Page 81 of Cast in Shadow
“Talk to me, Shay.”
Other voices came and went. The music rose and fell again, until I could barely hear it in the background. “I’m here,” she finally said, keeping her voice low. “I’m outside now, okay?”
I let out a shaky breath without slowing. That was only a small improvement. “How did you get there?”
Another beat of silence ratcheted up my blood pressure as I climbed into the big white SUV and fired up the engine.
“I took your Jeep,” she said sheepishly.
Good. Perfect. “I want you to get in it right now and get as far away from that place as you can.” I slammed the shifter into gear and tore out of the gravel parking area onto the paved road.
“She’s not doing anything, Senna.” Her voice was louder now, coming through the SUV’s sound system. “Honestly, she’s just wandering through the crowd.”
No, she wasn’t. The witch was there for a reason, and I would bet my life it had nothing to do with partying with a bunch of pretentious assholes in the rich part of town. She was looking for someone or something. Like information. Leverage. Power.
My gut twisted. Many of the wealthiest families in Brynworth had long magical legacies, and power was the very temptation I had planned on using to lure Megan into my trap. But I was supposed to be her target. Not my daughter.
“This is not a request, Shayla. It is a direct order. Get in the fucking Jeep right now.”
“Yeah, about that… I am outside like I said, but I’m on the roof, not the street.”
Nguyen let out a tortured sound. “Why?—”
She sucked in a sharp breath, and I braced for an argument. Instead, another feminine voice filtered through the speakers. “Hello, beautiful.”
A shock of ice raced through my veins.
Then the line went dead.
I jammed the gas pedal to the floor, but it had nowhere to go.We were already careening through the traffic littering the highway.
“Call her back,” I yelled, tossing my phone at Nguyen.
Andreno Heights wasn’t far. Maybe a five-minute drive if I followed the speed limit, and I was already doing well above that.
The phone rang through the speakers, and with each unanswered ring, the thoughts of what I would do to Megan when I got my hands on her grew darker. Panic and worry might have been gripping my chest like a giant fist, but anger was a living beast inside me, clawing at that crushing force.
Navali was already dead, but if she laid so much as a finger on Shay, I would make sure she paid in ways even her worst nightmares couldn’t conjure.
“Where are the teams?” I snapped.
“On our six,” Nguyen replied.
Good. No one working for me was disposable, but when it came to keeping Shay safe, I would throw the whole goddamn kitchen sink at the threat.
“Try her again.”
He redialed but it went to voicemail again. “We don’t know that the voice belonged to Navali,” he offered.
He might not, but I did. My gut was practically screaming it.
I also knew Shay had a unique kind of magic, and if Megan had gathered enough power to sense it in others, Shay’s would be irresistible.
“What the hell was she thinking?” I muttered, swerving around a minivan that looked like it was frozen in space and time.
“Probably that she wanted to help,” Nguyen replied with a shake of his head. “And maybe to prove she’s not broken.”
That gave me pause. She had nothing to prove. She’d been abducted, tortured, and forced to watch while someone sheknew and trusted was tortured in front of her. All to get to me. That would take time to come back from, but dealing with trauma wasn’t the same as being broken.
