through the entryway to the war room. Sally’s eyes were the size of saucers, and Costin looked ready to skin someone alive.
“Where are our children?” Sally asked, her words coming out in between gasps of air. She must have run the entire way from the playroom. Gypsy healers, for all their inner strength, simply didn’t have the physical stamina of wolves. “They’re gone, and I thought Cyn agreed to tell us if they were leaving…” She realized Cyn was standing right beside Jen. “Why are you here? Why aren’t you with Titus, Slate, and Thia?” She growled as she glared at the fae warrior. “And why in the bloody pixie babies are you crying!” Jen understood Sally’s confusion over Cyn’s show of emotion. The fae female rarely, if ever, showed any emotion.
Costin wrapped his arms around his distraught mate and pulled her back from where Sally had stepped into Cyn’s personal space. “Answer her,” Costin said, his voice deadly.
Jen was the one who spoke. “Alston and Skender have taken them.”
Sally breathed out in a desperate plea. She looked at Cyn and Nissa. “Why didn’t either of you stop him?” Her eyes focused on the female high fae. “Aren’t you supposed to be powerful like him? What freaking good are you if you can’t protect the most important people in this damn mountain?” Jen began to speak, but Sally whipped her head around and drilled Jen with an angry glare. “Why are you just standing there doing nothing, Jennifer?”
The growl that Jen’s wolf emitted was beyond her human control. The beast didn’t appreciate Sally’s implication—that Jen wasn’t concerned for their little ones. She was worried out of her freaking mind. But she needed a moment to process the situation. Her mate was far away on a battlefield facing an enemy that was forewarned of their plans and prepared for the fight. Now, her daughter was in the hands of that same enemy.
“Give me a bloody damn minute to think!” Jen yelled. Jacque placed a hand, which had phased completely back to her human form, on her arm as if to say, “Sally’s not the enemy.” Jen knew that, of course, but she also knew her friend needed to take a step back and think before she started accusing her of doing nothing.
“He said to bring Sally to Arizona,” Jacque said. “Decebel and Fane just showed us the field where they are about to go to battle.”
“Nissa and I can trace Alston’s magic,” Cyn added. “But we need to get back to the room and follow it before it fades.” Cyn looked at Talia. Her tears were now dry, and she seemed to have pulled herself together. “You need to let Alpha Alina know what’s going on. We don’t have time to tell her.”
Talia nodded.
Cyn held out her arms, as did Nissa. Jen and Jacque placed a hand on Cyn while Sally and Costin each placed a hand on Nissa. They flashed and ended up in the playroom. “Don’t let go,” Cyn said, and then they flashed again.
Jen considered for about a second that maybe they should have thought their actions through a little better before chasing after the evil high fae and traitorous wolf, but she dismissed the thought as soon as she pictured Thia’s perfect face in her mind. If there was one hair harmed on her child’s head, Jen would pull Alston apart limb by limb. She’d make Skender watch, so he knew exactly what would happen to him.
When her feet were on solid ground once again, Jen opened her eyes, which she hadn't even realized she’d closed, and gasped as she took in the battle raging around her.
“Do you see them?” Sally asked, her voice full of the urgency that Jen was feeling.
“No,” Jacque said. “Wait, there.” She pointed to the right, and Jen followed the direction. Alston and Skender stood in the middle of the fray, holding the three children in their arms. Alston held Thia, and Skender had Slate and Titus.
Jen’s wolf pushed forward and snarled. “I will end them.” Nissa held out her arm to try to stop her, but Jen was not having it.
“Get in line,” Sally snapped as she and Costin started toward the treacherous wolf and high fae. Jen and Jacque began to run. Jen didn’t know where Cyn or Nissa had gone after she’d stomped past them. But whatever the fae were doing, Jen hoped it helped.
The seconds it took to reach the two males seemed like hours. But when they