Page 108 of Hidden Kingdoms

I pointed a look back up the stairs, to where a little Fae was busy arranging pillows in the newly finished fort her big sister hadn’t been around to help her with. Her shoulders sagged, and she nodded in understanding.

“Has she been tested?” Calloway shook her head, swallowing hard. “Good. Keep it that way for now.”

No need to add a second target on the house.

I reached for the phone that I knew would be held firm in her hand, quickly adding my number into the contacts. “If anything changes,” I handed the phone back. “Or if she needs anything, let me know.”

“Did you… find anything they didn’t?” she asked, hope and despair warring in her eyes.

I narrowed mine slightly; I didn’t want to give her false hope where it was possible there was none. “I’m not sure yet, but I’m sending one of my team to collect a few things.”

Blair had silently slid into place by my side, Calloway starting a little as she noticed her there before I reached for the handle to the front door.

Outside, I sucked down a breath of the frigid air that attacked my face, pulling my hood back up as I scanned the area for anything out of place. It would only be minutes before my team arrived anyway.

To guard the mum and little girl who had already lost enough.

The door clicked closed behind us, and I made it across the road before I turned to look up, to the little dark blue eyes peering out from behind a curtain, likely standing on one of her many toys in order to reach the glass. Myla ducked back down as our eyes met.

The shrill ring of my phone disrupted the otherwise quiet of the street, pressing accept on Bastian’s call I lifted it to my ear while walking towards the nearest alley.

“Get back! Now!” he roared down the phone before I had a chance to say a word. The line crackled as Bastian’s voice was drowned out by static and whatever else was happening on the other end of the line.

“Bas!” I shouted as dread slithered down my spine. “What the fuck is happening?” I pulled away, staring down at the screen that yielded no answers, before dragging it back to my ear. The disconnect tone sang through the speaker, and I shoved it back in my pocket, instincts flaring at the need to get back.

Magik pushed at my skin from the rush of emotions, but despite it being Bastian’s voice at the end of the phone, it was Elodie’s face that swam in my vision.

“Blair!” I whipped around searching the now empty alley.

Looks like she’s found something better to do, then.

I reached inwards for the energy that would take me where I needed to go and braced myself for the push and pull as I travelled.

My feet stumbled slightly as the ground I landed on juddered, and my mind adjusted to the new location, an unexpected one that shouldn’t have been possible this far from the wards. And if I thought the dread I felt at Bastian’s frantic voice was bad, it was nothing like what washed over me now.

41

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

ELODIE

Forcing myself to focus back on the books andnoton the empty air that clung to my skin. I continued on, more than ready to find the answers I desperately needed, though it was looking less and less likely to happen. If I could find the Keeper, maybe they could help me, but then that would mean telling them what I was trying to do.

I don’t think there’s a subtle way to say, ‘Hi, I’m looking for books to help me harness my magikal powers and escape this palace and head on home’.

I hated to admit—even to myself—that I had no idea what the fuck I was doing or what would be of use.

I didn’t even know how any of this was even real. Or how I was taking it so well for that matter. Had I really been kidnapped from my bed, saved from an evil cloud, zapped away in the arms of two strangers—in a way that had no explanation—saved again from said evil cloud, then locked up in a palace?

Not to mention the magik, powerful fucking magik. Not the small things I could do on Nanna’s request. I could feel within myself how being here had opened up some well inside me. I wasn’t sure if it had always been there, hidden deep inside, or if it was something that had grown since I’d got here.

I think so far, I’ve taken it all pretty well, which in itself should be concerning.

A sense of dread pulled the threads of my being as my feet travelled over the cold marble, one I was certain had nothing to do with being unable to locate a book.

Magik raced to my fingers, but it was quickly suppressed, and panic bubbled within me. My eyes darted around, searching for the source of my distress. The pendant Kaius had given me flared hot against my skin, and I hissed at the sharp pain, pulling it away seconds before a crash sounded high above the vaulted ceiling, and I was almost knocked from my feet at the force that reverberated through the library.

The thud of my heart was surely as loud, as fear sank its claws into me with unnatural speed. Gripping me tight despite the fact I didn’t know what I was supposed to be afraid of, the feeling a sickening reminder of the moment I was brought here.

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