Page 45 of Wonder
Fuck.
This was the closest I’d gotten to Prince Nicol, if he was still alive. But there were still nineteenluchd-òl folato guard him.
They’d either leave town by car or by boat. Flying was too public, especially if they still had the prince. But the port was huge. They could hire a captain to take them anywhere. I got back in the car. Time to use my vampire abilities to get some information.
The harbor master’s office was tiny and full of papers, but it boasted a huge set of windows overlooking the port. And, luckily for me, it also held an ancient security camera system. When I’d asked about a large group of people needing a boat at the last minute, the man’s eyes had narrowed, and he’d eagerly started hinting at how large a bribe he’d need to tell me which ship they’d taken.
I didn’t have time to negotiate, so I put him in thrall right away. I’d tuck some money in his pocket when I left.
On my instructions, he fast-forwarded through one of the security camera tapes and showed me a dock. The time stamp was ten hours ago. I’d been so fucking close.
I wrote down the ship’s name and identification number. The harbor master told me it was taking a load of petroleum to Rio de Janeiro. On the screen we watched theluchd-òl folawalk aboard. Fraser was carrying someone wrapped in blankets as if they were ill. The person was human-sized, too short to be an Elf or another of theluchd-òl fola, but it couldn’t be anyone other than Prince Nicol. I was relieved to know he was still alive, even if I was also horrified at what he had to have gone through all these years.
When the tape showed the ship casting off from the dock, I made the harbor master go back and slowly play the part where my former colleagues walked onto the ship. I wrote down everyone I saw so I could compare it to the list I’d been keeping.
But Kinnon wasn’t there. He hadn’t gotten on the ship.
I hadn’t killed him, and there was no way he hadn’t been involved in the initial kidnapping of Prince Nicol.
Had he had a falling out with the others? Had he died from some other cause? Had he stayed behind to hunt me down?
Now I had yet another reason to catch up to theluchd-òl fola. Good thing I could to take a plane to Rio and get ahead of that ship.
CHAPTER 12
SIMON
I don’t knowwhy I was shocked. I was over two hundred years old. I shouldn’t have been shocked. But for Reno to suggest—to behappyto suggest—that we bond and then sever it? Like it would be nothing?
I shut my mouth, which had dropped open in my astonishment. “Um.” How best to approach this? I certainly didn’t want to put myself through that. But was it possible he didn’t know what he was asking? “Reno, have you ever felt a connection get cut? Someone you cared about pass away, maybe?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, of course. My parents and my cousin.”
“And were any of those deaths sudden?”
“Nooo? My dad had cancer, and my mom had a lung infection. My cousin had congestive heart failure.”
Fuck. I rubbed my forehead. “Okay, so in those cases the connections start to become thinner as death approaches. There’s no wrenching pain when it happens. Cutting a connection without warning, or even worse, cutting a bond, is painful and debilitating.” I frowned. “Didn’t Shane tell you what it was like when theluchd-òl folacut his bond with Ellis?” Beforethey’d bonded with their third, Shane and Ellis had been mates. Ellis had been briefly captured and had all of his connections and his mate bond severed by theluchd-òl fola.
“No. I only heard what happened from Greg and Cal.”
I sighed. “Reno, I want nothing more than to be mated with you. And you’re right that we need you to be able to call a vision. But completing the bond when you’re not willing to keep it permanently? You’re asking me to essentially tear a hole in my soul. And yours.”
He glanced down at the ground, then back up at me. “Would that be worse than you staying mated to a guy who doesn’t want tobemated?”
Fuck, it was a fair question. “I don’t know.” Neither of us looked at the other for a while. “Alright, what about this? You call Shane and ask him to tell you how it felt to have his bond severed. And we both sleep on it tonight. Maybe you’ll have a vision spontaneously. If not, we’ll talk in the morning and decide.”
He nodded slowly. “That’s a good plan. Thanks for not just rejecting the idea.”
I didn’t know how to tell him I’d have a hard time denying him anything, even if it meant going through something as painful as getting a brief taste of our bond before I had to destroy it.
Reno went up to his bedroom to call Shane. I alternated between working on my knitting and monitoring the South Texas District Discord chat. I’d posted a message earlier to let everyone know the vampires were still out there and that they’d attacked twoWonders but not hurt them seriously. Most of the comments seemed concerned but not panicking.
Nicky walked the length of the couch a few times, only holding on with one hand. He was making tremendous progress, but his magic wasn’t built back up to even a quarter of the way to where it needed to be.
Eventually Reno came out and handed his phone to Nicky, saying it was Arlo calling to check on him. I got a “Good night,” before he went back into his bedroom. He’d blocked our mating connection again, so I guessed Shane had explained how difficult severing our bond would be.
When Nicky was done with Reno’s phone—Arlo’s contact info now stored in Nicky’s—I went through the new text messages and his Discord private messages. I responded to a few and told the others we’d get back to them next week. Reno hadn’t been kidding about how often the Wonders contacted him. Was it like this for every District Monitor, or was it only because these Wonders felt unsettled without a true DM connection?
