Page 89 of Brambles and Bellflowers
I barely registered Titus shifting into his dragon form. My focus remained tethered to the faint clues hidden in the flow.
He walked into the water, stopping once it was as high as his chest, and peered downstream.
Damen knew better than to talk—as did I. Titus, in his dragon form, had much better senses than a human.
I didn’t realize I was holding my breath, and my lungs ached by the time he turned back to us. He swiftly returned to his human form beside me. “I don’t hear her. They’re not here.”
“You meanthem?” I corrected. “But at least we know they’re alive,” I added; nothing indicated our bond had been severed.
This was no time to panic.
“No, I meanher.” Titus moved to the shore and began to follow the river downstream. A boulder jutted into the water, and Titus, spotting it, climbed over the top of the stone. “I should be able to hear her. We should follow the river,” he said, pointing after it. “But we’re not going to have a scent to chase.”
“Will you stop posing like that and put some clothes on?” Damen snapped. “And obviously, they’d go downstream.” He turned to me and added, “Let’s grab what we can. They’ll need supplies once we meet up.”
“Didn’t you pack your satellite phone?” I stalked after him, hiding my hands under my sleeves. There was nothing to fight now, but knowing my weapons were close helped me concentrate. Panicking wouldn’t solve anything; remaining calm and collected would be the most helpful thing. Damen was already looking for a reason to lash out, and I had to control my baser instincts.
It wouldn’t be helpful to antagonize Damen.
Maybe.
“We should call Bryce,” I added lightly. “He’ll probably want to help.”
The onmyoji froze mid-step and looked back at me. “What?”
“They need to know,” I reasoned, stepping past him. “Besides, the more people to help search, the better. Miles should be able to steer them through the rapids.”Hopefully, I added mentally. “So they’llprobablybe okay. But can you imagine what Bryce will be like if we don’t tell him?”
He would never let us see her again, and Damen was forgetting that, right now, the fae had the upper hand.
“Who the fuck cares what he thinks?” Damen snapped.
“I’m calling him.” I stalked toward the camp. “I refuse to put Bianca at risk because of your ridiculous pride.”
“What doyou mean you’velost Bianca?” Bryce’s curt voice cut through our connection. As I suspected, he sounded less than pleased. “How do you lose a person?”
“They’ve donewhat?” Brayden’s question echoed in the background.
“Miles is missing, too,” I reminded him. I knew that being the one to break the news to Bryce was a bad idea. But with Titus not being on good speaking terms with the fae, and Damen and Bryce’s history, I was the only person available to hold back the impending fae implosion. “They were alone together, and now they’re gone.”
“Don’t give me that shit,” Bryce continued, voice seething. “Miles can take care of himself. I want to know where the fuck you put my sister.”
“We didn’tputher anywhere.” I watched Damen and Titus hike ahead, their attention riveted to the water. “Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll keep walking along the river until we run into them. They’re bound to be here somewhere. I just thought it might be faster if you helped. Maybe start at the other end of the park? We can meet in the middle.”
“Why do you say that?” Bryce, typically slow to catch on and often oblivious to subtleties, seemed unusually sharp today. There was an accusation in his question as he asked, “Are you telling meyoulet my sister get swept downstream? She can’t swim.”
“I warned them,” Brayden shouted in the background, presumably speaking to someone else. “I said,one hair.”
“She’ll be fine,” I replied, trying to reassure myself more than him. “We’ll find her eventually.” But he was right. This wouldn’t have happened if I’d been there.
Damn river.
“Tell Damen to summon Kiania,” Finn suggested, and I realized that, at some point, Bryce had put me on speaker. “She should be able to find Bianca from anywhere.”
Wonderful. Now I was stuck talking to the bespectacled catastrophe.
“He did.” I fought to keep the venom from my voice. I could be civil with him, for now. “Kiania said something was blocking their connection, Captain Obvious.”
“He’s talking to Finn now,” Damen was not-so-quietly whispering to Titus. “Payback’s a bitch. He never should have called.”
