major airports would be watched, and we’d have Dorian with us, which meant no flashing or swimming. It wouldn’t have mattered, though. The only places within flashing or swimming distance would be watched, too.
At the moment, I understood what he meant about becoming lost in the bush. We left Jax’s shack at first light, flashing north toward Kuckaroo, and supposedly we were somewhere close. But we couldn’t find it. We walked and walked and walked . . . and walked some more. We probably walked right by it, around it, possibly through it, for all I knew, but they kept a heavy shield and cloak over it.
“You would think other Amadis could see it or at least have some way to detect it,” I complained after we’d been searching for the village for nearly two hours in the blazing sun. It was early winter Down Under, but an unusual warm spell brought summer heat, especially the farther north we traveled.
“We should be able to sense it, but they’re probably on high alert after the attacks. And they must have a powerful warlock or two to create a shield this heavy. You’re sure you can’t pick anything up?”
“No. I already said I couldn’t.” I didn’t mean for it to come out so harshly, but I was hot and dirty and tired of walking aimlessly, searching for the invisible. We may as well have been searching for the lost city of Atlantis in the middle of the Mohave. Our bodies adjusted to extreme temperatures, but within the last several minutes the heat became increasingly annoying, pushing down on us, creating a thrum in my head. Besides, it was the fourth time he’d asked me about mind signatures in the last fifteen minutes, and his own tone was full of impatience. “Are you sure you can’t get a cell signal?”
I’d asked him the same thing more than four times. For some reason, pushing buttons felt like the solution for relieving the pressure in my head.
“We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere, Alexis. Do you see a tower anywhere nearby?”
Apparently, he felt the need for an argument, too, and the overwhelming urge to fight consumed me.
I threw my arms in the air. “You’re the big toy collector. Why don’t you have one of those fancy satellite phones that get signals everywhere . . . even in the middle of fucking nowhere?”
“And when did I have time to buy one since leaving Hell?”
“Well, let’s see . . . maybe during that whole week doing whatever the hell you wanted before you came back to me?” I yelled.
He shot a vicious look at me, and for a brief moment, I expected to see the old fire in his eyes. That was a low blow, and I knew it. I didn’t apologize, though. I didn’t feel like it right now. I wanted to strangle anything I could get my hands around.
“So what now?” I asked sharply. “Should we go back to Jax’s?”
“Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Tristan sneered.
“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I saw you ogling him out at the pond.”
“I wasn’t ogling him! He was naked and standing right in front of us!”
“Which you didn’t mind one bit, did you? Or the way he looked at you?”
I stopped in my tracks and stared at him as if he’d slapped me. What’s wrong with him? This was not my Tristan. My Tristan was sweet and caring and definitely not jealous. He had no need to be. He was the center of my world, and absolutely no one could ever compare to him.
“I spent seven-and-a-half years waiting for you,” I spewed. “It’s always been you and no one else. How dare you!”
I glared at him, my fists balled on my hips. He glared back. Well, if he’s going to be that way . . .
“At least Jax would be able to find this place. I trusted you to know what you’re doing, and now we’re lost.”
That did it. Tristan’s perfect face twisted and contorted as several emotions tried to take over at once. The gold in his eyes sparked—not like they used to, with real flames, but like anyone’s eyes when they’re overcome with anger. My trust in him was sacred ground, not something to be thrown around lightly.
But before he could settle on any single emotion, something behind him caught my eye. The air itself wrinkled. I first thought it was the heat rising from the ground, but as I watched, it did it again, and