I looked over. An old man stood in the doorway, his gaze riveted on me. Not to the giant naked god who was holding me—but on me.

“Alateivia,” he murmured, shaking his head. He made a symbol with his hands—something like making the sign of the cross, but a Fae version, I assumed. Then backed out of the room.

“What the hell?” I scrambled away from Cade and stood.

He sank back into the water, concealing himself. “You healed me.”

“Did I?” I thought I had, but honestly, this whole thing was a mind scrambler.

“You did. I feel totally better.” Awe lightened his features.

Emrys hurried into the room, his face creased with confusion and a tray of sandwiches in his hands. “What happened? Grandfather said he’d seen a ghost and went to his room.”

“I have no idea,” I said. “Can I speak to him?”

I wanted to know why he’d said Alateivia. What did that mean? Had he been talking to me?

“He’ll have returned to his trance,” Emrys said. “He spends most of his time in meditation. Once he’s in that state, he can’t be woken.”

Crap. “Do you know why he would have said Alateivia?”

Emrys shook his head. “No idea.” His gaze moved to Cade. “You look a lot better, man.”

Cade nodded but didn’t say anything about me healing him. I kept my mouth shut, too. I didn’t know what the hell was happening to my new magic, but I wasn’t about to share it around.

As soon as we returned to the Protectorate, I was going straight to the library to look up Alateivia. And Rán. And Njord. I needed answers—and I needed them now.

Exhaustion hit me, making me sway. Actually, what I needed now was a shower and a nap. Using up all my magic to heal Cade had left me wobbly.

“We’ve got a spare room you can sleep in,” Emrys said. “Just one bed, though.”

He looked a bit sad, as if realizing his dream of picking me up was fading. Ah, well. There were more girls where I came from.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” Emrys said. “We can talk about why you’re here then.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Do you mind if I shower?”

“All yours. Room is the one at the end of the hall on the left.”

“Thank you.” And boy, did I mean it. “Without you, we’d be screwed.”

He nodded, then put the sandwiches on the counter near the door. “Here’s some food if you want it. Night.”

“Thank you,” Cade said.

I turned to face the wall, away from Cade. “I’ll give you a few minutes.”

“Thanks.” The water splashed, and this time, since he was healthy again, I could really imagine what he looked like without feeling guilty. Tall and muscled and naked.

I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose. I really needed to get a hold of myself.

We worked together, for fate’s sake. Like, really worked together—on cases and everything.

Total conflict of interest, just like he’d said.

“I’m out,” he said.

I just nodded, trying to get my breathing under control. A moment later, I turned around. He was gone.

Whew.

It didn’t take me long to strip down and take a quick shower. The hot water pounded away at my sore muscles, feeling like heaven. I had no idea how this ancient desert town managed their plumbing, but right now, I really didn’t care.

Once I was clean, I hopped out of the shower and scrubbed off with the thin green cloth that hung on the wall, then scarfed down some of the strange sandwiches that were filled with meat I definitely didn’t recognize. Not PB&J, my fave, but I’d eat anything right now.

I found the bedroom at the end of the hall where Cade and I would spend the night.

It was dark inside, with no windows and only a low-burning candle on the bedside table. Cade was a lump under the covers on the far side of the bed, still as a log.

I had no idea if he was asleep, but I wouldn’t put it past him to fake it. It was what I’d do if I’d come in here first.

As quiet as I could, I toed off my boots and blew out the candle, then slipped into bed next to him, climbing under the covers. The chill in the air was a marked contrast to Cade’s heat from the other side of the bed.

I lay silent and stiff, tension vibrating through every muscle. There were only inches between us, a tiny space that buzzed with energy. All sorts of thoughts—sexy ones that I’d just die if he could read—raced through my mind.

Ages passed as I stared blindly at the ceiling, until finally, exhaustion pulled me deep into slumber.

* * *

Terror raced through my veins like acid, and my lungs burned as I ran through the quiet streets of Death Valley Junction.

“Rowan!” I yelled. “This isn’t funny!”

I squinted down a darkened alley that was lit only by moonlight. A tumbleweed rolled past, but no Rowan.

“Rowan!” Fear and anger vibrated in my voice.

