Page 70 of Glass Hearts

“Please take care, Petra, I will head southward to get away. Find me in the town of Quotina.”

She caws once more as she takes flight to deliver my message.

I hope Lo gets out. I am not sure what I am going to do if she doesn’t.

Koi

The foggy nightmare of darkness passes as I shoot up next to my brother and my girl’s best friend, Lo.

Lo? What is she doing in our room?

Two little mice are at her face, slapping her with their tiny paws, trying to wake her up.

Then it all comes back to me. All I had witnessed as I was trapped in my mind. Arabella, the whipping, the cruel words. My brothers seem to come back to reality at the same time as I hear Grayer cry out a pained “Arabella.”

“Where. Is. She.” Archer grounds out as we all massage our temples. It feels as though we all have an awful hangover from drinking for five days straight. Jett is licking his face, and the mice are still trying to wake up Lo.

“We probably don’t have a lot of time until Victor and Bernice try to find us.” Sylas is the first to get up fully, trying to help Lo sit up from the floor. “We need to wake up Miss Elora, she may know where our Vixen is. Especially if she knew enough to get us out of the spells.”

“You are right,” I say as I summon my water magic to dump ice-cold water over her.

“Why the fuck am I bleeding?” Archer asks as he touches his forehead.

“Looks like our girl’s friend got a lucky shot at you while you were passed out,” I chuckle.

“It’s not time to laugh, brother. I need to find my Duchess.” Grayer, who is normally more relaxed even when he is acting a bit maniacal, looks absolutely murderous. I send another dump of cold water over Lo in urgency. The mice are angrily chittering at me, getting caught in the onslaught of water.

“Sorry, boys, I need to find my woman.”

Lo stirs as she sputters out the water. Sylas, ever the gentleman, is already there helping her sit up. He hands her a glass of an amber liquid.

“It worked,” Lo squeaks out before sputtering water from her mouth. “Really? I save your bums and you waterboard me!?”

“Not waterboarding, just waking you up.” I lift my arms in peace.

She takes a large sip of the alcohol.

“Thanks, I needed that. But we don’t have time. Ella is in trouble.”

“Do you know where she is?” Grayer asks angrily, getting up in her face. I pull my brother back.

“Gray, calm down. Lo is on our side, trying to help us,” Archer condemns Grayer as he struggles to maintain any form of composure. Archer turns back to Lo. “Thank you for helping us. What do you think happened? Where is she?”

“I have no idea where Ella is.” Tears stream down her eyes at the confession. “She has a bracelet I spelled to find her. But I need to make a conduit to track her. I accidentally left my original tracker back at home.”

“Then make it!” Grayer screams, and angry tears fall down his face. “I remember it all. That bitch said she was selling her off tonight to get married. She can’t, she is MINE.”

Lo nods, trying to get up. Sylas is there, helping her up. She lists the ingredients for us to collect.

“I also need something of Ella’s. Would any of you happen to have something on hand?”

Grayer leaves for a few minutes and returns with the pouch that contains our pendants along with the other requested items.

“Wasn’t the desk drawer locked?” Archer asks.

“I melted the lock and kicked in the drawer,” is all he says as he reaches for his necklace first, removing her glass orb from his chain. He tosses the bag to us to retrieve our own pendants.

Hesitantly, Gray hands Lo the orb. Lo smiles as she realizes he had it around his neck.