car, picking up his weapons and arming himself...
...before dematerializing into the night.
Layla immediately covered her face with her hands, her shoulders beginning to quake, her head sagging, her emotions overflowing.
Caught in the middle, between her mind and her soul, she was torn asunder even as she remained whole.
Chapter Eighty-one
"Come in."
As Blay spoke up, he glanced over the top of A Confederacy of Dunces - and was surprised to find Beth walking into his room.
One look at the queen's face and he sat up from the chaise, putting the book down. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Have you seen Layla?"
"No, but I've just been here since I got back from my parents'." He glanced at the clock. After midnight. "She's not in her room?"
Beth shook her head, her dark hair shining as it slipped around her shoulders. "She and I were going to hang out, but I can't find her. She's not in the clinic, or the kitchen - and I looked for Qhuinn down in the training center as well as up here. He's gone as well."
Maybe they were having a romantic dinner, like, sharing a plate of pasta and meeting in the middle thanks to a strand of frickin' linguine.
"Have you tried their phones?" he asked.
"Qhuinn's is in his room. And Layla isn't answering hers if it's with her."
As he got to his feet and started to get a little hyped, he thought, calm down - this was not a national emergency. In fact, this was a big house with a lot of rooms, and more to the point, they were grown adults. Two people should be allowed to go off together and have it not be a crisis.
Especially if they were having a young together...
The sound of a vacuum off in the distance drew his attention.
"Come with me," he told the queen. "If there's one person in this place who'll know? He's down the hall with a Dyson."
Sure enough, Fritz was working in the second-floor sitting room, and as Blay walked in, he got slapped in the face with all the memories of him and Qhuinn doing it up but good on the rug by the couch.
Great. Just fabulous.
"Fritz?" the queen called out.
The doggen stopped the back-and-forth and killed the machine. "Well, hello, Your Majesty. Sire."
Lots of bowing.
"Listen, Fritz," Blay said, "have you seen Layla?"
Instantly, the butler's face became downcast. "Oh. Yes. Indeed."
When he didn't fill anything else in, Blay prompted him with an, "Annnnnd?"
"She took the car. The Mercedes. It was about two hours ago."
What the hell, Blay thought. Unless..."So Qhuinn was with her."
"No, she was alone." As a boatload of uh-oh hit Blay's stomach, the butler shook his head. "I tried to insist that I take her, but she would not let me."
"Where was she going?" Beth asked.
"She said she had no destination. I knew that Master Qhuinn had taught her to drive, and when she ordered me to tender upon her palm the keys, I knew not what to do."
The queen spoke up. "You are not at fault here, Fritz. Not at all. We're just worried about her."
Blay took out his phone. "And there's GPS on the vehicle, so this is going to be fine. I'll just hit up V and he'll be able to locate her for us."
After he sent the text, the queen reassured the butler some more, and Blay hung around, waiting for a response.
Ten minutes later? Nada. Which meant the Brother with the IT skills was in the middle of some business downtown.
Fifteen minutes.
Twenty.
He even called, and didn't get an answer. So he could only assume that someone was bleeding - or that V's phone had gotten shanked during fighting.
"Qhuinn's not in the gym?" he said, even though that question had already been answered.
Beth shrugged. "Not when I checked."
Blay put in a quick call, got Ehlena, and a moment later was informed that the workout room was empty, Luchas was asleep, and there was no one in the pool or on the basketball court.
The guy wasn't in the house. And not in the field, because he was off rotation. That left only one other conceivable place.
"I know where he is," Blay said gruffly. "I'll go get him while we wait for V to check in."
After all, that female was carrying his young - so if she went AWOL into the big world by herself, he had a right to be involved in locating her. And sure, maybe Qhuinn knew where she was, but Blay had a feeling he didn't: hard to believe he