“I don’t think she’s hiding.” Terror laced Ana’s words. She ran at my side, hunting for our sister. We hadn’t seen Rowan in hours, ever since she’d gone out to the truck at the side of the house.

“Where the hell could she be though?” In truth, I was terrified of the answer.

Ana stopped, panting. I stopped, too, my heart thundering, and turned to her.

Ana’s blonde hair was done up in a mohawk, and heavy black makeup marked her eyes. She’d started wearing the style a year ago on her seventeenth birthday. Tears streaked down through the black eye paint.

“I think they got her.” Ana’s voice broke.

They. The shadowy figures who’d driven us from our home when we were children. Our mother had taken us and run, and we’d managed to stay hidden for over a decade.

Until now.

“But why would they take just her?” I asked. “If they managed to find us despite our concealment charms, why only take her?”

“I don’t know.”

I spun in a circle, the night heat pressing down on me. The streets of Death Valley Junction were empty. We’d spent the last two hours combing all the bars and alleys, but we’d had no luck.

“I can’t believe she’s gone,” I said. We’d had no trouble since we’d moved here four years ago after our mother’s death. And now?

Rowan was gone.

My heart tore in two as the reality sank in. My sister. Gone. Taken by those who hunted us.

* * *

I woke, a cry strangling in my throat. Wet tears streaked down my temples and into my hair.

Warm arms—strong arms—wrapped around me. Comforting. Constraining.

I thrashed, breaking free.

“Are you all right?” Worry edged Cade’s voice.

I blinked, my vision returning. We were in bed together—the tiny one in the Fae apartment, I realized. I scrambled to sit upright, my heart pounding and tears still rolling down my cheeks.

Cade sat next to me, worry on his face. “What is it?”

I sucked in a ragged breath, trying to stop the tears long enough to talk. It was that awful, gasping kind of moment where you can’t get a word out.

Cade opened his arms just enough to be an invitation. I gave in, falling into his arms and weeping, and pain tore through my chest. I hadn’t dreamt of Rowan’s disappearance in years. And it’d felt like I was back there—reliving it.

After a while, the dream faded, along with the grief. Embarrassment was quick to rush into its place.

We were colleagues, not in a relationship. And all I’d done was lust after Cade or cry on him.

I wanted to be cool and collected, not a mess of emotion.

But there was no denying it—I was one big mess. Of emotion, magic. A disaster.

“What’s wrong?” Cade asked.

I scrubbed my hands over my face to get rid of the tears. “Nothing.”

“Aye, Bree. That looks like nothing.” He squeezed my shoulder, then dropped his hand. His expression was pure acceptance. No judgment.

I sighed, my breath ragged. “I dreamed about the time my sister went missing.”

“You mentioned her before.”

“It’s pretty much the defining moment of my life. And Ana’s. We want to find her.”

“Understandable.” His gaze turned serious. “When this is over, it will be our priority to find her.”

“Thank you.” Hope flared in my chest. He’d offered to help before, but I was glad we were moving up the timeline. I couldn’t bear to wait anymore. Even if I hadn’t proved myself to the Protectorate yet, I wanted their help finding Rowan as much as I hated accepting it.

Taking help from anyone for any reason had always rubbed me wrong—but Ana and I had already tried everything we could to locate Rowan.

If she was even still alive.

I shook away the horrible thought, unwilling to go there. Positivity was the only way forward. Action, above all else.

And if I was going to find Rowan, I needed to save the Protectorate. It was my home now. And it was my best shot at finding Rowan.

“We’ll find her, Bree,” Cade repeated.

Warmth filled me. It was a light of hope and gratitude and joy and just sheer liking Cade. Our time together—as fraught with danger as it’d been—had proven to me that I liked him. I wasn’t just attracted to him. It was more than that.

And I needed to shove it down deep and focus on the task at hand.

I climbed out of bed, breaking the spell of intimacy with Cade. “Let’s get going. I feel like we’re getting close to answers.”

Cade nodded and climbed out of bed. We pulled on our shoes and left the room, following a savory smell.

Emrys was inside a kitchen, pulling a kettle off the stove. The space was more rustic than the kitchens I was used to, but the food on the table was obviously breakfast.

