Page 60 of Visions of You

"He didn't do that on purpose," Jaron argued for Keegan's sake. After all, what reason would Keegan have to mislead them like that? "Besides," Jaron added, "he did predict today's victim."

"Yeah, and then he made it so Apollo would get kidnapped too!" Ceska's features darkened.

The accusation left Jaron speechless. Almost speechless. He still found the breath to defend his mate. "He didn't! What happened to Apollo is not his fault!"

"Isn't it, though?" Ceska argued back. "Didn't you leave work for him?"

"It was an emergency."

"What kind of emergency?"

That was a good question. Keegan had never quite told him why he'd called Jaron over so urgently, except… "He thought I was in danger."

Ceska and Ianair shared a look.

"What?" Jaron asked.

Ceska and Ianair shared a look.

"What?" Jaron asked, barely hiding his annoyance. Keegan wasn't a bad guy because he'd worried about Jaron, and Jaron wasn't going to let them make him out to be a villain.

"Keegan is a seer," Ianair said as if that explained everything.

"Yeah, so?"

"If he saw what would happen if you stayed, don't you think he also knew what would happen if you didn't?"

Jaron clenched his fists, a hot surge of anger mixing with the gnawing worry in his gut. He opened his mouth to defend Keegan, but something about Ianair's words resonated with his own doubts—with the complaints he had about Keegan's evasive behavior.

The implication hung heavy. Could Keegan have known this would happen? Could he have seen Apollo's fate and chosen to risk it?

"Keegan isn't like that," Jaron said, but the conviction in his voice wavered, just a fraction.

"How can you be so sure?" Ceska asked.

"I just know." It wasn't the most convincing thing Jaron could have said, but it was the best he had. He would stand by his mate, no matter what.

Ianair shifted, grimacing with the movement. "You believe in him that much?" he asked.

"Yes," Jaron said immediately, becausesomeoneneeded to believe in Keegan, and Jaron knew that Keegan had acted only out of care forhim.

He'd seen just how hard Keegan worked trying to forge a better future for them.

Keegan didn't know everything. If he did, he wouldn't have to exhaust himself trying to look at the future from a million different angles again and again.

"Give it a rest, Chess," Ianair said, taking a labored breath. "We can discuss whom to blame after we bring the boss home."

He was right, of course. Ceska could see that too. "First, I'm getting you a healer," she said.

"It's really not that bad," Ianair said, but she'd already walked off.

"You can stop pretending to be tough now," Jaron said. "She already likes you anyway."

Ianair waved him off. "We've got more important things to talk about, like figuring out who the fuck is behind these kidnappings and why they're targeting people's fated mates."

Jaron could only agree with that.

Before he got to work, though, he made a plan to go back to Rubyville that night. He needed to have a serious conversation with his vampire. From here on out, he would demand to know every detail of Keegan's visions.