Page 60 of Magic Claimed

And as he strode into the center of the floor, I could see utter devastation in the way his lips thinned and turned white beneath his beard. See the pain in the creases around his eyes. The folded arms and the clenched fingers.

But then a small body hit him out of nowhere, driving him back a step and forcing his arms wide.

“You’re okay.” Logan’s arms wrapped around Faris in a trembling hug—an overwhelming display of emotion from a teenager who rarely allowed himself the luxury. “I thought you were dead.”

“You thought that scaly imposter could take me out?” Faris rumbled, looking down at the boy’s head with an oddly soft expression. “I thought you knew me better than that.”

And then he hugged him back. Not a gentle, tentative tap on the shoulder, but a firm embrace. Both arms wrapped around Logan’s shoulders, pulling him close for a moment before setting him back on his feet.

“I’m fine,” he said gruffly. “Everyone is safe. Everything else we can fix.” He looked from the shattered front facade to the ruined floor, steely determination in the jut of his jaw and the set of his shoulders. This wasn’t going to stop him.

I hoped he was right. Hoped we could fix it. Hoped that The Portal could be made whole again, and that we would be able to explain our way out of this mess.

But from the looks of the human police officers already standing in the street outside… I wasn’t so sure that was going to be the case.

“Before we talk to them,” I murmured to Faris, “you should know that someone was trying to pin this attack on Callum.”

The look he shot me was filled with boiling fury. “How?”

“Large black dragon, combined with someone in the street shouting ‘Callum no!’ where they could be heard by fifty human witnesses with camera phones. I don’t know how they figured out that he’s here, but someone must have ratted us out.”

“And we’re sure…”

He’d had the same first thought as I had. What if the poison had eaten away Callum’s self-control? What if he was genuinely capable of this violence?

“I’m sure,” Kira broke in. “I tried using the Voice, and it barely touched him.”

Faris shot her a confused look. “I thought that worked on all shapeshifters.”

She shook her head grimly. “Not on this one.”

I had no idea what they were talking about, but I didn’t need any extra evidence.

“I’m sure, too,” I told Faris. “It wasn’t him. The Assemblage wasn’t damaged, so he didn’t shift there, and Ryker and Angelica would never have let him out of their sight.”

“Then who?”

I looked at him steadily. “Tairen says it was Morghaine.”

I thought he’d looked angry before, but that was only an appetizer to the main course. This Faris could have chewed through solid steel and spat out bullets. But he was no idiot, so ittook him only a handful of seconds to reach the same conclusion I had.

“Masterson.”

I nodded. “It works to his advantage if we’re fighting, so yes, it was probably one of his people.” Also, there had been that woman shouting in the street. I knew her voice, but from where?

Whether we recognized her or not, the fact that they’d been able to show up and then disappear so quickly suggested that Blake’s base was far closer than we knew. Maybe I’d been right, and he’d been in Oklahoma this whole time.

If so, I needed to warn Kes and Shane to keep a closer eye out for anyone who might recognize her or the kids…

The kids.

Ethan.

I’d left him behind. Left him standing on the sidewalk. He could have just walked away. Disappeared into the crowd to become a ticking time bomb, waiting for his magic to overflow with potentially deadly consequences.

Even worse, I’d left him where he could be seen by one of Blake’s people.

What if Blake remembered him? What if he realized the almost limitless potential posed by Ethan’s ungovernable power?