Prince of Cats - Tasha Black Page 0,5

own life.”

She begged him without speaking, her beautiful eyes so eloquent he thought his heart would break.

With the last of his resolve, he turned on his heel and leapt out the window with the child in his arms.

5

Piper

Piper strained against her invisible bonds as the man slipped out the window with her baby in his arms.

Stay calm. If you don’t find a way to think through this, you’ll never see him again…

But her heart was pounding, and she could feel the cold sweat running down her back as she prayed to every god she could think of for help.

When the spell was suddenly lifted, she nearly fell to the ground with the force of her exertions.

Piper stumbled forward and caught herself on the window ledge, scanning the ground below for broken bodies, yet knowing somehow she would not find them.

Killian and the baby were nowhere in sight.

Too late. I’m too late…

“Easy,” she murmured to herself, patting her jeans pockets for her keys and trying not to think too hard about the existence of magic. That was just too much for her frantic mind to wrap itself around right now.

The keys were there, as always. She never remembered to put them in the dish by the door.

She took the stairs two at a time and flew out the front door without bothering to close it behind her.

Her old yellow VW bug was parked in the drive, sitting there calmly, as if the entire world wasn’t falling apart. She clicked the button on the keychain to open the trunk and heaved out the huge canvas bag with her training equipment as the rain lashed down, sticking her hair to her cheeks.

She closed the trunk and threw the gear into the passenger’s side seat before hopping in and turning the ignition.

Killian had a big head start, but he was on foot. She could beat him if her instincts were right about where he was headed.

“Don’t worry, Kieran,” she murmured to herself, burning rubber as she tore out of the driveway, windshield wipers barely able to keep up with the downpour. “Mama’s coming.”

Piper had always been diligent about driver safety. But now she just slammed her foot down on the gas and hoped that all her years of accumulated vehicular karma would pay off.

The VW’s engine whined as if in complaint, but it carried her readily enough onto the main road that bisected Rosethorn Valley.

She raced deeper into the valley, and then swerved up a steep driveway, skidding slightly on the wet leaves but managing to find purchase. The little car hugged the curves of the long drive as she pushed it as fast as it would go.

“Please let me be in time, please let me be in time,” she repeated to herself.

As soon as she reached her destination, she slid the car to a rough stop, and threw it into park.

She wrenched the key from the ignition, then grabbed her bag and took off, legs pumping, heart pounding, adrenaline coursing through every inch of her.

Piper was in full fight-or-flight mode.

And flight wasn’t on the menu.

6

Killian

Killian ran through the forest. It was only a mile between the woman’s home and the mansion. In his other form, he would have been there already.

But the child in his arms meant he could not shift.

The warm little burden already grew heavy. But Killian could not find it in himself to resent the weight.

My son…

At last, they broke through the trees and the mansion came into view.

There was a yellow car in the driveway. He wasn’t sure if it had been there before. But there were no lights on, which meant there was no one inside.

He breathed a sigh of relief and strode onto the porch. He wrapped his fingers around the brass knob of the front door, ready to release a touch of magic to charm the lock, but it was already unlocked.

“Careless,” he scolded himself for forgetting to lock it on his way out. In his defense, he’d been very excited about his mission.

He opened the door and peered inside. The house was so strange on this side of the veil. So lifeless.

Killian stepped into the empty hall. The defunct grandfather clock looked over the area like a tired sentry. Moonlight bathed the black and white tiles, making it seem like he was moving across a ghostly chess board as he headed for the ballroom.

The fae realm and the human one were separated by a veil. There were places in this world and the other where