Page 20

20

WYLDER

“ W hat the hell is he talking about?” I mutter as I read the vague-as-a-ghost text Kaiden just sent me.

I’m in the kitchen, disposing of the poisoned doughnuts while Emberlynn and Nico sleep on the sofa. Phoenix paused his reading when an earthquake swept through, but now is back at it. The quake was mild and dispelled fairly hastily.

He glances up from the book. “What did it say?”

I read it to him while zapping a spell at the doughnuts, evaporating them into crumbs.

“You don’t think that earthquake was because of him, do you?” Phoenix deftly closes the book. “He may have walked out of here calmly, but he could’ve been putting on a front. You know how he can get.”

“Fuck. You’re probably right.” I’m so damn frustrated with myself. “One of us should’ve gone after him. ”

“I think we were a bit distracted with other things.” He gives a pressing glance at Emberlynn.

“I know, but …” I drag my fingers roughly through my hair. “You know this means his father probably has him.”

“I know.” Phoenix turns his head toward the window. “I hate his goddamn father.”

“Me, too.” Kaiden’s father is the worst, and I don’t even know the half of it—Kaiden keeps most of what goes in that coliseum of a home a secret. “We need to get him out of there.”

“What’re we going to do? Take on the great and powerful Oliver Everson?”

Oliver Everson, Kaiden’s father, is considered the most powerful necromancer ever to exist. He’s also a psychopath. He’s killed creatures. Tortured them. And tried to turn Kaiden into his emotionless zombie puppet.

The council lets him be because he’s wealthy, powerful, and they’re scared of him.

“Maybe one day.” My mind drifts to Emberlynn and the possibility that she might have all the power sources inside her. If that turns out to be true, there’s no stopping what she could do.

And maybe, just maybe, Kaiden could finally be free from the invisible chains that his father keeps locked around his wrists.