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EVERY bone in her body ached. Especially her left arm. Where she’d used it to shelter Petey from the stone steps. Why had that jerk done that to them?
She ran after her puppy, hoping he’d head to the river, or somewhere they had been together before. Some place she could find him.
Miranda bit back a sob when she thought of how small he was and what kind of predators existed who could snatch him up whole.
“Petey!” She called for him recklessly, not caring for a moment or fifty what happened to her if someone heard her. He was so small and defenseless out there. Anything could happen to him. She had to find him.
She ignored the way her arm burned. She thought it was bleeding. Her head definitely was. But where was Petey?
She heard barking. Miranda called again. And again.
A little white and tan body rushed out of the back alley and waggled his tail.
She hit her knees in the dirt as emotion filled her. Relief. Miranda laughed. She couldn’t lose Petey. She had nothing else she loved in this strange world except the little puppy she’d found after the Battle of Thrun.
He was her entire world.
***
ADRIC opened the small bag and peered inside. He pulled out a few small stones and held them up for his brother to see. He did not recognize them. They were rounded and smooth, a unique mix of yellows and purples, and about the size of a strawberry. “What are these, do you suppose?”
“I don’t know. Anything with the girl’s name?”
Adric checked again. “No.”
“She can be anywhere. If she isn’t hurt. Perhaps we should check the Healer’s Hall?”
No. He instinctively knew the female was not there. Her fear hadn’t just been of being harmed—it had been of the people surrounding her. He doubted she’d go to the healers. “I think she ran off to hide. She was so afraid, Aodhan. Of what, I do not know. But her fear and pain still reverberate. I have to find her, keep her safe.”
“We’ll find her. She wore the color of the Jareth House. And servant gray. That is a start...but...”
“What is it?”
“Cormac has no servants in his House, Adric. Those that work for him wear light yellow. Not gray.”
“Any other green hashas similar?” He hadn’t seen her hasha, the silk scarf his people wore, just the gray and the hair.
“Perhaps. I think there are one or two in that same color range. Still, a start.”
Adric closed his eyes as the breeze picked up around them. “She’s near. Her scent...I smell her, brother. And she’s bleeding.”
He was an Adrastos and they had keen senses to aid them as hunters. They were the best hunters and trackers and warriors of their people.
The girl would not hide from him for long. He lifted his head back and hissed a Dardaptoan sound of fury. His father would pay for her blood that he had spilled this day.
“Control yourself, brother. You will not find her this way,” Aodhan said. “Let us identify these stones. Maybe where she found these will lead us to her.”
His brother was correct, but his impatience threatened to overwhelm him. His mate was out there, hurting.
Needing him. He ached for her. “I need to find her, Aodhan. I cannot breathe until I do.”
“I can imagine. If it were Mallory...I would move worlds to get to her. And I would have run him through with my blade half a minute after he touched her. But you always were the calm one of us.”