“I can’t believe what a fucking idiot you are, Galen. I thought you were better than that!” I raged at him. He glared back at me, but didn’t answer.
“You should have stopped her. Why didn’t you stop her?” Cass was frantic. He started for the door. I grabbed him by the arm and shoved him back.
“And what? Hold her here against her will?” Aric snorted. “And you’re the genius. Do you think that would have won her trust back?”
“I had to tell her.” Galen rose from his seat and charged at me, ending right in front of my face. “What would have happened when she found out on her own? Because she would have found out eventually. You know it, I know it.”
“Do we know that?” I shoved his shoulder.
He didn’t budge. “What would have happened if she did? Huh? We bring her into dragon society, we introduce her to the Elders, she takes her place among them. Then, she finds out that THEY threw her to the wolves when she was practically a baby, cast her out to the whims of humanity, and made her feel like she was worthless her entire life? Really, Chase. What the hell do you think the Shadow Queen would do?” The fury in his eyes matched my own.
I hated it, but he had a point. “We’d lose her all over again. Possibly losing a few Elders in the process.” I ran a hand over my face and turned away from Galen. “Fuck. Well, we lost her sooner rather than later. Great.” I raised my hands to the heavens. “Fucking great. We fight tooth and nail for three years to find her, and we finally do, and now we’ve lost her all over again.”
And it killed me. There was an aching, gnawing feeling in my chest. I could still feel her in my arms, taste her on my lips, smell her on my clothes. She wasn’t just the Shadow Queen. She was a woman, a creature of flesh and blood and soft lips and long, luscious hair and curves that fit against my body like no woman’s ever had before. I could see her face, proud and giddy when she got a good hit in against me, rapturous and ecstatic as I kissed my way down to her…
Enough of that thinking. I had to concentrate.
“She might go to McKinnett’s,” I started.
Aric cut me off. “Not a chance. The cult’s been by there once tonight, and the repair crew’s still working. She’s smarter than that. She’ll probably stay away from all of her people tonight.” He paused, then shook his head. “Unless one of you got down with her. Then, she might go to Missi.”
Galen looked guilty. A flicker of jealousy ran through me. Did they? “I…kissed her, the other night after Kitty got overloaded.”
“Lucky bastard,” Cass murmured.
Aric looked at me. I looked away. Galen and Cass both fixed curious eyes on me.
“We should check with Missi,” I muttered.
Aric snickered. Galen shook his head, exasperated.
“I’ll go,” Cass offered. I studied him for a moment. He didn’t look nearly as crushed as I thought he’d be at my admission. He shrugged. “Of the four of us, I’m the one she’s probably least pissed at.”
“You ARE bland and non-threatening,” Aric admitted. Cass glared at him.
I grunted. I wanted to go to her. I wanted to make this all go away. I wanted to hold her again and soothe her and beg her forgiveness. “You’re right.” I hated it, but he was. “Go. See if she’s with her. Good luck.”
Cass nodded and headed out the door. He paused halfway there.
“What do I say to her?”
We all looked at each other. Even Aric, our strategist, looked stumped.
“I…”
“Maybe…”
“Umm…”
I shrugged. “Good luck, man.”
His shoulders slumped. He looked like a man on his way to the gallows. As the door closed behind him, I rested my hands on a table and bowed my head. Galen planted himself on a sofa, head in hands. Aric leaned on the doorframe, trying his best to look bored instead of worried.
“This sucks.” Galen broke the silence with a moan. “Not just because she’s the Shadow Queen. I actually… we…” He growled. “She’s a good person. She doesn’t deserve this.”
“Yeah.” I punched the table a couple times in frustration. “Dammit.”
Aric remained uncharacteristically silent. I glanced over at him. He was chewing a thumbnail and looking pensive.
I heard a faint buzz. Galen pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“It’s Sia. Be on guard. Cult knows where you are. They can’t get to you, though. Need to talk to you all, but not tonight.”
I dove for my laptop and fired up the GPS tracker.
“Where are you?” I muttered at the screen. Slowly, it loaded. There was a blip halfway across town, then nothing. “Did she say anything else?”
“She’s not answering.” Galen hammered at the screen of his phone. “Dammit.”
“She must have shut off her phone.” I slammed the lid of my laptop closed and resisted the urge to chuck it across the room.
It was up to Cass now.