Page 120 of Claim Me
“Yes. For the last twenty minutes.” Nox’s voice holds the same note of panic as Kaspian’s.
Bane is on the floor beside her, his black pants unfastened and his hair a mess of dark waves. He’s checking her pulse. Whatever he finds—likely a lack of a heartbeat—has him leaning down to blow into her mouth as Nox takes over chest compressions.
I flinch as I watch, my heart starting to pound against my rib cage.
If she’s really dead, I would feel something, right? A severed link? Her departed soul?
“The patriarchs must be doing something to keep you from waking her up this time.” There’s a clear note of unease in Ayla’s voice. “I don’t think any of us want to know what that entails.”
“I fucking want to know,” Kaspian snaps, his angry tone as uncharacteristic of him as his panic. He remained mostly calm during our previous call, almost eerily so. This display of emotion is…new.
“If we know what they’re doing, we can wake her up,” Nox says, his focus on compressing Fallon’s sternum. “She’s so fucking cold.”
“Because they dragged her soul off into the death plane,” Ayla mutters. “She’s not really dead, but her body…” She twists her lips to the side. “Don’t stop trying to revive her. She needs her blood to circulate, or this could have lasting damage.”
My jaw ticks. “Lasting damage?”
“Brain damage, among other things.” She looks at Patriarch O’Neely’s house. “The patriarchs could be there, performing this spell. But I doubt it. They have secret ceremonial spaces for their meetings that I’ve yet to find.”
“You can’t track their souls?”
She shakes her head. “Not without them noticing.” She folds her arms. “You sensed my approach because my magic touched your aura. It would do the same to them if I tried to hunt them down.”
“So you’re saying you can only track those who don’t mind being tracked?” That’s certainly a limit to what’s otherwise a neat talent.
“Or someone who isn’t as aware of his or her surroundings,” she replies. “Fortunately, most people don’t pay attention to their instincts. Unfortunately, the patriarchs are paranoid asshats and therefore not most people.”
I decide not to ask if I’m classified as a “paranoid asshat” since I noticed her following me earlier and instead focus on what matters. “Is there anyone you could track that may be near their meeting site right now? Like maybe Issy?”
If the patriarchs have Fallon, then maybe they also have—
“What the fuck just happened?” Kaspian snaps, drawing my gaze to the screen, where Bane and Nox are hovering over an empty floor. “Where the fuck did she go?”
Ayla steps toward the screen, her eyes wide and matching my own expression. Then she swings around, her lips parting as she looks to the north.
Kaspian, Nox, and Bane all start talking at once, but Ayla is the one who has my attention.
Because she’s gone completely still beside me.
“What do you sense?” I ask her.
“Fallon,” she breathes, her black irises flickering with dangerous flames as she jerks her attention toward me. “It’s Fallon.”
“What about her?” Kaspian demands through the screen before I can say a word. “Where is she?”
Ayla doesn’t look at him, her focus still on me. “She’s back.” She blinks. “Fallon’sback.”
“How is that possible?” I ask.
“I don’t know, but I feel her.” She swallows, looking to the north again. “And if she’s where I think she is, then we’re going to need some help.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT
FALLON
A FEW MINUTES EARLIER
My fate.
