Page 366 of Primal Bonds

He closed his eyes, drew on his tracking Gift. The compulsion to look away passed. When he opened his eyes, the shadows parted to reveal a shimmering trail winding through the trees, the kind of path only a fae—or a fada with their touch of fae blood—could see.

Gotcha.

He avoided the shimmering fae path. The look-away spell was just the first layer of security around the court. The trail would be watched, possibly even booby-trapped. Instead, he ducked deeper into the woods, taking a parallel course to the trail.

A gravel road barely wide enough for a single car intersected the trail. He dropped to his belly and slunk forward to investigate.

The scent of rainwater and woman.

His nostrils flared. Rosana?

No fucking way. She was in Baltimore, or more likely, safely back at Rock Run.

Unless she’d followed him.

He shook his head. Impossible—he’d have noticed her and her motorcycle.

But she could’ve come straight to Virginia. After all, she’d guessed he was going after Langdon.

He inhaled, sifting through the forest scents. There, to the west. It was Rosana, all right.

He clenched his jaw so hard his molars hurt. He should’ve known she wouldn’t return tamely home.

He muttered a cougar’s equivalent of a curse and faded back into the trees, following the gravel road to the west.

Rosana’s scent grew stronger, entwined with the scents of two others—Luc and a fae.

His heart stuttered. His curses changed to a low, continuous growl.

He entered a clearing. In the leaves and mud were the tell-tale prints of three people. The sharp indentation of a woman’s high heels. A man’s lug soles. And a single imprint of a long, narrow bare foot.

He sniffed. It was Rosana, all right, her pores leaking fear.

His body went taut as a stretched wire. He already knew the man was Luc, and he suspected the high heels belonged to Lady Blaer.

He could think of only one reason Rosana would be with them.

Luc had captured Rosana for Blaer. The fae who put fada in cages.

Rage blasted through Adric, a fury edged with panic. His claws dug into the mud. But the rest of him remained icy-calm, cat and man fusing into a single cold-eyed predator.

First, he’d rescue Rosana. Then he’d take revenge on those who’d dared to abduct her.

He scrutinized the foot prints. The story they told was clear. Luc had returned to a nearby car, but the women’s tracks ended in the clearing. The only explanation was that the fae lady had ’ported out with Rosana.

He stilled, drew on his quartz. Tracking Rosana with every ounce of power he possessed.

But it was as if the earth had opened up and swallowed her whole. Still, that in itself was a clue. If she was at New Moon, the wards would shield her from him.

He raced back along the gravel road to the shimmering fae path and then turned north again, following the trail as closely as he dared, torn between the need for speed and concealment. He was closer than he’d realized. Within a few minutes, the half-buried, vine-covered buildings of the New Moon Court were visible through the trees.

He took to the treetops, leaping from branch to branch. Even another fada would have trouble tracking him high in the forest canopy. A few yards from the perimeter, he halted in a sturdy oak and crouched on a branch, a shadow in the trees.

The clouds dissipated, allowing the sun to melt the last patches of snow. The compound was arranged as Fane’s map had depicted, with Langdon’s lair near the center. Fog snaked around the eerie, cryptlike building. Walking paths of smooth white pebbles meandered through a lush landscape of azaleas, crepe myrtle and southern magnolia, and huge willows wept over the still black pond.

Adric’s gaze returned to Langdon’s lair. The tallest building at one-and-half stories, it was draped in the same ivy as the others, with vines and flowers chiseled into the creamy granite beneath. At its apex, a giant bat flew past a crescent moon.

He narrowed his eyes at the windows. If only he could see in…

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