“You sleep all right?” Emrys asked.

“Aye, thank you,” Cade said.

We sat.

Emrys gestured to the food, which looked like some kind of porridge. “Help yourself.”

I filled a heaping bowl and dug in. The porridge tasted a bit like savory leaves—which was pretty freaking weird—but I was so hungry that it was good anyway.

Emrys took the chair across from us. “So, what brings you here? Clearly, you’re after something.”

I nodded, swallowing. “The dark curse that’s spreading over this realm. What is it?”

“No idea. It started a week ago and has been getting worse every day.”

Only a week?!

“Worse?” Cade asked.

“Yep.” Emrys pointed to the wall. “It’s crumbling more than it was before. It’s the curse’s fault. And people have been more irritable the last week—more than usual. I think it’s one of the reasons they attacked so quickly last night. Normally, it’d take more than that to get them to shift into their fighting form.”

Shit. This was what would happen to the Protectorate if the curse spread. “So it’s like a destruction curse of some kind?”

“I think so.”

“Why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?” Cade asked.

“The source of the curse is coming from the abandoned village of Eidollawn. No one is willing to go there, except me.”

“Why? What’s there?”

“Nothing except the VDBs. They took it as their main roost when they invaded hundreds of years ago. There are thousands there.” Sadness glinted in his blue eyes. “When the VDB arrived, most of our people left, going to another realm. Those of us that refused to go—or weren’t allowed to, because we were locked in the jail—stick to this village. No one—and I mean no one—goes to Eidollawn. Except me.”

“Why do you go?” Cade asked.

“Scavenging. There aren’t a lot of ways to make a living here, and I don’t want to join a gang.” He shrugged. “A few years ago, I found tunnels into Eidollawn. I sneak through the houses and take things I can sell. It’s not like those people need it anyway. They’re long dead and gone.”

“You haven’t tried to get other people to go to Eidollawn to stop the curse from spreading? And how does it come from there?”

“I did try to convince the Elders. But like I said, everyone is irritable. They weren’t willing to listen. And there’s a terrible taboo surrounding Eidollawn, anyway. They weren’t willing to consider it. Until now, I haven’t even told people it’s where I get my goods.”

“I can’t believe the Elders won’t do anything about it.” I didn’t know what a Fae Elder was, exactly. But the name Elder made me think of kindly guardians.

Emrys shrugged. “We’ve lived through terrible things before—they assume we’ll live through this, too. But I’m not so sure.”

“The curse spreads quickly,” Cade said. “It’s only been a week.”

“Are you trying to imply that they could come around?” Emrys laughed. “Because I don’t think so.”

“It doesn’t matter either way,” Cade said. “We’re here to stop it. Can you take us to the source of the curse?”

“Is it a person?” I asked.

“A portal,” Emrys said.

A portal. Which meant that dark magic was coming from somewhere else, spreading through this land, and then through our portal into the Protectorate.

Were they targeting us on purpose? “Where does the portal go?”

“I have no idea,” Emrys said. “It hasn’t been there long. Only a couple weeks. I never had the guts to go into it.”

“Can’t blame you,” I said.

“The portal is coming from a well in the center of Eidollawn. I took the information to the Elders and struck out.”

“And you went to the bar after,” I said.

“What better place to drink my sorrows?” He grinned, suddenly looking so young. “And it brought me to you two. The ones who will help. It’s fate.”

“Fate.” I believed in fate. I had to believe in fate. I’d been a leaf blowing in the wind my whole life. The moment I got a bit of control—like over our life in Death Valley—was the moment that something went haywire.

So I had to believe in fate—that there was a reason all this crazy shit happened to me.

“Exactly,” Emrys said. “I’ll take you to Eidollawn. But I won’t return to the portal.”

“Why not?” Cade asked.

“Scary as hell, man.” Emrys shook his head, his face pale. “Why do you think I hightailed it away from there and told the Elders? Then went to drink it away when they said they wouldn’t help?”

“It’s fine,” I placated. I didn’t want to lose Emrys. We needed him. “Can we go now?”

