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A dric Savonett pinged Marjani’s smartphone for what had to be the hundredth time.

No answer. Still.

She’d been gone for over a week now. Radio silence on her end, but he’d tracked her through her quartz. From this distance he couldn’t pinpoint her exact location, but she was somewhere to the north and east, and Luc had confirmed she was in Iceland.

Safe enough, since her quartz was still alive and humming—until twelve hours ago, when it had gone completely silent.

She’s okay. There’s more than one reason for her quartz to go silent.

It didn’t mean she was dead. The quartz could’ve been depleted. But most likely she’d reached her goal and passed through a fae portal into the ice fae court.

Then Luc’s quartz went silent, too.

Adric’s worry ratcheted up. But he was stuck in goddamn Baltimore, holding things together.

He paced barefoot across the living room’s stone floor, threading his way through the secondhand couch and battered coffee table that he and Marjani had rescued from a dumpster when they were dirt-poor and never gotten around to replacing.

The plush orange shag rug was his only luxury.

His cougar liked to stretch out on it and stare into the fireplace.

He stalked down the hall to her room to stare at the neatly made bed. The bedspread, a colorful geometric print, was a painful reminder of the sister he used to have. The one who’d loved bright tunics and leggings.

Until those feral river fada had gotten a hold of her, thanks to Corban and his little band of followers. Now she shaved her head and dressed like a soldier in camo.

He muttered a curse and strode back to the living room where he stared into the glowing amber quartz in his fireplace. Outside, it was a humid night in early August, but his den was carved out of the bedrock two stories below the surface, so he kept the quartz-powered fire burning all year round.

Marjani had loved to sit by the fire.

She’s in danger.

All evening, he’d been agitated. At midnight, he’d fallen asleep for a few hours and then got up to pace, his cat clawing at his insides, itching to go to her.

Growing up, he and Marjani had always had each other’s backs. Otherwise they’d never have survived the clan war known as the Darktime. But Marjani had been scarred by those terrible years.

She appeared tough, assertive. Only he knew that she still had nightmares about losing their parents and the years they’d spent on the run, hiding from their uncle.

She might be a pit bull, but it was protective coating for her soft heart.

She wanted to believe that the clan would never again turn on one another like cold-eyed, vicious reptiles.

And because Adric loved her, he did his best not to dispel that belief. His sister might be his most trusted advisor, but she didn’t know everything.

Did she really think he’d kill her? No fucking way. He’d lie, cheat and even murder if it meant hiding his sister was a feral.

He squeezed his quartz, willing her to contact him. Damn it, Luc was supposed to have found her by now.

But he’d missed her in Reykjavik—and since then Adric had received only two short communications. In the first, Luc had explained he was heading to the ice fae court’s location in northern Iceland. In the second, he’d said he’d found her and was temporarily cutting off communication for safety.

And for the past two days, nothing from either of them.

That made two of his lieutenants lost somewhere in Iceland. The place was a freaking Venus flytrap.

He rubbed his nape and told himself not to worry. Luc and Jani were both strong, capable soldiers.

But she’s not herself…

On the surface two stories above, a motorcycle rumbled up to the rowhouse he rented out to a couple of teenage drug dealers as camouflage. Very few people suspected the Baltimore Earth Fada alpha himself lived in the neighborhood.

A minute later, booted footsteps clattered down Adric’s stairs.

He stilled.

No one but his lieutenants and a few trusted clanspeople had permission to pass through the ward guarding his den. And they wouldn’t come in the middle of the night if it wasn’t important.

“It’s me,” called Jace at the same instant that Adric sensed his quartz on the other side of the door.

Adric ushered him inside and closed the door. “What’s up?”

Jace shook his head. Like Adric, his cat genes were evident in his lean, powerful build.

He had close-cropped black hair, warm brown skin and his Native American dad’s broad face and long cheekbones.

He’d dressed in a hurry—his T-shirt was shoved haphazardly into the waistband of his jeans, and he hadn’t buckled his short black moto boots.

“Bad news,” he said, his mouth a hard line.

