Damian nodded. “Thanks.” He took off at a slow jog toward where he hoped Aria was being held. If she wasn’t there, he didn’t know what he would do.
* * *
Aria stopped kicking Quintus to stare at the man in front of her. She couldn’t believe she was actually seeing Kallias. How in the world did he survive for so long without any of them even suspecting anything? “I didn’t want anything to do with you in the past. What makes you think I would want you now?”
Kallias took a menacing step closer, and Aria could see that he didn’t look quite like he had before. His features seemed harsher, and the angles of his face seemed sharper. He looked like himself, but then again, he seemed so different. She could feel the evil radiating off of him, and she did her best not to shiver in revulsion.
“I should have taught you some manners back then, but don’t worry. Your lessons will start shortly. In time, you’ll learn your place.” Kallias smiled wickedly at the thought. He finally had Aria exactly where he wanted her. Now, he just needed his idiot brother to follow after her like he always did.
“Take her to the room we prepared. Make sure you remove all of her weapons.”
Aria was so shocked to see Kallias, she hadn’t heard the three men walk up behind her. The closest one had a ball of magic in his hand. Before she knew what happened or had time to create a shield, she felt herself slip into unconsciousness.
* * *
Aedan raced to keep up with Damian. He wasn’t going to let his best friend go this alone.
Damian tilted his head toward Aedan. “Are you here to tell me to use caution?”
“Nope. I’m not letting you have all the fun without me.”
Damian nodded. “Thanks, man.”
“Anyway. I needed a way to impress Juls. Saving her best friend seemed like a good way.”
They circled behind the house to try and pick up on any traps or magical signatures.
Markos had gone around the block the opposite way to meet them in the back. “I’m not sensing anything at all.”
Damian frowned. “I’m not either. It could be blocked.”
Ember jogged up to them. “Let me go in. He knows me, and he won’t suspect anything. You can follow me in a few minutes.”
“No,” Markos barked. “That’s not happening. You’re not going to put yourself in that kind of danger. I also don’t completely trust you.”
“You can’t order me around, Markos.” Ember’s eyes burned with anger. She didn’t know what she would have to do to prove herself.
Julie rolled her eyes, bent over, shook out her hair, and pulled her tank top down a little bit to show the small mounds that guys seemed to notice. While they were arguing she was going to get some answers. She should have left them a while ago. Her friend was not going to be saved by their bickering.
Aedan almost had a heart attack when he saw Julie knock on the front door. He didn’t know if he should rush to her rescue or to stand back and see how she handled things.
He watched as she knocked again, waited, and then tried the door handle. It didn’t open so he saw her whisper a spell to open the door. She pulled the knob. “Oh crap,” he muttered and ran after her.
Ember noticed at the same time he did, and she took off with him.
Julie was inside the house by the time Aedan and Ember stepped foot on the porch. “Juls! Julie! Where the hell are you?” Aedan whispered loudly.
Ember pushed by him and entered the house, looking into every room. Her heart sank as she walked through the first floor. They were too late. Kallias had already left.
“Ember!” Julie called out. “You need to see this!”
Ember and Aedan made it into the kitchen immediately. Ember could hear Damian and Markos still arguing as they entered the foyer. She made her way to Julie.
On the counter was a white sheet of paper with big bold letters: It was fun while it lasted Ember. I knew what you were doing all along. Too bad I didn’t kill you. It’s a mistake I will rectify shortly. See you soon, love.
11
“You didn’t have to tear that house apart,” Aedan teased. It had taken both Aedan and Markos to restrain Damian after he had read the letter Kallias left for Ember. Damian had flipped out and began breaking everything he could see. They had to get Julie to put a sleep spell on him while Aedan and Markos held him down. “It was a really nice place.”
Aedan hadn’t known what to do with his best friend, so he had brought Damian to Aria’s house to cool down. That hadn’t worked out the way he’d hoped.
Damian glared at him without answering, so Aedan continued. “You could have at least spared the wine rack. There were quite a few really nice labels on it. We could have consumed a few before you decided to smash them.”
Damian still didn’t respond. Aedan was determined to get his friend to say something. “Yeah, a few glasses of wine would have helped. You still seem a little uptight.”
Aedan had been ready for the attack, so he wasn’t surprised to find himself thrown through the air, crashing into the couch. He hadn’t expected the throw to be so hard that he pushed the chair into the wall. Aria was going to kill them for ruining her room.
“Shut up!” Damian bellowed.
“Aria is going to freak when she sees this. I’m so telling her it was all your fault.” Aedan needed to keep going. Damian still hadn’t reacted enough. Aedan had thought bringing his friend here to calm down was a good idea, but now he was rethinking that. Aria really would kick both their asses if they wrecked her house. Thank goodness for magic. Hopefully, they would be able to fix things enough for her not to notice.
Aedan had thought that if Damian was surrounded by Aria’s things, it would calm him. It actually had the opposite effect. Who knew Damian would think they had found Aria and brought him to her? Yeah, Aedan thought, not the wisest idea.
