Page 24

A dric removed his quartz pendant and pulled up a chair in front of Nika.

She squared her shoulders and set her hands on her thighs. “What are you going to do?”

Her voice was calm although he knew she was afraid. Interesting. She’d been giving a good imitation of a completely cowed submissive, someone low on the dominance scale, but a fada that low would be trembling with the effort of fighting an alpha.

“You know where my cousin is,” he murmured. “Tell me, love.”

He swung his pendant in front of her face. Back and forth, slow and steady.

Nika moistened her lips. Her gaze flicked to the pendant and her right hand fisted.

She wanted his quartz, even though it wouldn’t do her any good—the tiny crystals within were aligned to his unique frequency, vibrating with him on a primal level. But with her quartz removed, her body would be craving the magical energy it was being deprived of.

He focused on his quartz. Deep within, the heart flared a fiery mix of bronze and blue that even he found mesmerizing. He dragged his gaze away and back to Nika’s face.

Back and forth.

“Tell me,” he said again. “Where’s Corban?”

On Nika’s other side, Marjani was careful to keep her gaze on the woman’s face, not the glowing quartz. At least something good had come out of this. It was the most animated he’d seen his sister in months. But then, she had even more reason to hate Corban than he did.

Back and forth.

Nika followed the movement with her eyes. The flickers in the quartz were mirrored in her pupils, twin blue flames in the black.

“Talk to me, Nika. All I want is information. Tell me what I want to know and I’ll let you live.”

Her mouth compressed, but her gaze remained on the swinging quartz.

In the Darktime, he would’ve forced the information from her and then smashed her quartz before dumping her on the streets of Baltimore—if he didn’t just slit her throat. Nika might not be the meek mouse she was pretending to be, but she was no match for a man of his strength.

But the Darktime was over, and he had little taste for hurting a woman, even one working with Corban. Of course, raiding her mind for information against her will wasn’t much better. But the clan came first.

His first question was simple. Get her to answer one question, and the next one was easier. “Where did you meet Corban?”

Her jaw clenched tight. Dislike and fear came off her in waves, a bitter, unpleasant scent. He didn’t think all that fear was for him, either. No, she was afraid of Corban, too.

Back and forth.

He repeated the question. “Where did you meet Corban?”

When she still didn’t answer, he drew deeply on his Gift.

Hypnotism: his dirty little secret. Most earth fada could hypnotize others if given enough time and opportunity, but he could do it so quickly and thoroughly that it was akin to compulsion.

He was sure other people suspected, but only his top people knew for sure, because if his Gift ever became general knowledge, he could lose the clan’s trust. How could his clanmates know what was true and what he’d planted in their minds?

Panic flared within Nika. He kept up the dark, steady pressure—and felt the moment her will collapsed in on itself.

Something deep inside her howled in fury, but her mouth opened. “In Iceland.” The words were slow, a little blurred.

Adric raised a brow. Iceland was the ice fae’s home territory.

“What were you doing in Iceland?”

“My alpha, he sent me to the ice fae.”

“Why?”

She shrugged, her gaze on the moving quartz. He drew more energy from it. The flickers coalesced into a vivid cobalt fire.

“Tell me, Nika.”

“I am to work for them. The ice fae, they pay the clan good money.”

“And Corban? Why was he in Iceland?”

“He works for them too.”

“Who? Who is he working for?”

She swallowed and then whispered, “The king.”

Adric considered that. He hadn’t heard from Corban since he’d disappeared soon after leaving for the Himalayas to track Sindre’s rogue female.

For the first three months, Adric had kept tabs on his cousin; as alpha, his quartz was linked to everyone in the clan.

But then the link had been abruptly cut.

As far as everyone knew Corban had died, but Adric suspected he’d smashed his own quartz so that he could go into hiding.

It had been left to Adric to explain to King Sindre why the Baltimore fada hadn’t completed the job they’d been hired to do.

The ice fae king was a tall, striking man with long blond hair and the ice-gray eyes of a predator.

He’d been waiting at the entrance to Adric’s den.

A clear message: the king could find him anytime, anywhere.

Adric had apologized and offered to send another tracker, but Sindre had simply scrutinized him with those frosty eyes.

Adric’s hand had gone to his quartz. Ice fae fed on the energy of motion.

A powerful fae like Sindre could suck the energy out of your very molecules.

