Page 46 of Bryce

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“Ididn’t know the two of you were together.” Carissa nodded to Bryce, who was finishing loading the truck with Cash and Pierce. “I’m glad. You look happier.”

“It’s a recent development,” I explained with a chuckle, though I hardly felt like laughing. “It seems sort of cruel, finding each other with everything coming to a fever pitch the way it is.”

She appeared to ponder this. “I don’t know. Maybe this is the best time for that to happen. I know when Tommy was kidnapped, and I thought I would lose my mind, having Cash made it easier. I wasn’t alone anymore.”

“I can see that.” I looked toward the mouth of the cave. Everyone hurried about, bringing out last-minute items, saying goodbye. Wishing us luck. “You’ll be fine here. The coven will keep you safe.”

“I don’t doubt it. I’m more worried about…”

She gazed at Cash again, where he and Tommy were in the middle of what seemed to be a serious conversation. Cash crouched before him, taking him by the back of the neck and murmuring something in his ear. Tommy nodded, and Cash enveloped him in a hug.

Cari’s breath caught in a hitching gasp.

I rubbed her back. “He’ll be fine. We all will. Don’t worry yourself. Fence will make certain you all can hear our radio transmissions. It will be as if you’re right there with us.”

“If anything should happen…”

“It won’t. We’ll be more cautious than ever, since now we know what to look for. You’ve nothing to fear.”

I only hoped I was telling the truth.

Never in all my years had I doubted our strength. Never until that day in Scotland, the day the helicopters came, and men with automatic weapons invaded our peaceful home. I’d learned that day of powers even greater than ours, coupled with ruthlessness. I’d learned how to fear.

We were dealing with the same ruthless creatures now. They’d hired others to do their dirty work in the past, but it was them behind it all along.

And we were headed straight for them.

Gate wouldn’t be joining us, but Pierce and Smoke would. They said their goodbyes to their mates and children while a tearful Molly looked on. Hecate draped an arm around her shoulders. Both of their mates were still unaccounted for.

“We’ll find them,” I promised. “If I know my brother, he’s in fine shape. They could be on their way back to us now, we might even run into them on the way there.”

Molly tried to smile but failed miserably. “I only just found him,” she whispered, wiping away the tears on her cheeks.

Hecate sighed. “I know, dear. I know how you feel.”

Perhaps Cari was right, after all. Perhaps it was cruel that we’d all found our mates when we had. What was the purpose of finding happiness with another when that happiness was so brief, so fragile?

Savannah joined us. “Miles saved my life. I wish I could do the same for him.”

“Just take care of yourselves and each other while you’re here,” I advised, hugging her. “That will mean the world to them, I’m sure. And we’ll bring them back. You needn’t worry.”

“I’m going with them.” Iris’s announcement, loud and clear, silenced the rest of us. She dropped her bag on the ground at her feet.

“So am I.” Electra joined her with a bag of her own. “They’ll be our help.”

“What are you on about?” Hecate demanded, looking from one of them to the other. “I can’t allow this. I won’t.”

Callie came on the run. “I’ve been trying to talk them out of it all day,” she gasped, a hand over her chest. “They won’t listen to reason.”

“Because there’s nothing you can say to change our minds.” Iris turned to Hecate, her brows lowered in stern assuredness. There was no fighting her when she looked that way, I’d seen others try before and fail miserably. “We can’t stay here and wait. We’ve sat about and waited for years. I’ve had enough waiting.”

Electra, as ever, was the more level-headed of the two. “It seems unfair to wait here when there is so much good we could do. I couldn’t forgive myself if I found out after the fact that I might have helped.”

“You’re the most powerful of all of us,” Iris reminded her. “You and Callie will be able to maintain the protection charms.”

Hecate snorted. “Only a truly desperate situation would make you admit something like that.”

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