Page 47 of Fractured Souls
Before it wouldn’t have been a far reach to assume Zander had been responsible for her disappearance, especially considering our first experience with him at the school, but the more time I spent around him, the more I was assured he held Lorcan as a priority in his life. A fact confirmed when Zander’s siren—a gold fucking ghost—appeared out of nowhere and explained what was going on and where we needed to meet him. At first I hadn’t liked the idea of not being able to help, of being forced to wait while he handled everything, but we hadn’t had a choice—and fuck had he done a great job at saving her. I mean, the bastard had burned down part of the kingdom. If I hadn’t trusted him before, I sure as hell did now.
I could tell the others felt similarly, although everyone was acting off right now. Lorcan had been doing her best to reassure each and every one of us, but that was the last thing she needed to worry about right now. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to move past it as easily as Cash and myself.
Well, ‘move past it’ was a stretch, but I recognized that Lorcan didn’t want to focus on it. Cash and I had been doing our best to keep a smile on Lorcan’s face as we traveled to the portal, allowing Zander some time to rest without making it obvious.
Dean and Adriel had nearly pulled the carriage over upon realizing that she was up, but luckily Lorcan had realized it would be far easier for her to just go sit up front with them. My brother was still a complete fucking mess, looking distressed and paranoid—not that I could blame him. Adriel, on the other hand, just seemed goddamn livid.
I had a feeling that if we’d stayed in that place any longer, asectionof the Kingdom of Day wouldn’t have been the only thing destroyed. No, I think Adriel would have brought the entire fucking thing to the ground.
The same could be said about Desmond, his normal cool confidence replaced with an almost visceral anger that he was trying and failing to hide from Lorcan as he walked with Draven, talking in hushed tones. I nearly shook my head at the thought of Draven.
I commended his effort to not rip Lorcan from the other side of our group to plaster her against him, but I also knew it probably wouldn’t last.
Around five minutes later, I was proven right when we reached the previous hotel we had stayed at—walking right past it and towards a row of taxis. Draven took the opportunity, while Desmond hailed us a car to take to the airport, to steal her from Dean and me. A frustrated sound left my throat, but I ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the fight.
“I should have arranged a car.” Desmond frowned as two taxis passed him, before a larger SUV drove towards us.
“You had no idea when we would get back,” I pointed out. The bastard was way too hard on himself. I mean, he almost always had the right plan and resources in place, yet I could tell he was upset about not being more prepared right now. Maybe I needed to be more like that…
I think I was so damn focused on Lorcan and what she was thinking or feeling that half of that shit slipped right past me. I needed to do better.
“You’re deep in thought,” Lorcan said. She slid onto the leather seat to sit next to me in the dark SUV as Desmond and Dean informed the driver on where to take us, but that lasted only a minute before I tugged her onto my lap. She let out a pleased noise and buried her nose against my neck, my lion nearly releasing a rumble, thrilled with our current position.
“I am,” I admitted. “I’m worried about you—and before you say that you’re fine, it’s not that I don’t believe you, I just won’t be able to relax until we’re in a safer position. The amount of stress you’ve been under and the shit you’ve gone through…it’s a lot, bunny.”
Lorcan’s seafoam green gaze filled with a small wave of exhaustion, and instead of arguing with me, she just nodded and kept herself tucked against me. I knew she would tell me what was wrong in time, so I didn’t push it.
“Did we confirm it was Bora Bora?” Dean asked Desmond. The question had Lorcan freezing up once again, but I didn’t know why—I had to assume it was something to do with Bora Bora? Or maybe it was about having to go to another location.
“From everything I can gather that is the place,” Desmond answered.
The car jerked to a stop in the line traffic leading to the highway, and I nearly growled in frustration, my stomach churning uncomfortably. That portal had fucked me up more than usual. Deciding to close my eyes, I tilted my head back and tightened my hold on Lorcan, who let out a content, happy hum.
I wanted to hear noises like that every fucking day for the rest of my life.
It wasn’t long until we arrived at the private airport, and more importantly got out of the damn car and onto the jet. The wind rushed over my face, cold and brisk, as I pulled Lorcan further into me and kissed the side of her head. I was half tempted to pick her up and carry her to the back of the jet so we could lay down, but I already knew what she was going to want to focus on.
The Darklace books.
So instead of fighting it, I sat her down in a large lounger and brought over a blanket, fitting it around her comfortably. I placed the books on the table in front of her and then threw myself in the chair next to her, letting out a small groan of relief. A minute later, I turned to find Lorcan staring at me, a small smile dancing on her lips.
“What?” I offered a small smirk.
Her eyes sparked with amusement. “Just thought you were going to bring me back into the bedroom. You seem tired.”
“Was very tempted to do just that,” I admitted and then nodded towards the books. “But something told me that you would want to look into what we risked so much for.” I knew she felt bad, possibly guilty, about the perceived danger the trip had put all of us in—although I would have taken the trip ten times over it meant her getting what she needed—so I was hoping that seeing all the valuable information we collected would alleviate that.
“You’re right. Want to help me look through them?” she asked, then turned her attention to the flight attendant, who’d placed down a cup of tea for each of us, along with some fresh fruit. “Thank you.”
The girl nearly squeaked and ran away, Lorcan managing to hold in her grumble of frustration. I wouldn’t lie, it was pretty damn amusing.
There were a lot of reactions that people had to Lorcan, but fear? That one was probably the most out of place. Lorcan was many things, but she didn’t go out of her way to be scary. Her magic could be fucking terrifying, but unless she was being defensive over those she loved, Lorcan was pretty damn sweet.
I also knew she would probably punch me for saying that shit.
Okay, not punch—but her nose would do that adorable and frustrated twitch that had earned her the title of ‘bunny’ when we were kids.
“Hand one over.” I motioned to a book as the others began to settle themselves for takeoff, some taking books as well and others talking quietly. The journal Lorcan handed me was one of the personal ones—much like the one she held—but Cash was reading some military logs. Flipping open a few pages, I thought I would find myself a bit bored, preparing to skim through most of it…but I was surprisingly riveted.