“Do you want to fix this or should I?” Aedan asked.
Damian stalked toward Aedan, determined to make his friend keep his mouth closed, but stopped in front of the coffee table when a small reddish object drew his attention. He bent down and picked it up off the table, holding it up to the light. It was the stone he had found when they had been hanging out by their cliff in Greece all those years ago. It had caught his eye since it resembled a carved flower. He had made a huge show of handing it to her and mentioning that this flower would never lose its petals or die. He remembered that day so clearly. She told him that she would keep it forever and that it would symbolize their love for each other. Damian couldn’t believe she had kept it all this time.
Damian closed his eyes and fisted the stone. He had to get her back. Instead of lashing out, he focused his rage.
“Have you tried to connect with her? You found her before that way,” Aedan asked carefully. He didn’t want to antagonize his friend any more since he was just now calming down.
“Yes, but I couldn’t get to her,” Damian growled.
“Try it again here in her house around all of her things,” Aedan pleaded.
Damian went over to Aria’s favorite chair, picked up her fluffy blanket, and sat down. He leaned back and closed his eyes, concentrating on her. He breathed her in, surrounded himself in her essence. He could almost feel her, but something was blocking Aria. He tried again, reaching out with all of his love, but he couldn’t break through. Damian couldn’t connect with her. He sat up and hung his head.
“We’ll find her,” Aedan said quietly from next to him.
Damian nodded. “I will find her.” He jumped up with an idea forming. “I know where we can start. Quintus’s ex.”
* * *
Markos pressed his dagger tighter into the soft flesh at the base of the man’s throat. “Where is Quintus?”
When they had not found Kallias after subduing Damian’s outburst, they regrouped and formed another plan. Aedan took Damian away to calm down while Julie and Ember stayed to clean up Damian’s mess and to look for clues as to where Kallias went. He couldn’t stay t
here any longer, so he decided to have a nice little chat with Quintus’s two best friends, Hagen and Rory. He hadn’t expected to glean any information from them, so he was surprised when they both tried to attack him.
Markos knocked Rory out with magic within seconds and now had Hagen up against the wall. “Why did you try to attack me?” His dagger pressed under Hagen’s chin.
“I don’t answer to you!” he spat.
Markos pressed harder, the tip showing a drop of blood. “Wrong answer. Try again, or I swear I will end you right now.” Markos was tired of playing around. He pulled back with both hands so quickly, Hagen didn’t have time to react. Markos punched him in the mouth, knocking his head back.
“We can do this all day, Hagen. I’ve got nothing else to do!” Markos once again was holding his dagger against the man’s throat. “Where is he?”
Hagen’s lip was split and began swelling, and his nose was crooked off to the side, definitely broken. He attempted to take a deep breath, but his cracked ribs made that difficult. “I don’t know.” He flinched at the furious look in Markos’s eyes. “I swear! I don’t know. He came by and said that he had some things to do and he would be back in a few days.”
“Call him,” Markos roared. “Now!”
“He, he won’t answer when he’s with him. Quintus, he never picks up. He calls when he wants our help,” Hagen wheezed.
Markos cursed. He needed to find out where Quintus was. He let his grip loosen a little. “Do you know what he’s planning?”
“All I know is he was supposed to get your sister and some Enforcer.”
Markos grinned. “Text him and tell him you have a way to get to the Enforcer.” Damian was going to become bait.
* * *
Aria’s head was pounding, and her side hurt when she moved. She slowly opened her eyes and groaned. What the hell happened to her after they knocked her out?
She was lying on a bed in a room with no windows. A dresser stood against one wall, and two doors were spaced out on the opposite side of the small room. She struggled to an upright position, slightly dizzy and swaying. She needed to clear her head. She pulled her magic around her, but it was sluggish. She tried to recite a silent spell to heal her enough to make it through, but it fizzled. They had blocked her magic somehow. Her magic still didn’t feel right, but she couldn’t worry about that. She needed to focus on escaping and taking out Kallias.
Rolling her neck, she felt slightly better but still not quite back to normal.
“Oh no they didn’t!” she shouted and began pulling on the cuff around her left ankle. Her boots were gone, and so was her weapons pouch she wore slung low on her hips. The metal cuff was loose enough to be on top of her jeans so it wasn’t cutting into her skin. When she got a hold of Quintus, he would be bent over holding his privates for weeks.
Aria followed the chain connected to the cuff to where it was attached to the bed. If she hit the leg of the bed hard enough, she could probably break it off. She would still have to drag the chain around, but it would be better than having no mobility.
She brought her foot up to kick the wood when something on the dresser caught her eye. She slid off the bed, grimacing when her feet touched the carpet. She dragged the chain across the floor, hoping she had enough length to make it all the way there.
Three feet from the dresser, the chain tightened and stopped her. Pulling with all her might, she tried to get a few more inches, but it was not giving at all. She stormed up to the bed and tried to drag it forward. She managed to move it a little bit, giving herself another foot.
Aria attempted to reach the dresser again. Leaning forward, she stretched out her hands hoping to not fall on her face. Her fingers brushed the top, so she struggled closer. A few more inches was all she needed.
