Dakota sat staring at the stars. It always fascinated him that they were so easily seen here versus Seattle. Not surprising, but fascinating how bright they actually were when not drowned out by the city lights.
He rubbed his face over his hands as the anger set in. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered to himself. He had been so excited about the thought of having a child, it had never occurred to him that they should verify whether Vincent had been telling the truth or not. After all, Ana said she had felt it too. Then again, Vincent seemed to be a master at manipulation.
He was angry, and he was sad. They had to find a way to get to Vincent, to end this once and for all. He always seemed to have the upper hand; it was time they changed that.
“Hey girl,” Dakota said as Kaley came padding up to the porch. She sat next to him and nuzzled her head onto his lap.
“Sure is a nice night, isn’t it?” he asked her.
She lay down next to him and he stroked her soft fur.
“Hi, Dakota.” A soft female voice sounded from the dark trees next to the cottage. Out of habit, his hand reached for the dagger he kept in his boot. When the form came into the light, he smiled softly.
“Hi, Sarah. You’re up late.”
She nodded and moved to stand next to the porch. “Mom had another nightmare, and after I got her settled down, I discovered I wasn’t tired anymore.” She smoothed the skirt of the long dress she wore, and Dakota’s heart ached at the pain on her face.
“I’m so sorry, Sarah. You have been through so much the last few months.”
She nodded. “I know that the one responsible will pay for what they have done, and that is when I will sleep soundly at night.”
“We will get him,” Dakota agreed.
“How is Anastasia?” she asked, pointing to the front door.
“Tired,” he said simply. “Ready for this all to end.”
Sarah nodded again and then smiled emptily. “I think I will head back now, check on my mom.”
“If you need anything, let me know.”
“I will.” She smiled and turned to leave.
Anastasia sat up in bed and immediately regretted it. Why do people drink? she wondered. Do they hate themselves? She rubbed her hands over her face and looked at Dakota, who was sleeping soundly next to her. She fought the urge to elbow him so he would be in pain too, and put her feet on the ground.
“Ouch,” she muttered when she stubbed her toe on her nightstand.
“Ana.” Dakota sat up in bed and she fell backwards next to him.
“This is awful.”
“Yeah, hangovers suck.” He leaned back against his pillow, clearly amused.
“Try not to enjoy this so much,” she said sarcastically.
“I will.”
Anastasia rolled into him and put her hands on his bare chest. She felt his heart beating beneath her palm, and even through the pain, it had her own racing.
“It’s not that bad,” she said softly, biting her lip.
“That’s good.” He rolled her onto her back and pressed his lips to hers.
Her breath caught in her chest as his hands lit tiny fires along her skin. She felt so alive when she was in his arms, as if the world around them no longer existed and it was only them. Anastasia wrapped her arms around him and deepened the kiss. The groan she heard deep in his throat made her heart soar.
The frantic knocking at the door had them pulling apart, and Anastasia suddenly felt so cold without his body covering hers.
“Dakota! Anastasia!” Tony’s voice boomed through the tiny house, and Anastasia shot out of bed. Something was wrong.
“What is it?” she asked as she pulled the door open.
He stormed in and began looking through the cottage.
“Tony, what’s wrong?” Dakota asked as he pulled on a shirt.
Tony stopped and looked Dakota in the eye. “Lizzie is gone.”
Anastasia watched as Dakota’s face went pale. “What do you mean, gone?” he asked cautiously.
“I woke up this morning and she wasn’t there. I assumed she had just gone out to visit or help the patients in the medical cottage, but I can’t find her.” Tony rubbed his hands over his eyes, and Anastasia saw the pain and the fear that filled them. “I can’t find her anywhere.”
“Maybe she just went out for a walk,” Anastasia said hopefully.
“She isn’t anywhere within these walls. No one has seen her since last night.”
“I’ll help you look, she has to be somewhere. She has to be here.” Dakota turned and ran into the room for his shoes.
“Tony, when did you last see her? What can you remember?” Anastasia asked.
“Last night. When I went to sleep, she was there, and we had made plans to go for a walk this morning.”
Fear flooded Anastasia’s mind. Elizabeth was not someone who just took off by herself, especially not in Terrenia when she barely knew anything about what was going on. Could Vincent have gotten past her guards? Was it possible he hadn’t set off a single alarm?
