“No,” I insisted because I had heard what the first Planeswalker had told Dean. “They were talking about pure Fae magic.”
“They were talking about my daughter,” the queen insisted, and she’d gotten that steely look in her eyes that told me she was getting irritated. When the queen got irritated, she liked to kick a little ass. “Somehow that witch is stealing her power.”
“She said her power was bound. It’s why she wears that charm around her neck,” Dev explained.
The king stood beside his wife. “What if the charm doesn’t bind the magic? What if it siphons the magic off? What if that woman’s been feeding off Summer for years?”
“To what end?” I had to ask the question because we were standing in the middle of nowhere. “She hasn’t exactly accumulated power. There’s something else. When she tried to kill me, I saw that she had two faces. It was only for a second, but there was definitely something nasty under her everyday face.”
“Like a glamour?” Dev asked.
I shook my head. A glamour was either on or off. “No. It was like something slipped for a moment, or something shifted. I got the feeling both were the real Erna. And neither. Like she’s caught in some transition.”
“I’ll give it some thought, but now I feel a desperate need to get to Summer.” Dev looked up to the sky. “I don’t sense any eddy clouds. I was hoping Dean was wrong. If I could find us one, we could be at the gate in no time.”
“But Erna might already be there,” Zoey replied.
Daniel put his hands on his wife’s shoulders. “She won’t kill her. She can’t. There’s a reason she hasn’t simply taken the magic and done away with her. We have to trust that Marcus will do anything to keep Summer safe.”
I looked Dev’s way. “Who’s happy the vampire who is still a vampire and has all his superpowers is with her now?”
Dev wrinkled his nose. “I will admit if I can’t be with her, I’m glad Marcus is.”
Dean came running out of the brugh, the tablet in his hands. “Guys, Summer escaped. Dad says it’s all over the DLs. Something bad happened at the Lodge building and they’ve got at least one vampire dead and a bunch of angry witches complaining about unlawful confinement. But he said he’s heard rumors from one of his spies that a female and male prisoner broke out.”
“Spies?” I asked, though I was deeply relieved that Marcus and Summer had escaped.
“Everyone has spies on the Vampire plane.” Dean let Daniel take the tablet. “They’ll try to get back here. But the good news is Erna doesn’t know exactly where she’s going.”
Somehow I thought the witch would be able to track her. Good thing we had a witch of our own. “I think we’re going to need that spell, Dean.”
He nodded but he’d paled considerably. “Sure thing. I’m good with those. Well, I tracked the cow once. She hadn’t gone far. Also, she smells bad, so that might have helped. But I can do it.”
The good news was my team was pretty much made up of the dudes the king didn’t want to work with, so I was used to making do. “You can handle this. Find her for us.”
I had to find her. After all, it was my fault the book was gone, and it would be my fault if the planes fell. I’d done the one thing Gray had told me not to do. I’d left The Path.
I missed him so much in that moment. I had some friends around me, but I didn’t have Gray to call me Kelsey Mine. Trent wasn’t here to rub his head against mine and remind me I was his mate. My little Fen wasn’t rushing by looking for trouble he could get into.
It was me and an unborn member of our pack, and his existence was all on me.
“Kelsey?”
I looked up at Dev and realized the others had joined Dean back in the brugh. It was just me and Dev out here in the sun. It was odd because only moments before the place had been covered in demons. Now there was no sign of them.
“Would you like me to check?” Dev asked, his voice soft.
I blinked to clear the tears from my eyes. I’d taken some of that power Erna had thrown my way. I’d fallen and my body had knocked around. I was afraid.