Emrys nodded and stood. “Yeah. My grandfather will sleep most of the day, so I can go. I just need to be back by nightfall to sit with him.”

“All right.” We’d run into a lot of considerate young men in this Fae world.

“Come on.” Emrys led us out of the house.

We followed him down the narrow street toward the right. The city was quiet this early in the morning. Though it wasn’t bright, sunlight gleamed through the cracks in the wooden roof, shining sharp rays of light on the street below.

We made our way down to the ground level at the far edge of town. We were on the other side of the town from where we’d entered, if my sense of direction was leading me right.

The scent of animals filled the streets here.

“I have a carriage,” Emrys said.

Carriage? As in horse and…?

He led us into a large stable where strange Fae horses stamped their feet and whinnied.

Yep. Horse and carriage.

It made sense that they didn’t have cars, since this place had pretty much frozen in time hundreds of years ago. Still, I wished we had the buggy.

Emrys was quick in gathering four horses—if one could call the horned, fanged creatures horses—and attaching them to a sleek-looking carriage.

I walked around the vehicle, appreciating its lines. The tires were large and sturdy, while the body was simple. Just a bench and cargo bed in the back.

“I bet this goes fast,” I said.

“Sure does.” Emrys patted the neck of the horse. “Built it myself just for this journey.”

The horse turned to look at me, yellow eyes gleaming. The creature’s hair looked like it was made of glittering amber, and its horns sparkled with golden light.

Emrys climbed up onto the seat. “Come on.”

We climbed up next to him, and he snapped the reins. The four horses started trotting, their gait higher than that of a normal horse. We neared the large barn doors, and they swung open.

Morning sun blazed into the dimly lit barn, and Emrys grinned. “I don’t know how people stay cooped up in there all the time. I’d go crazy if I didn’t get out occasionally.”

“You aren’t worried about the VDBs?” Cade asked. “It can’t be easy to drive and fight them off at the same time.”

“Nah.” Emrys shook his head. “My horses are fast, and the carriage is protected by a concealment charm. The VDBs can’t see us in this.”

“Handy,” I said.

“Yep.” Emrys frowned. “Though I’m a bit worried about the sand plains across the river. The increased weight of the carriage might wake the sand skeletons.”

“We can fight them off,” I said. “As long as there aren’t hundreds.”

Emrys made an unconvinced noise, as if there might actually be hundreds.

Despite Emrys’s assurances that we were hidden from the VDBs, I stayed alert on the ride away from the Fae city. The land spread out in either direction, packed tan dirt that reminded me a bit of Death Valley, but without the insane heat. The sun was bright overhead, making it easy to spot any oncoming attacks, but there were none.

Yet.

“Almost to the river,” Emrys said.

I could feel it inside my chest—a strange knowledge that we were close to a large body of water. What the heck was my new magic?

The roar of rapids hit my ears before I spotted the river. “Where is it?”

“Down low, in the gorge.” Emrys directed the carriage closer.

As we neared, I realized the land dropped away in front of us. Stone bridges made from the earth itself arched over the gorge, bisecting and joining up with each other in a lattice of rock. There were dozens of them.

“It’s a mile across,” Emrys said. “Widest river in all the realms.”

“No kidding.” It felt like my whole body was suffused with the water. Like I was one with it. And there was a lot of it.

Emrys directed the carriage onto the first arched stone bridge. It was barely as wide as the vehicle, and the drop was thousands of feet to the river below. I leaned over and looked down, spotting the water rushing by, slowly carving away at the rock posts that supported the arched bridge.

The horses were quick as they crossed this section of rock and moved onto the next, as if they’d come this way dozens of times before.

“These are natural rock formations?” I asked. They were fabulous—ornate and delicate. A true fairy land.

“Yeah. Really old, too.” Emrys directed the horses onto the last stretch of bridge.

My shoulders relaxed when we arrived on the other side. Solid ground felt good, no matter how much control I had over water.

“Yah!” Emrys sped the horses along.

They picked up the pace, galloping across the dirt toward a massive forest ahead of us.

“Be on the alert,” Emrys said. “This is where the sand skeletons dwell. They normally leave me alone, but with your weight on the carriage, they might wake.”

