The trail was cold. He had no idea how to find Corbin.
He couldn’t protect his mate.
Helpless fury from exploded out of him, torching the remaining books. Every window shattered, shards of glass lancing outward. The heat of the inferno swirled around him, but the fire offered no comfort.
He’d been certain that Corbin would face him rather than flee. He’d thought that the half-hearted attack earlier had just been a ruse to draw him back here—if Corbin had seriously been trying to take him by surprise, he wouldn’t have sent such weak warlocks. A wolverine, an ocelot, a wolf…those were all the types of creature that were given to mid-ranking Adepts, not the more experienced senior warlocks, the Magi.
He’d been expecting a trap. The base was heavily fortified, the best place Corbin could pick to make a stand. Blaze had been bracing himself for the fight of his life. Dozens of powerful warlocks acting together would have been a challenge even for the Phoenix.
Why had Corbin run? Why hadn’t he made use of all the weapons at his disposal? Why hadn’t he unleashed—
And Blaze realized that he’d made a terrible mistake.
Go back, go back, go back.
“I’m going back, stupid swan,” Rose snarled under her breath, trying to concentrate on the road. “Shut up and let me drive!”
She’d made it approximately ten miles before her swan’s incessant nagging had made her do an abrupt U-turn. Now she drove as fast as she could down unfamiliar backcountry lanes, following the pull of the mate bond. It was more urgent than ever.
“Shouldn’t have listened to him,” she muttered to herself, taking switchbacks at unwise speed. If she crashed and burned, it was all going to be his fault. “So distracted by that pretty mouth, didn’t realize what horsefeathers were coming out of it. Argh! Why do you have to be able to fly so fast, you overgrown oven-ready chicken?!”
Thinking up ridiculous insults for her noble, protective, and above all idiotic mate was all that was stopping her from succumbing to stark terror. She’d let him sweet-talk her into this stupid plan to separate. And now he was flying straight into a trap.
The warlocks captured him once. Of course they can bind him again!
But not if she was there. She’d freed him once, after all. And the war
locks who’d attacked them earlier hadn’t made any attempt to bind either of them. It was like their magic was a sick, twisted version of the mate bond. It had no strength in the presence of the real thing.
But she had a horrible, horrible certainty that protection wouldn’t work at a distance. And that Corbin had manipulated them both like puppets to separate them.
A sign flashed by, warning of another sharp bend coming up. Much as her swan screeched for more speed, it wouldn’t do Blaze any good if she crashed and burned. Reluctantly, Rose took her foot off the accelerator.
That was all that saved her life.
Between one breath and the next, the world outside the car windows went white. Her tires slid on sudden ice. Too shocked even to scream, Rose reflexively spun the steering wheel, turning into the skid.
If she’d been going any faster, she would have gone straight off the edge of the road and over a cliff. As it was, the car slid sideways into a tree with a bone-rattling crunch.
Shaken, bruised, it took Rose a moment to work out whether or not she was dead. The airbag had gone off in her face. She struggled free of its enveloping folds, beating down the collapsing fabric. Breathing hard, she stared out the cracked windscreen.
That can’t be right.
It was snowing. In July. In California.
Not just a little snow, either. A full-on blizzard had fallen out of the clear blue sky, whiting out the world. She couldn’t even see the end of her car’s hood, let alone the road. Her breath steamed in the suddenly freezing air.
Her breath steamed in the suddenly freezing air.
The warlock base. Blaze’s cell. The other cell.
“Oh no.” Her fingers had gone numb. She scrabbled at her seat belt, frantically trying to release the catch. “No, no, no…”
The wind scratched over the car. It sobbed and whined, like a starving dog.
It spoke.
“Hungry.”