Page 133 of Bones

He was already climbing from the bed to get dressed. “Something is happening. Do you see what?”

“My brain is just repeatingnow.” Guilt and worry warred inside me.

Deke tilted my head. “It’ll be okay, my love. Get dressed. The others will be here soon.”

He walked out into the living room, and I heard voices as I rushed to throw on clothes. Leggings and a sweater seemed insufficient for what we were facing—what every molecule in my being screamed we were up against—but I didn’t have magicks armor.

I didn’t even have regular armor.

“Where are we going?” Juno asked. Contrary to the violence she usually seemed to thrive on, her mood was as somber as the occasion.

Like she felt it, too.

That urgency that was electric in the air.

“I don’t know,” Deke answered. “I just know something is about to happen. Something big.”

“Somethingmassive,” I corrected.

“Do you see anything?” Nate asked me.

I shook my head and raised my hands to my hair without even realizing I was doing it.

Deke gripped my wrists and stopped me from tugging at the strands in frustration. “We’ll figure it out, my love. Together.”

“Together.” Juno slapped her forehead. “You need to do it together.”

I raised my brow at her phrasing, but she wasn’t making a dirty joke—surprisingly.

She pointed at Deke. “You ignored your magicks for centuries.” She spun her finger to aim at me. “And you spent years ignoring it, praying for it to stop, and being drugged. Your gifts are not flowing because they’ve been neglected. Together, as the mates should be, you need to work for it. Channel it.”

Deke kept his hold on me and closed his lids, clearly willing to try.

I was also willing.

I just had no clue where to start.

Juno walked me through it, her melodic voice like the more effective mediation instructor. “Close your eyes. Good. Breathe in. Breathe out. Deeper in. Slower out. Feel your mate’s heartbeat in your chest. Feel their breath in your lungs. Powering you. Follow that connection. Trail it through your body to the center of your being. Tap into it. Let the walls around it crumble as it flows?—”

“In town,” I interrupted, seeing it perfectly. Even when I opened my eyes, turned, and looked at the three couples, I still saw the sprawling room with concrete walls and evil. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, I could do it because Deke kept me centered in the moment rather than overwhelmed in the future.

“The museum downtown,” Deke added, zeroing in on the exact location.

“I thought those were just tourist traps?”

“Based in history,” Juno said. “The accused. Absolve’s. And ours.”

Deke closed his eyes. “The alley to the left is empty. Inside is not.”

“There’s our meeting spot.”

Couple by couple, we poofed into the alley.

I wanted to go back. Run away. Get as far as possible from that alley where foreboding coated the thick air.

Stellan took an authoritative step toward the metal door.

“Wait,” Nate and I said at the same time. I gestured to him to continue.

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