She grabbed her sword and started to head out when Tony stopped her. “What are you doing?”
“Going to find Elizabeth.”
“You can’t.”
“Excuse me? Why not?”
“Do I really need to remind you?” he asked, looking down at her stomach. “You went through enough strain last night, you need to be careful.”
A sharp pain shot through Anastasia’s heart. How was she supposed to tell him?
“It’s okay, Tony. I’ll keep an eye on her,” Dakota said as he came out of the bedroom.
She gave him a thank you look and gently squeezed Tony’s shoulder.
“We will find her.”
Tony nodded, afraid to speak.
They spent all day searching for her and found no trace. Not a single thing to point them as to where she could have gone or been taken to.
“Could Vincent have opened a portal directly into the village and taken her?” Dakota wondered aloud as they sat around a fire that night.
He was worn thin and scared to death, she knew. Yet he was still managing to hold himself together for Elizabeth’s sake. Tony, on the other hand, was not doing well at all.
Anastasia had never seen him the way he was now. His face was pale, his hands shaking, and his eyes swollen from tears. Love was the only thing that could have made the strongest man she knew fall to his knees.
“No, he would have set off the alarms Anastasia put around the village. They sense any magic that is not hers or mine. It would have let us know something was amiss, and none of them went off,” Carmen assured him.
“There is no way around them?” Dakota asked, wanting to cover all bases. He was barely holding himself together and knew that if he kept hitting roadblocks for an explanation, he might just lose it.
“Not unless they are lowered by the person who put them up.”
Suddenly it hit Anastasia why she didn’t feel any intrusions last night.
“Oh no.”
Tony, Carmen, Argento, and Dakota all turned to stare at her.
“What is it?”
“It’s my fault,” she whispered.
“What’s your fault? Anastasia, did you lower the barriers?” Carmen asked.
“Not on purpose.”
“The alcohol,” Dakota said, his jaw setting in a hard line.
Confused, Tony asked, “Alcohol?”
“Anastasia got drunk last night.”
“Anastasia, you can’t drink right now!” Tony chastised her, and she felt the tears burning at the back of her throat.
“She’s not pregnant, Tony,” Dakota added angrily.
“Dakota,” Anastasia begged him to stop.
“What? Did something happen?” Tony asked carefully as he reached across the table to touch her hand gently.
“She never was pregnant, it was a charade the entire time.”
“It was a what?” Tony asked, confused again.
“Dakota,” Anastasia said, a dangerous tone coming into her voice.
“Vincent lied to her,” Dakota said simply, and then turned to Anastasia. “So because you couldn’t handle yourself the way you should have, and talked to me rather than getting trashed, Vincent was able to get past the barriers you put up and abduct my mother.”
“Dakota, I’m sorry, I didn’t think—”
“That’s the problem, Anastasia. Lately you don’t think. Last night you were ready to give up on everything. Well, congratulations, your decision probably cost my mother her life.” He instantly regretted everything he’d said, but the anger that beat through his veins was making it so he didn’t care.
Pain and anger fought for top notch on her face, and Dakota felt like an ass. Still, he was so angry for what happened that he couldn’t put his pride to the side. Bottom line was that she was drinking when she shouldn’t have been. She should have been focused on what they had to do in order to defeat Vincent, not giving him a key to their village.
“Dakota, Anastasia would never intentionally allow harm to come to your mother,” Argento chimed in, shooting her a soft smile. “You must not blame her. She carries more weight on her shoulders than most already.”
“I need to go.” Dakota turned and headed for the door. “Tony, we have to find her.”
Tony stood and followed Dakota outside.
“He will come around, Phoenix.” Argento touched her shoulder gently. “I am truly sorry about the baby.”
“Thank you, Argento.”
He nodded and stepped outside.
“It was an accident,” Anastasia said to Carmen.
“I know it was, dear.” She rubbed her back gently. “Give him a little bit of time. He will be fine because we will find her. Come on, I’ll teach you how to track. We will see if we can sense her.”
“Track?” Anastasia asked as she followed her grandmother.
“In a way, you will be able to sense her, and that’s how we will know she is alive.”
