Page 17 of Loving Amari

“The center looks amazing.” Ebony pulls me from my thoughts. “The children are excited to see it. I’m so impressed with the work you’ve put into this.”

I finish up the inspection. “Thank you, Headmistress.”

“Is everything ready?”

I nod. I’m screaming inside, not wanting to be present for this. I want to go home to my coven and wait for Carla and the spider children to return. I feel so empty without them. They don’t all disappear at once like this. Something is wrong. I’m also thinking about reaching out to Angie or Queen Anora. They’re tethered to Carla’s bloodline. Maybe they can help me at least locate them. But for now, I’m just going to wait.

“Everything is ready. We can start whenever you’d like.”

Ebony looks around. “Where’s Carla? She’s not joining us today?”

I suck in a sharp breath. I want to have a full breakdown, really let out my frustrations, but I don’t. Instead, I keep quiet and maintain a fake smile on my face. I’m honest with her. “She’s busy in limbo right now.”

“Oh...” Ebony looks at me. She can see right through my fake stance. “Tell her I said hi when she returns. I’m getting together with some of the women this weekend for a ladies night at the spa. Carla’s welcome to join us if she’d like.”

I bow my head to her. “I’ll relay the message.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. She’ll be back later tonight.”

Ebony gives me a quiet look like she doesn’t believe me, but she also feigns a smile. “Okay. I’ll go collect the first round of children.”

She leaves. I feel myself stretching thin. I’m going to hold off panicking, giving Carla one more day before I officially lose my shit. I try to stay positive. I’m going to try to find a way to keep Carla with me for at least a month after this. Her distance is literally shredding me. Every hour without her feels like someone’s slowly pulling my heart from my chest. The mate bond pulses with emptiness.

I get a beep on my phone. I’m thankful for the distraction. I dig into my pocket and pull it out, tapping on the screen to open it.

It’s a notification from my remote software program. Success. Finally.

I’ve managed to keep myself busy with hacking Brookstone and Blackburn’s new security system. It was heavily secure, more sophisticated than anything I’ve encountered in decades. Multiple layers of encryption, biometric authentication, quantum key distribution. Whoever designed this system knew what they were doing.

But any built program can be broken. It simply took me some time to find the holes in the coding. I found them in the human element, the places where programmers got lazy or arrogant. A backdoor left open for maintenance. A password reset function that didn’t quite validate properly. Small cracks in the foundation that I could exploit.

I’m thankful for that work. If I didn’t have this to keep me busy and grounded, I would have really lost it and gone stark crazy. The code gave me something to focus on besides the gnawing fear in my gut.

I place my phone in my pocket. I’m going to dig through the files once the opening is finished. Whatever they’re hiding in those servers, I’ll find it. Verde and Petra deserve that much.

I adjust my tie and feign a smile when Damon quietly enters. I know he can see right through my facade. He furrows his brow, approaching me.

“What’s troubling you, Amari?”

“Carla...” I can’t hold back, but I maintain my posture. “She’s in limbo.”

“Well, isn’t that a good thing? She’s maintaining the balance.”

“She didn’t go there on her own. She was pulled in by her magic, and she’s been there for three days.”

Damon stares at me. “Yes, that does sound odd. Can’t you get information on how she’s doing from Moria and Kemnebi? Even Tofi?”

“They’ve gone after her.”

“All of them?”

“Wintermoon is completely free of her spider children.”

Damon pauses. Even he knows something is off about this. “If all of her children left to join her in limbo, then...”

I give him a knowing look. “Yes. They are protecting her from something.”