Please don’t wake. I’d had enough of skeletons in Venice.

I peered around, ready for an attack. Next to me, Cade was alert and ready.

Nerves tightened my muscles. I loathed waiting. Would they attack? Wouldn’t they?

Screw it.

Just attack already!

When the first rumbling in the ground made the carriage vibrate, I grinned savagely, relief flowing through me.

“The wait is over!” I spun around on the seat, searching.

Behind us, the ground shifted and caved slightly. Then a sand skeleton burst forth. It was easily fifteen feet tall and made of the packed dirt that formed the ground below. It was shaped roughly like a skeleton, but that was where the similarities ended.

More popped out of the dirt. Six in all. They charged, chasing after the carriages, their footsteps pounding the earth.

“Try your sonic boom!” Cade said. “Remember what we talked about.”

I scrambled to my feet, climbing onto the back cargo platform of the carriage. This was pretty much like fighting from the buggy. I was in my element, and I liked it.

“Hurry up!” Emrys shouted. “If they catch us, they’ll crush the carriage.”

I called upon my magic, clearing my mind in the way Cade had taught me. Though I could feel my magic inside me, strong and fierce, I couldn’t find my gift of the sonic boom. Normally, it felt distinct.

But now, I felt nothing.

The sand skeletons charged toward us, gaining by the second.

“Go on,” Cade said. “It’s not the time to dawdle.”

“I’m not dawdling!” Frustration welled inside me as I tried to get a handle on my sonic boom.

It thrashed in my chest, flickering and faint. I grabbed hold of it, imagining a huge sonic boom, and hurled it out toward the sand skeletons.

Nothing happened.

“What’s wrong?” Cade demanded.

I tried again, hurling my magic toward the skeletons.

Nothing.

My skin grew cold, fear lancing through me. This had never happened before. Sure, the boom might go haywire or be too weak, but it’d never disappeared.

I tried one last time, desperation fueling me. The sand skeletons were nearly to us. Out of time.

I hurled my sonic boom.

And nothing happened.

I wanted to scream.

Instead, I sucked in a ragged breath and called upon my new gift over water. Now wasn’t the time to panic. The sand skeletons were only twenty feet away from swiping at us with their massive hands.

The water in the river called to me, connecting with my magic and my will. It was strange and foreign, but I went on instinct, envisioning the water rising up from the gorge and smashing the sand skeletons.

“Bree, do you need help?” Cade asked. His desire to leap into action vibrated on the air. The sand skeletons were so close.

“I got this!” I said, praying to fate that I really did.

I called to the water, using my new magic. It felt like manipulating putty with my mind. At first, it seemed like nothing was happening—that I was just going crazy.

But then the water rose up from the gorge behind us, a massive fist formed of glittering liquid. It reached out toward the sand skeletons, crushing them into the dirt like I’d imagined.

They turned to mud, washing away. Water splashed us.

“Holy fates.” Cade’s voice was low with awe.

“What the heck was that?” Emrys yelled.

“Nothing!” I said. “Just keep driving.”

My mind buzzed with what had just happened, my breath coming quick. I kept my gaze glued on the terrain around us, praying there were no more sand skeletons. We were far enough from the water that I could feel my grip on it loosening.

I wasn’t like Caro, who could create the water. I needed to be close to it to use it. But boy, could I use it.

“We’re out of their territory!” Emrys finally yelled.

My muscles were still vibrating with tension as I returned to my seat. Cade was looking at me with some serious interest, his gaze glued to my face.

“What happened there?” he whispered at my ear, so quietly that Emrys wouldn’t be able to hear over the rushing wind.

I shivered at the feel of his breath, but it was shock over what had just happened that loosened my tongue. “My sonic boom power is gone.”

“Gone? That’s not possible.”

“Apparently it is.” When had it happened? Just recently, since I’d used it only a day ago. “It wasn’t there when I tried to call to it. And I can’t feel it anymore.”

“But you can control the water. You have more power than a hundred Water Mages.”

I nodded, unable to deny what he’d just seen. A giant freaking fist made of water had reached thousands of feet up from the river to crush my opponents.

Holy crap.

Something was definitely happening to me. And it was freaking serious.