She went back to the bed and began tugging on it again. The large, queen-size, wood bed had thick side rails that held drawers, making the entire bed extremely heavy. She pulled on the wooden rail to get it to move a little bit more. Losing her grip on the post, she stumbled backward and fell with a thud onto the carpet.
“Owww.” She complained out loud. She’d fallen right onto her butt and flopped back. Aria laid there a couple of minutes then pushed herself up. She needed to get to the dresser.
Once again, she crossed the room, dragging a chain behind her. Leaning forward, she grasped the edge of the dresser and slowly inched her finger over the top. She stretched farther up on her toes to get more distance. Her finger moved a little more until, her hand slid over her target. With an overwhelming sense of victory, she slid the small metal key closer to her. When it was at the edge of the dresser, she scooped it into her hand and moved back to the bed.
Aria shoved the key into the lock on her cuff and tried to turn it. It wouldn’t budge. “No!” she yelled. It was the wrong key. Feeling defeated, she flopped back down on the bed and closed her eyes. She needed to come up with another plan.
* * *
As soon as Damian walked into Lucinda’s back room they were using as a command center, he was thrown up against the wall and held there by a highly agitated fairy. “You were supposed to work with me on this, not go off on your own! You violated your conditional release.”
Damian was not in the mood to deal with a pissed off fae. “Get away from me.”
“Hey! Knock it off!” Markos hollered, trying to wedge his arm between then. “Stop it! Now!”
Braden pushed Damian with an angry glare. He looked around the room but didn’t see who he was searching for. “Where is Aria?”
Damian took two steps toward Braden, their chests almost touching. “She’s gone.”
Markos once again moved between them. “Quintus took my sister. We think he brought her to Kallias, the man we are searching for.”
Braden relaxed his stance, shoulders slumping slightly. “I’m sorry.” He walked away with his head down. If she was taken by the same man who killed his people, they would not be getting her back unharmed. Aria was most likely gone.
Damian watched Braden’s emotions flicker across his face and became infuriated. He stormed up to the fairy warrior. “She’s not dead! I will find her.”
Surprisingly, Braden’s features softened, “I’ll help you find her and take your revenge.” He wouldn’t acknowledge Damian’s assurance that Aria was still alive.
Markos and Aedan joined them. “I have a job for you Damian,” Markos told him.
Damian swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat. “What?”
“You’re going to be bait.”
* * *
Aria yanked on her chains, pulled on the bed post, and probably broke her foot kicking the post, but nothing worked. She was stuck, so she crawled to the center of the bed and curled up. She rested her head on the pillow, trying to figure out another way to get free.
She shot up to a sitting position when one of the doors opened. Kallias stood in the doorway, smirking at her. He purposely glanced at the dresser to where he had left the fake key. “Ahhh. I see you found the key, Aria dear. You should know by now that I wouldn’t be so stupid as to leave a key to your cuffs in the same room with you.” He laughed at her glare, finding her situation satisfyingly amusing. Aria was finally under his control. He should have done this years ago.
Kallias strolled up to the door and placed a different key in front of it on the floor out of her reach. “I decided to give you another opportunity to take the cuff off. This might or might not be the key.” He left the room to her screams of frustration and cursing him to rot in Hell.
* * *
Markos ran a hand through his hair for what felt like the millionth time. Hagen had sent a text message to Quintus, and so far, he had not answered. Time was running out, and they needed to find his sister.
A commotion at the door brought his attention from his worries. Damian and Braden were dragging a mystic woman between them. She was kicking and screaming, but both men were ignoring her. She saw that the room was full of people,
and she began yelling again for someone to help her.
Markos raised an eyebrow, but Aedan beat him to a comment. “Dude, I see your charm is still working on the ladies.”
Damian deposited the thrashing woman into the chair and leaned over her menacingly, but it was Braden pulling out his sword that finally got her to settle down in fear.
“We need to find Quintus,” Damian told her in a strained voice.
She looked at him in defiance until Braden moved closer, pointing the blade at her. “Why?” she asked with a nasty sneer.
“He kidnapped my girl, and I’m going to kill him.”
She tried to suppress her shocked expression, but she couldn’t. The fight left her immediately. “I had nothing to do with that! I swear. Nothing.” She knew that her life was balancing on her next few actions. She’d lived a long time, but she wanted to be around a lot longer.
“I didn’t say you did, but you are his sort of girlfriend, aren’t you?” Damian questioned. He used the word ‘girlfriend’ loosely.
“Ye-yes. We have an agreement. A mutually beneficial agreement.”
“Whatever.” Damian shook his head. Quintus was the creep Aria was going to have a date with?
Aedan chimed in. “They’re sex partners.”
Julie smacked him in the back of his head. “Yeah, Aedan. We all figured that out.” Ewww, she thought.
“Where is he?” Damian demanded again.
Markos was tired of her stalling. “Tell us right now, or I will turn you over to the Legacy Council, and they will sentence you for collusion.”
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