“You did that with me,” Anastasia said, remembering when Vincent had abducted her back in Seattle.
“Yes, I was able to sense you. At least until he blocked you.”
“What if he is blocking Elizabeth?”
“He won’t be.”
“How are you so sure?”
“Because I imagine he is using her as bait.”
“That would make sense,” Anastasia said as she followed Carmen into her cottage.
“Yes it does. Now sit.” She said it softly and Anastasia listened, taking a seat near a warm fire. Weather in Terrenia was unusually cold this year.
“Shouldn’t we grab Dakota and Tony?”
“Let’s see if we can sense her first. I don’t want to risk giving them any false hope.”
Anastasia nodded. “Okay.”
“What you need to do is close your eyes and focus on her. You need to be able to get a clear picture of her in your mind.”
Anastasia closed her eyes and thought of Elizabeth. The memory that came to mind was one from when Anastasia had gone to her house the first time she sported a black eye. She had only been eight, she remembered.
Elizabeth had cupped her face with her hands and asked her what had happened, even though she had already known the answer.
“Very good, Anastasia. Now think of the details, the way she spoke, her perfume, anything that will help you to picture her clearly.”
Anastasia remembered how when Elizabeth had hugged her, she had smelled of jasmine and honey.
“It’ll be okay, honey. Let us help you,” Elizabeth had pleaded with her.
“I’m okay, it was just an accident,” Anastasia insisted.
Anastasia remembered the disappointment she had felt when she lied to Elizabeth, a woman who had been more kind than anyone she had known.
Suddenly Anastasia began to feel her, as if she were standing in front of her. The memory changed to something else, and Anastasia saw Elizabeth unconscious on the ground. Brutes surrounded her, and Anastasia screamed out her name, but she didn’t wake up. Rain began to fall down on her, and she looked around for anything that would help her determine where Elizabeth was.
She saw a familiar mountain range, and it hit home where Vincent had taken her. Elizabeth was back in the Brute world.
“Did you feel her?” Carmen asked when Anastasia opened her eyes.
“I saw her.”
“You saw her?” Amazement and pride shone on Carmen’s face as she looked at her granddaughter. At Anastasia’s nod, she continued, “That is amazing, Anastasia, I haven’t ever heard of anyone being able to picture the subject, only sense them.”
“I have to go.”
“You know where she is.” It wasn’t a question, and Anastasia hoped Carmen wouldn’t stand in her way. She needed to go alone so she could use her magic and only have to worry about Elizabeth. From the amount of Brutes she saw, she was going to need to focus.
“Go,” Carmen said quickly. “Where are you going?”
“Brute world.”
Carmen nodded quickly and pulled the door open. “I will let Dakota and Argento know where to find you.”
“Tell them to stay back unless it looks like I need them. I will need to focus,” she said, voicing her earlier thoughts.
“I will. Be safe, Anastasia.”
Anastasia closed her eyes and opened a portal. She took one last look back at Carmen and then stepped through. The rain began assaulting her the second she landed on the other side. Drops that were much larger than anything that ever fell in Terrenia splashed into large puddles on the ground. The temperature must have been at least twenty degrees colder here than it had been in Terrenia, and Anastasia wrapped her arms around herself as she walked.
Anastasia looked for the mountain range from her vision, but with the clouds the Brute world was much darker than she had anticipated. She drew her sword and conjured a ball of light. It led the way through the storm.
Wind whipped at her hair, causing it to come loose from the braid it had been in. Her lips burned from the cold, and she could see her breath coming out in puffs. She thought of the times Elizabeth had been there for her, for all the wonderful things she had done for her when she had been younger. What would she tell Dakota if she couldn’t find Elizabeth in time? He had been right, she’d had no business drinking that way. She should have put the needs of everyone above her need for escape.
Anastasia heard a scream, and her head whipped towards the sound. She took off on a run until she plunged into a clearing.
“Well, that took you long enough.” The face that smiled at Anastasia was not one she had known as an enemy, and it took her a moment to get her bearings.
A knife was pointed at Elizabeth’s neck, and her eyes were wide with fear. Dirt was smeared on her face, and her hair was slick with the rain.
“Sarah, why would you do this?”