Page 83 of Veil of Shadows

Finally breaking the silence, Lander said quietly, “My prince, your brother...we were looking for him.”

Jax shook his head, his huge antler rack swaying. In his next breath, magic puffed around him, and his antlers disappeared. Just like that. Theydisappeared.

“Dear Goddess, I’m hallucinating,” I whispered.

“You’re not,” Alec said, still by the tree, although now he was in a submissive bow too. “But Lander is right. We need to find Bastian. We’ll deal with...this... later.”

I swung toward him. “This? What isthis?”

Alec smiled feebly. “It’s probably best if the prince explains.”

I planted my hands on my hips and glared at Jax. “Explain what?”

Jax shook his head again, as though shaking off a spell that had been cast over him. His nostrils flared as he drank in my scent again, and then his look grew full of...satisfaction.

But before I could askagainfor clarification, he ran a hand roughly over his cheek. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to go all territorial...” He sighed heavily and glanced at Alec, who merely nodded. “Sorry,” he added gruffly to his friends.

They all stood, casting him wary but understanding glances.

Baffled, I stood there immobile and once again wondered if I’d woken up in a new realm.So he’s apologizing for being so aggressive with his friends? Is all of this some kind of weird stag thing?Shaking myself, I turned and lifted my hair. “Jax, what’s on my neck?”

Silence was his only response. Dropping my hair, I spun around to face him, only to find the prince staring at me with another look of satisfaction spreading across his face.

I scowled. “Why are you smiling?”

“You don’t know?” He cocked an eyebrow.

I blew a strand of hair from my eyes. “Know what?”

His brow furrowed, a heavy look descending over his features. “But you said?—”

“My prince,” Bowan hissed. “Bastian? We’re going to lose him if we don’t keep searching.”

Hearing his brother’s name erased Jax’s heavy look, and he snapped his attention to the clearing.

“Right.” He assessed the ground again. It looked as though someone had recently hacked down the trees, but there was nothing else to signify anything unusual besides the plethora of half-breed footprints.

But it was a reminder that we were here to find Bastian, andthatwas where our focus needed to be right now.I’ll ask him about my neck again later.

“Where did the prints go?” Lander frowned, then crouched and touched the soil. All of the footprints, siltenite and wildling alike, stopped abruptly at the clearing’s edge.

Jax inhaled, and magic curled around him. “Their scent is still fresh. They were just here.”

Everyone circled the perimeter, listening, scenting, but...nothing. There was no sign of Bastian or any other half-breed in the vicinity.

“I don’t sense him,” Lars said quietly.

“Neither do I,” Phillen agreed.

“Well, they didn’t just up and disappear.” Trivan threw his hands up in disgust, then prowled around the clearing’s perimeter, inhaling deeply with each step.

But still, there was no sign of Bastian.

Jax dipped to the ground beside Lander and ran his finger along the prints. “What did you see this morning, Bowan?” he asked his friend.

I tapped my hands on my thighs and continued watching all of them.

Bowan’s eyebrows slanted together. “That group of half-breeds that Alec saw enter the barn last night all left at the same time this morning, just before sunrise, but instead of heading back to the Finals, they all marched toward the Wood. I thought it was odd, especially if they’re employed to work at the Matches, so I left my lookout point to follow them.”

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