Page 25

Doc

W e were all slightly surprised when we arrived back and Neith wasn’t waiting for us, but we quickly realized that none of us had told her how to pull up the screen to watch the trials and to be honest, with her magic as limited as it currently is none of us are even sure that she will be able to trigger the spell.

Because of this, we figured that she may not know that we’re back.

We were all heading out of the door in a rush to find her when Raiden pointed out that it might be best to heal those of us that needed to be healed first because if she didn’t watch the trial then she would most likely freak the fuck out when she saw us covered in blood and obviously injured.

When we went to find her though after I had healed them all quicker than I think I’ve healed anyone before, in my need to see Neith and make sure that she’s okay, she wasn’t in her room or in the common area and she wasn’t even up by the painting of her parents.

We tried to get the screen up to see if she was still doing her trial, since in our rush to check on her, we had all seemed to temporarily forget that she was pulled into one.

It didn’t work though, and that brings us to now, standing in front of the portrait of her parents, which is a crazy development in itself, wondering where the hell she is.

We struggled while we were on the trial, knowing that she had just been through something so traumatic and that we couldn’t be there for her because we had been pulled into another one.

I know that Neith is strong, she’s insanely fucking strong, and it’s apparent that we are only just beginning to scratch the surface of the shit that she has been through and dealt with in her life.

That’s not the point however. Just because she’s strong and she can deal with it doesn’t mean that she should deal with it all by herself; she’s not alone now.

We’re all here for her, and we all want her to lean on us.

None of us wanted to leave her alone, not after what she went through, and quite honestly, it was for our peace of mind as well as for her.

I never want to experience that feeling of absolute hopelessness ever again.

It’s worse knowing that if it does happen again, that we still won’t be able to help her.

The only person, or should I say people, that can calm her down and pull her out of such a traumatic panic attack are Coen and Dimitri.

I never would have figured that out, but it’s become increasingly clear that Coen has also kept quite a lot about himself and the sorts of things that he was up to from us.

Even when we were all in school together, whenever he went back to the keep, we never returned with him, mostly because we had our own families to go back to or places that we needed to be, and he never invited us, we didn’t mind at all.

Everyone knows that the dragons are very particular about who they allow to see their keep.

I’m now thinking that it was because he wanted to keep Neith and most likely Dimitri to himself, even back then Dimitri was making a name for himself although it was more as a vigilante rather than the incredibly dangerous criminal that has no moral compass whatsoever, and doesn’t discriminate against who he’s willing to harm and kill in order to get what he wants.

I can’t say that he was the only one back then keeping things to himself, I think we all were.

“Why don’t we try to find Mabel?” Reed suggests his power is starting to build with his growing worry about Neith’s whereabouts.

I wouldn’t say that we’re in complete panic mode yet, I mean it’s getting close, but we’re no good to Neith if we’re panicking, and there’s a good chance that she’s napping somewhere or exploring the castle more because she got bored or something.

“Good idea,” Van agrees. “Let’s go and find Mabel and see if she knows anything.”

“And if she doesn’t?” I ask.

“Then I guess we go and find the Draconian team and see if they know anything. I would say that I don’t think that Coen would do anything to hurt her, but we have no idea what kind of control Kylen has over him.

We already know that he tried to make Coen fight her, and although Coen warned her, I don’t want to risk it,” Van replies.

“I agree,” Reed replies firmly as we all head back down the stairs.

Raiden

A s we get closer to the bottom of the stairs and the doors that will take us out onto the floor above Neith’s, I glance back up when movement catches my eye from behind us, only to frown when there’s no one there.

I could have sworn that there was someone there, but there’s definitely not now.

I’m about to tap into my magic to see if there are any souls nearby when a different idea flashes through my mind, and I immediately forget about the movement.

Neith said that she could still feel my magic, which means that the tether that I put in place is, for some reason, still working and still holding her soul to this plane.

I don’t know why. It really shouldn’t be, and I don’t know whether it’s going to cause any problems, or even if it’s something that we should worry about.

