haste.”

I hated that he had a point. I cared only for speed in this moment.

“Owen,” he snapped as he put us into motion.

Feeling nothing but rage and terror, I was reduced to monosyllabic answers. “What?”

“We’ll find her.”

I knew it was an empty promise. It was the outcome he preferred to happen, what he was determined to do. He couldn’t truly promise me that. No one could.

Kessara was missing.

My wife was gone.

For twenty-four hours we combed the forest and up the mountain.

No one had seen a trace of any of the three missing people.

I walked the forest and sent out tendrils of my power until I couldn’t walk anymore, burnout bearing down on me, in which Miles had hauled me up to the castle and thrown me in my bed.

My bed which still smelled like her.

The sun was coming through the windows cheerfully, assaulting my senses. I’d only slept a few hours, my body unable to fully relax.

How could three people just disappear like that? They had to be out there somewhere. Yet as every minute stacked onto another, every hour slamming into another, it seemed more precarious we hadn’t found them yet.

Last night before I’d fallen to my knees in the forest, I’d held out hope that if Jorah could hide away safely in the forest until it was safe, so could Kessara. No one had seen any of them leave Kavan Keep.

But without food and water? Without a coat or blanket with as cold as it dipped in the nights now? No, this second day brought with it an aching dread. But I could do nothing about it from bed, so I sat up to get dressed, to head back down to the forest.

I moved to get out of bed, tossing my curtain shut. I startled when I noticed I was not alone. Miles was sleeping on my couch and had woken with the sound.

His voice was groggy. “You need more sleep.”

“I’ll live,” I answered dully. I wasn’t as convinced, but not because of the amount of sleep my body had. “I need to get back down there.”

“Krew has not ceased the search all night,” Miles reminded me. “You know that.”

“I do,” I agreed. “But that’s only more bad news.” The only thread of hope I had was that I was working off the strange notion that if Kessara were really dead, I would somehow know. I would feel it.

What if they’d managed to get her out of Kavan Keep though? What if Calix had already removed her from Wylan?

Miles threw his shirt back on, we grabbed a coffee, and headed back out to the meadow, which was the meeting point for the search parties.

Krew had beaten us down there, and just in appearance, he looked like he had slept just as little as we had.

“Owen,” he greeted, striding for me and slapping me on the back. “Two quick updates. The first of which is that an Agrian ship arrived at the docks in Nerede with a letter from the Queen. They were warning us that Calix bribed some guards and broke free from his cell.”

“A little late,” I commented. I suspected he’d gotten here the same way Kessara originally had.

He’d gotten free and hopped the next ship out of Agria, then kept hopping them until he got to Wylan, hidden in shadows the entire time.

Though with the timing of it all, it seemed he’d only beat me ashore by a day’s time or less.

So it should be relatively easy to figure out which ship he’d snuck in on.

Krew continued, “The second is that someone on the night searches swears they thought they saw a mass of shadows, but it was there and gone. Do you know if there is a way to tell the difference in Calix’s and Kessara’s shadows?”

“Not by appearance,” I stated, doing my best not to get my hopes up. “Only in how they feel.”

Krew’s brows lifted as he waited for me to elaborate. But I didn’t feel like talking much.

“Calix’s shadows are not as heavy, but they bite as if dipped in acid. Kessara’s feel thick, but not unkind. Calix’s almost sting, Kessara’s just feel cool to the touch.”

Krew was quiet at that. His eyes were full of understanding. We both knew if it was Jorah who was missing, he would be more than distraught. He was kind enough not to make me any promises, he just looked at me with the same worried look I was sure was mirrored in my own eyes.

Deciding that was the best explanation I could give, I headed in the direction of the cabins. I was hoping that Kessara had drug herself to my cabin in the night. My stupid heart refused to give up hope that she was safe. Miles fell into step beside me but gave me space.

I knew Kessara was gone, and yet with my every step toward the cabin, I pleaded she’d be there. I looked for her in the sunlight reflecting off the trees, in every shadow cast from the sunlight peeking through the branches.

Where are you, Kess?

Just before making it to the cabins, I saw a blur of motion, what looked like a single line of turquoise magic .

Unbelievable. Of all things I had to deal with this day.

I gestured to Miles to hide around a large tree. I monitored my breathing and listened in. Only when I was sure they were all gathered did I step out of the shadow of the tree and say, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Molly, to give her credit, didn’t bother lying to me. “The same thing you are?”

“Bram is loose,” I reminded them. This damn team was going to be the death of me. Not to mention they were all supposed to be on a break right now. Yet here they were. Back in Kavan Keep.

Why were they always where they weren’t supposed to be?

“All the more reason to find him,” Sam said quietly. “We’re looking for Kessara, though. Hopefully nature took its course with the other two.”

Miles said, surprisingly gentle, “There are multiple teams out looking for her.”

“ We know her better,” Wren snapped. “We can find her.”

Miles took a steadying breath. “All of us want to find her, Wren. We’re all on the same team this mission.”

“A mission we failed at,” Sam said, voice catching.

“No,” I snapped at her. I was not going to take their wailing on.

Their blaming themselves. Nor did I have the time to blame myself in this moment.

“ Don’t. You. Dare. We pour all our energy into finding her.

Go to the meadow, speak with Krew. Tell him I gave you permission to keep surveillance focused on the cabins and the barracks and then set up a rotation amongst yourselves.

She might come this way once she can get free of the other two.

If she isn’t hunkered down hiding somewhere. ”

“You’ll let us help?” Viv asked, eyes wide.

I knew all too well that when things like this happened, the worst thing you could do was nothing. “Of course.”

While the team headed to the meadow, Miles and I headed to the cabins. We found nothing. No sight of her at all .

And for what had to be the thousandth time, I thought to myself , If she were dead, wouldn’t I know? Wouldn’t I somehow feel it?

No, we weren’t bonded, but I had heard Keir and John theorize how they both felt these bonds of ours weren’t as much about fate, but about how fiercely we chose one another.

In that regard, I was entirely and wholly Kessara’s.

But I had no bond, no tether which tied me to her.

And not having that, I realized, whether it was in a heart bonding or soul bonding, was such an utter waste.

I would bond to her in a heartbeat to prevent this from happening again. I would... well, I would do a lot of things. None of which could actually occur unless I found her.

I wasn’t a terribly religious man. I knew we believed the gods gifted us our Enchantments years ago to help rule our specific kingdoms, and whether it’d been multiple gods or a single deity like Agria believed had been debated heavily over the years.

I only knew I had seen with my own two eyes the workings of the forest here. It’s... sentience .

There was an undeniable force at work, one with balances, with justice.

The forest, after all, had known that Theon had poisoned the entire realm long before we had.

It’d turned dead in punishing him, almost as if a warning that despite killing all of the scientists he’d employed to accomplish it, the forest still knew what he’d done.

The forest knew things, of that I was certain.

I inhaled a deep breath and prayed to whatever or whoever would listen that the forest would keep Kessara safe, that she was still here somewhere.

She’d just finished dealing with her family and keeping her brother safe, something which had consumed her for the last three years.

We’d only just found a small sliver of pure happiness, and already it was under attack.

No, if this forest knew things, then it should know Kessara deserved to walk out of this unscathed, unharmed, and into a life of her choosing.