Page 129 of Mask and the Magnolia

My chest squeezes at that, the way he still feels like Magnolia is our girl despite the fact that she’s not here. I guess we all do, and maybe we need to start figuring out how to move on from that.

“No.” Isaak points in my face as he stands in the middle of the three of us. “We are not moving on from shit. Magnolia is still ours and we have to go rescue her.”

“From what?” I scoff. “Living it up with her new husband?”

He swallows hard as he looks up at me. “We have to save her from the Harden twins.”

It takes about three seconds for what he said to sink in, and when it does, my goddamn vision goes white.

I don’t even realize I’ve ripped my bed from its mounts on the floor, the bolts flying as I wind up, ready to launch it across the hall.

“Whoa there, killer.” Des grabs my wrists as he plants his feet, stopping me in a deadlock because he’s the only one who can. “Take it easy. You make a scene and it’s gonna fuck up anything we want to do to help our girl, right?”

I grit my teeth in his face, growling low in warning. Now really isn’t the time to fuck with me. Not when I feel like my head is going to explode after what I just heard.

Slowly, and without taking his eyes off my face, Desmond slides his hands from my wrists down my arms, placing one on my chest over my heart while he cups the back of my neck with the other.

“Clear minds.” He presses his forehead to mine as I start to calm down. “We have to have clear fucking minds if we want to get her back. Don’t do anything stupid. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

“Good,” Isaak says as I put the bed down. “This is good. You think you can try to reach Maggie?”

Why the hell not.

Who needs cellphones when we’ve got bond links?

“Don’t be such a smart ass. Just get our girl.” Des grins before he pats my ass then gives me a little space.

I have no idea if that’ll make a difference.

I don’t know how to do this.

I didn’t even know I was doing this until ten minutes ago.

How am I supposed to work some weird mate bond mind link magic shit if I don’t have a clue when I’m actually doing it?

I close my eyes and start to pace, trying to keep a clear head like they said while I think about Maggie.

She’s so far away from us. I don’t know what kind of radius this shit has. I might not be able to reach her if she’s far enough away.

But I keep trying.

I control my breathing and relax my body, I try to block out the peanut gallery around me. I stand still as I picture her face, specifically the last time she smiled at me, just before she went to Eve’s new place.

That’s when it happens.

A slice of fear and sadness stabs me right in the chest, a pain I can feel as if it were mine but I know it isn’t.

Neither is the crying that gets louder the longer I focus on it.

I have to get a hold of myself.

My heart starts to beat a little faster as I hear her, as I hear Maggie’s voice inside my head.

I can’t go down there a mess, not if I don’t want to get my ass handed to me again. Remember why you’re doing this, Magnolia.

If she means that literally, I’ll kill that asshole twice.

I hear her snort.Yeah, twice might not be enough. Not to keep someone like him down but it’s a nice thought.