Right now, it doesn’t seem to be causing any issues, and Neith doesn’t mind, which makes me incredibly happy and means more to me than she will ever realize.

It is on my list to look into when we get back to the house, and things settle down a bit after the Choosing, although I am not sure that they will settle down for a while.

I don’t bother telling the guys what I’m up to, one because it will just waste time, and two because I’m not entirely sure that it will work.

Calling on the part of my magic that I have only just begun to use again, I ask it to check the tether that I made to tether Neith’s soul to her body.

It was made necessary because she couldn’t cross back over to the spirit after being there so recently and Wallace, one of Neith’s spirit guides, told me that the only way that I would be able to save her was if I tapped into the other side of my magic, my stronger side, and the side that I shut down when I was just a child. So that’s what I did.

The magic responds to my request with ease, and I smile. “Guys,” I call out as I jog to catch up to them.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize that you had fallen behind,” Van says distractedly as he assumes that was why I was calling him.

“No, I just checked on the tether, since Neith said that she could still feel it,” I explain.

Everyone stops walking and turns back to look at me expectantly.

“Well?” Reed asks, his voice gruff.

“I couldn’t get much information at all, but her heart is still beating, and she is still tethered to this plane,” I explain, frowning when I realize that it’s actually not that much information. “That’s not really much more information than we had a moment ago, is it?”

“It’s something,” Ransom says. “Good thinking.”

“Ransom’s right. We now know that she’s alive, and that’s more information than we had a moment ago,” Griff adds.

“Yeah, good point,” I agree, although I can’t help but wish that I could find out more information from the tether. “Let’s go and find Mabel and see if she knows where Neith is.”

The guys all nod in agreement, and we carry on walking through the castle. Thankfully, it doesn’t take us long until we spot her coming out of one of the rooms on the ground floor.

I have to admit that I haven’t done any exploring of the castle, so I have no idea what room she’s coming out of, and quite frankly, I don’t care. Not right now, at least.

“Mabel,” Doc calls, and she turns to look at us, smiling happily.

“Good evening, boys,” she greets us, and then frowns when she sees our expressions. “Is everything okay?”

Doc doesn’t even hesitate or try to play it down as he immediately asks, “Do you know where Neith is?”

Mabel’s frown tells us all we need to know as she replies, “No, I’m afraid I don’t. I didn’t even see her after she got back from her task.”

“So she isn’t still in a Choosing trial then?” I ask, just to make sure.

Mabel shakes her head, “No, there are no more trials scheduled for today, and Neith has already done one for today anyway. There are never two for the same person on the same day. The toll on the person would be too great.”

“Shit,” Van curses.

Ransom interrupts the conversation, “Do you know where the Draconian team is?”

Mabel’s eyes narrow slightly with suspicion, but she doesn’t question us. Instead, she just answers, “They all got back from a trial around the same time that you all did, and they are now in the dining room having some dinner.”

“Thank you, Mabel,” Ransom replies, with a smile.

“Is there something that I should know about?” Mabel asks, concern heavy in her voice.

“Not for the moment, but if you see Neith, could you tell her that we’re looking for her and she can meet us back at our room?” Griff asks.

Mabel nods in agreement, although she looks like she wants to question us further, and we all turn around and start to walk to the main hall of the castle.

My gaze drifts to River, and it occurs to me that this entire time, he has been silent.

When I study him closer, I realize that there’s a reason for it.

His kitsune is incredibly close to the surface, and now that I am focusing on him, it’s easy to tell that his power level has increased, and he’s trying to keep it under control.

“Are you okay?” I ask him, gaining the attention of the others.

“Well fuck,” Doc says glancing at River in concern.

It’s clear that something is very wrong because he’s not fidgeting or bouncing around like he normally is, and his hands are clenched tightly.

“We just need to find her,” he says.

“Do we go and question the Draconian team now?” Reed asks, a hopeful glint in his eye.