Through the Ether (Force of Nature Book 5) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,48
“You can’t. It’s too dangerous.”
Panic surged in my chest, and I ran to my bedroom door. I threw it open and shouted for Merc and Knox.
“Where are you?” I asked, focusing on the wall and my breathing to calm myself.
Merc, Jase, and Dean appeared out of nowhere in front of me. Knox, Foust, and Brunton stormed down the hall to join us.
“It’s Liam,” I explained. “He’s in trouble. He can’t open a portal back here.”
“Fuck,” Knox growled. “We have to get him out of there.”
“Liam? Liam, are you still there?”
Silence was all that answered, and the others stared at me, so many questions in their eyes that they knew better than to ask at that moment.
“I am—”
“Do you know of a place called the Ether?” I asked, praying that he did. Hoping that it, like his ability to portal himself back and forth to Faerie, was something he knew about and just hadn’t shared with us because we hadn’t asked.
“Ether? No…”
“Shit. Okay…okay…I want you to try to find a safe place somewhere and call for the Ether—or Etherian.”
“Etherian? But he—”
“Just call for him—search for him. If you tell him I sent you, he should be happy to harbor you until we return.” I left off ‘or at least hold you hostage’.
“Return?”
“No time to explain. You’ll have to trust me on this one, Liam. Now do it!”
Again, my magical line to Faerie went silent, and I held my breath as I waited. The men before me did the same.
“Go!” he screamed, and I swore he somehow took that magical rope connecting us and threw it at me. I could feel the magic loosen and fall through space until it yanked free of the fey realm and whipped back into me. Unlike last time, when it had felt like I’d been hit by a careening car, this time my magic settled into me without a brutal crash.
“What’s happening?” Knox asked, fear tightening his voice.
“I…I don’t know. Liam did what I asked and called for Etherian, but then—”
“Then what, Piper?”
“It was like something interrupted. He panicked and told me to leave, and when I didn’t, he...threw my magic back to me somehow.”
Worry seeped into Knox’s expression. “What interrupted him?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know, but it didn’t sound good.”
“Perhaps the royals have found what they think to be leverage,” Merc noted grimly.
“They’ll torture him,” Foust observed. “There’ll be nothing left—”
“And they’ll expect us to come,” Knox added before his frustrated growl filled the air and his fist smashed through the wall. Everyone went still and stared as he withdrew it. “I’m fine,” he said, voice hoarse. “Just angry.”
“Okay,” I said softly as I placed my hand on his drywall-dusted wrist. “What do we do? How do we get him back?”
“He knew he was potentially sacrificing himself when he left,” Merc said.
“We can’t, Merc,” I pleaded. “I know what we agreed to, but we can’t just leave him to that fate.”
Knox said nothing; he just stared at the vampire king, awaiting his response. Merc’s jaw flexed as he silently mulled over his response.
“Everyone who’s agreed to fight alongside us has already been summoned and is preparing to leave as we speak. The New York wolves are in the lower-level cells for now, given what transpired between them and Knox. Our return to the Ether is imminent. Perhaps Liam will be there. If not, we will stick to our plan to attack the royals. After that, we can search for him.”
I nodded, then scanned the crowd for my father, hoping he’d have some words of wisdom to add, but I didn’t find him.
“Your father has his warlocks with Sherry,” Merc said, having read my thoughts in my expression.
“Will they be done making whatever the fuck they were making?” Brunton asked.
Merc pinned his dark stare on the wolf. “They’d better be.” He pulled his phone out and dialed as he walked away, casting a cautious glance over his shoulder at me as if to say ‘keep an eye on him’ as he disappeared down the stairs.
I turned to find Knox eyeing me tightly. “Piper, we need to talk.”
“We should really get the others ready. Once Merc confirms that we have the talismans, he’ll want to collect the troops and leave. In the meantime, we should probably get the new wolves up here and feed them. Lord only knows what the food situation will be in Faerie, and we’re going to have to integrate them with the others at some