Page 181 of Queen of the Crimson Throne

“I’m here. We will find her. Lennox, I promise you we will find her.”

I could feel her tears soaking into my shirt as sobs wracked her body.

“You let me sleep.” She pushed me away. “You let me sleep.” Her panic was turning into anger now, I could hear it in the roughness of her voice. “You let me fucking sleep!” She hit my chest, trying to push me away. “For fucks sake Luka! Why did you let me sleep.” She turned from me, her hands balling in and out of fists.

She was angry at me, I knew she would be, but I needed to get her to calm down.

“Lennox. I need you to breathe.”

“I can’t. I can’t. Kara’s gone and I?—”

I took her hands in mine, unballing them from fists and linking our fingers together.

“Breathe.” I stared at her as she refused to meet my gaze. “Lennox, I need you to breathe. I need to see your eyes, Sweetheart.”

She finally met my gaze, her emerald eyes were glassy as tears stained her cheeks. The sight caused a fissure through my heart.

“You passed out in Kara’s room. I knew you wouldn’t allow yourself to rest until we found her so I let you sleep.”

She looked away from me, shame written on her features.

“Lennox, I need you to look at me.” She took several deep breaths before looking at me again, fresh tears staining her cheeks. I wanted to wipe them away, but I needed to help her control her magic so I kept our handsintertwined and brought them to her face, wiping away her tears with the back of my hand.

“You passing out was your body’s reaction to needing rest after everything over the past few days. I knew you needed sleep so I let you sleep. Blame me all you want, but I’d do the same thing again.” She said nothing but continued to meet my gaze.

“I updated everyone on what happened. We all agreed we’d head out to the Galtains first thing this morning. Once you are calm enough we can get ready and go.”

I held her hands until finally, her breath evened out.

“Thank you,” she rasped. I finally let go of her hands, wiping another tear from her cheek before pulling her to me. “We’ll find her. I know we will.”

I hoped we would. Because if we couldn’t find Kara—I didn’t want to think about what that would do to Lennox.

I left Lennox to bathe alone; when she emerged from the bathing chamber the color was back in her face. Although I knew she was a wreck on the inside, I could tell she had pushed past the shock and sadness and had moved on to anger. Pure determination to get her sister back.

Vengeance was written on her features.

Everyone was already waiting for us when we arrived—almost a parallel to yesterday afternoon. Before we discovered Kara was missing. But the tone was much more somber today.

Had it only been days ago we had gathered here to celebrate Lennox’s and my wedding?

Lennox wasted no time before asking, “What’s the plan?”

“I was thinking you and I should head to the Blood Court and visit the Galtain family.” Lennox looked at me, surprise written on her features. “The three of you can wait here and get everything ready while we’re gone. We don’t know what we’re dealing with and we need to be prepared.” I looked at Declan and he nodded. “And Luciana, I’m assuming you can do a spell to locate Kara?” She nodded.

“I used a lot of magic last night, it’s still replenishing, but I can try to scry. I should be able to find her location easily.”

“Lennox?” I looked at her.

She swallowed. “It all sounds good. Thank you.” She took my hand and squeezed. “I do have one request.” We all looked at her expectantly. “I get to kill the fucker who dared to take my sister from me.”

Luciana transported us to the forest, depositing us in the clearing outside the Galtain family’s cabin, claiming she’d be back in an hour to get us.

“I need her to teach me how to do that,” Lennox mused as we trudged through the woods. I almost opened my mouth to disagree—to remind her of the potential effects of using Ichor Magic. But I had to admit, her being able to transport without Luciana would be convenient. And if Lennox set her mind to it, there would be no changing it.

“Maybe she could teach me too.”

Lennox threw me a look over her shoulder. “Worth a try don’t you think?”

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