hit to Rune. “I didn’t feel any dimensional magic at the site,” he said. “No lingering trace of demon energy. And if there’s a stray sorcerer out there, why haven’t we heard about it?”
“Who the hell knows?” Torin’s voice got sharper. “It’s a big world, you know? All kinds of bad shit could be hiding out there. Hell, there’s always somebody trying to stop us and kill our mates. Why would a damn sorcerer be out of line?”
“True enough,” Rune acknowledged. A skittering sound caught his attention and he slowly swiveled his head toward it. His gaze swept the nearby area, then searched farther out, looking for a shadow that shouldn’t be there. A hint of movement in the blackness. But there was nothing.
“The Eternals are solid, Rune,” Torin said, his voice grim and hard as if he was trying to convince not only Rune but himself. “We’ve waited too long for the Awakening. Now that it’s finally here, there’s no way one of us would turn at this late date. Not when everything is finally on the line.”
Rune wanted to believe. He thought of the immortals, who were his brothers, and he couldn’t imagine any of them turning against the group. They had all been stalwart for centuries, banding together for strength. Their god, Belen, had created them for this very purpose. Why would one of them choose to throw his birthright away? And for what?
Still, his mind argued the point. He couldn’t come up with another explanation for what had happened to Elena. And a man made of fire was a pretty damn good one whether he liked it or not.
“You think I like even considering this? You’re crazy, Torin. They’re all my brothers, too. But crazy times can push anybody over the edge. And you didn’t see Elena’s body.” Shaking his head, he turned his face into the sharp October wind slicing across the desert, carrying the scent of sage. “The burns were deliberate. One half of her body. No more. Hell, it was like a line had been etched down the center of her. Magic was involved.”
“Undoubtedly,” Torin agreed. “But that doesn’t necessarily make the killer an Eternal.”
Rune shook his head again, hearing his old friend but still having doubts. “What about Egan?”
“Are you on crack?” Torin countered. “Hell, we just found out last month from that freak-of-nature witch Kellyn that she trapped Egan in a white-gold cage somewhere at the bottom of the fucking ocean. And now you’re gonna blame him for this?”
“You think I want to?” Rune’s angry shout shattered the quiet of his surroundings and instantly he grimaced and lowered his voice. Sound traveled for miles in the desert and he didn’t need to help his enemies find them. “Damn it, I called Egan brother for centuries before he disappeared, but we’ve only got that ‘freak-of-nature witch’s’ word for it that she’s got him trapped. What if he’s the one who went rogue?”
“No fucking way. Not a chance. I’ll never believe that of one of us. Turning our backs on who we are means turning from our witches. We wouldn’t turn on our mates, Rune.”
“But we won’t know that for sure unless we find Egan. Anybody have anything?”
“No,” Torin grumbled and Rune could picture his fellow Eternal, stalking back and forth, scraping one hand through his long hair over and over again in a fit of frustration. “There’s nothing. I put Odell and Cort on it a week ago, but we don’t even know where to start looking.”
“Can’t Shea do a locator spell on him or something?”
“Not without a focus. Something that belongs to Egan. And we’ve got nothing.”
“What about his place in Edinburgh?”
“You think we didn’t check?” Torin barked. “I sent Cort there to bring something back, but when he got there, the place was empty. Either that fucking witch cleaned it out to prevent us finding him or—”
“Or,” Rune finished for him, “Egan’s the rogue and he went into hiding.”
“No, damn it. It’s not one of us.”
“Well, who, then?” Rune threw one hand up, called on the fire and watched his hand burn, as if he needed something to focus his rage on. “If it was a dark witch, I would have sensed her presence in Sedona. Demons leave behind trace dimensional residue and a sorcerer leaves astral energy. I could have tracked it.”
“Maybe. It’s a big city, man.”
“Not that damn big and whoever was there at Elena’s office was close to Teresa and me.” The flames on his hand winked