The only way to resist was to shield yourself—either with iron, or by putting up an energy barrier.

“Very well,” the king said at last. “I’ll find the woman myself. It seems she is too clever for even a fada tracker.”

Now Adric realized his cousin must have struck a deal with Sindre. He narrowed his eyes at Nika. “Where is Corban now?”

“He ran away.”

“Yes, but where is he staying?”

“Nowhere. We flew in last week. By now he’s already gone.” Nika surfaced enough to shoot Adric a triumphant look. “You must travel to Iceland to find him.”

Adric swore under his breath.

“Sounds like him,” Marjani muttered. “Strike and run.”

Adric shook his head. He tried to get more information from Nika, but she didn’t know much else.

She did tell him which flight they’d been booked on, but Corban wasn’t stupid—he’d take another flight under a different name.

Adric would send a man to check the airport anyway, but he knew it was a waste of time.

Like hell, he’d chase Corban to Iceland. That was exactly what his cousin wanted. Adric’s fingers tightened on his quartz.

Nika twitched and he focused on her again. He was going to have to bring her out of the trance soon. His own energy was being drained at a rapid rate, and if he pushed Nika any harder, he risked damaging her brain.

But first, he had another question. “What about the night fae? Why are they working with Corban?”

“The night fae?” But her eyes flickered.

“ Tell me .” He threw everything he had into extracting that last bit of information, but he’d lost her. She’d thrown up a barrier he couldn’t penetrate.

“I do not know.”

It might be the truth—and it might not. Because “I don’t know” could mean anything, or nothing.

He ground his teeth. “Then who?”

But she’d regained control of her mind. She closed her mouth and refused to say anything else.

The last thing he did was erase Nika’s memory of how he’d hypnotized her. She’d remember that she’d given him information, but blame herself for being weak.

Sometimes Adric was an even bigger bastard than his cousin.

Nika’s breath sighed out. Her chin fell to her chest as she slid into a deep sleep. He grabbed her shoulders to keep her from falling off the chair.

“Let’s get out of here,” he told Marjani.

“What about her?” She jerked her chin at the sleeping woman. “You’re not bringing her back to Baltimore, are you?”

“No fucking way.” Nika was hiding something, and he was damned if he’d bring her into their den, or anywhere near the clan, for that matter. “We’ll leave her on Rock Run territory. Let them deal with her.”

Dion wouldn’t hurt Nika for no reason, but he would keep her captive while he tried to figure out why Adric had left her on his land.

Marjani’s brows shot up. “I like it. And her quartz?”

“You hang onto it.” Adric handed the pendant to Marjani and lifted Nika in his arms. His scent would be all over her. The river fada would know he’d left her there deliberately—what they wouldn’t know was why.

They’d driven up in one of the clan’s jeeps. After he laid Nika on the back seat, his sister took the wheel while he put in a call to a high-ranking sentry, directing the woman to send some men to the Baltimore airport on the off-chance they could catch Corban.

Next he contacted Zuri and brought him up to date.

“Corban still has friends in the clan,” he said.

“If he’s hurt bad enough, there’s a chance he’ll go to ground in one of their dens.

Start with his old den. I want someone we trust to visit every single one of the bastard’s friends.

He’s gone too far this time. He knows damn well an attack on Jace is an attack on me. I want him, Zuri.”

“If he’s in Baltimore,” the lieutenant replied grimly, “I’ll find him.”

His last call was to Bryah, a tough young sentry itching to prove herself. He’d left her and another sentry searching Grace Harbor for Corban while he was occupied with Nika and Jace. “Find anything?” he asked.

“Only some traces of blood, sir. We followed his scent as far as the bay and then we lost him. We ran along the shore for half a mile in each direction but there was no trace of him. We crisscrossed the town after that. I can tell you he was up here for a day, maybe two. He could be hiding somewhere, but my guess is he left by boat.”

“Unless he was ’ported out,” Adric muttered. His fingers tightened around his quartz. He’d swear Corban had the DNA of a fucking weasel, the way he wriggled out of tight spots.

“You think he’s working with a fae?”

“It’s a possibility.”

“I didn’t pick up a fae’s scent.”

Adric nodded. That was useful intel, although not conclusive. “You did good,” he told Bryah. “Go back to Baltimore. Zuri could use you in the search down there.”