Adric’s heart sank. He really didn’t need any more bad news right now. He gestured for the jaguar shifter to go into the living room. Neither of them sat down.

Jace got right to the point. “Langdon wants to meet with you.”

Adric stiffened. Jace had said the night fae prince’s name. Clearly, they’d draw his attention.

Hell. This had to be about Tyrus.

“The prince contacted you himself?”

Jace’s face sharpened, his cat’s fury simmering green in his eyes.

“He sent a fucking night fae envoy to our house in Grace Harbor.” Jace’s mate Evie had kept her house in Grace Harbor, a small city on the Chesapeake Bay, even though she and her teenage brother Kyler lived in Jace’s Baltimore den much of the time.

“They're all right?”

Evie was a pretty blond human with a touch of fae, and her brother Kyler, although full human, was smart, scrappy, and—although he’d hate to hear it—loveable.

Even though Evie wasn’t an earth fada, Adric would've tolerated her for Jace’s sake, but the two siblings had earned a special place in his heart when they’d saved Jace from Tyrus’s assassins.

“Yeah.” His friend growled. “But it scared the shit out of her. The prick wants me to know I’m vulnerable, that he knows where my mate and her brother live.”

A cold anger rolled through Adric. “The hell he does.” Evie was innocent in all this, and Kyler was a cub—not even out of high school yet.

“His envoy knocked on our front door—at midnight. I scented that he was a night fae, of course, so I told Evie not to open the door. Meanwhile, I changed to my jag and slipped around the house for a better look. Thank the gods her dad gave her that protection charm. At least the bastard didn’t pick up that she’s a mixed-blood. ”

Adric nodded.

“But he upset everyone. Even Mrs. Linney. You know how she has her nose in everyone’s business.” Jace paced across the living room, agitated.

“Hell. I’m sorry.” Mrs. Linney was Evie’s elderly, chain-smoking, neon-clothes-wearing neighbor. The woman never seemed to sleep—she was better than a watchdog.

“Mrs. Linney came out on her stoop and cussed the envoy out. Called him an ass for waking up the whole neighborhood at midnight.”

Adric couldn’t help grinning. “The woman has balls.”

Jace snorted. “I swear, she’s going to give me gray hairs. I don’t know what he’d have done to her if I hadn’t been there. But as soon as she saw my cat, she went back inside.”

“This is why you need to move Evie and Kyler to Baltimore. The three of you are too isolated up there.”

“You think I don’t know that? But I promised Kyler he could finish high school in Grace Harbor.”

Adric scowled, but gave a curt nod. A promise was a promise.

“Anyway, the night fae announced he was the prince’s envoy, tossed me the message and disappeared back into whatever slimy hole he crawled out of. Here.” Jace handed over an unsealed black envelope. “Read it for yourself.”

Adric removed a sheet of paper the same coal black as the envelope. On it was a message inscribed in silver ink.

Prince Langdon requests the pleasure of a meeting with Lord Adric at his earliest convenience. The envoy will return for your response at midnight.

He crumpled the paper and tossed it on the coffee table. “All right. I’ll meet with him.”

“No fucking way,” Jace returned. “You can’t. What if he asks you straight out who killed Tyrus?”

Adric speared his fingers through his spiked-up hair. Langdon couldn’t find who’d killed his son. The Darktime would look like a warm-up compared to what he’d bring down on the clan.

He met his friend’s eyes. “Then I’ll have to lie, won’t I?”

Jace squeezed his nape. “A lie like that would be like taking a knife to the gut.”

“I’ve survived worse.”

“As your lieutenant—and friend—I’d advise against it.”

“You got a better idea?”

His friend’s dark brows lowered. “No, damn you.”

They’d been over this already. They’d known it was only a matter of time before Langdon tracked his son to Baltimore and demanded answers.

“That’s what I thought.” Adric’s smile was thin.

“Sending an envoy to your mate’s house was just the start.

The prince probably knows the location of every single one of our dens.

If I ignore this or go into hiding, he’ll go after the clan.

I knew this was coming, Jace. Ever since Marjani stuck a knife into his fucking psycho of a son. ”