Chapter Twenty-Seven
Rykaur swam toward shore, thoughts of Mary plaguing him with every passing mile.
Something was wrong. He could feel it in his gut as surely as he could feel that she cared for him. Though she couldn’t admit it, he knew that she did.
He reached out to her mind. “Mary?”
A tune floated back to him in the sound of a hum. She had intentionally blocked him out.
More red flags went off inside his head. “Mary? Can you hear me?”
More humming was all the answer he received.
“Zaureth?” Rykaur mentally sent, glancing around to locate the healer.
“I am here.”
Spotting Zaureth swimming to his left, Rykaur hurried his pace. “Something is amiss. I can feel it. Mary has shut me out.”
“I will connect with Amy. Standby for a moment.
What reason could Mary possibly have for shutting Rykaur out? Unless…
Rykaur’s heart began to hammer in panic. She’d gone to the surface to rescue the children. That had to be it. Why else would she block him out?’
“She is gone,” Zaureth confirmed, meeting Rykaur’s gaze. “Amy informed me that she left Mary resting. Upon investigation, she found the bed still made and Mary nowhere to be found.”
Rykaur sped up, slicing through the water at a high rate of speed. “Mary?” he tried again. “Do not go to the surface. You have to trust me. Jefferies will be expecting you to show. He knows you will do anything for those children.”
He encountered that infuriating humming once more.
The group arrived near the shoreline twenty minutes later. They kept their heads down to prevent from being spotted.
Rykaur’s protective lenses slid back as he eased closer to the beach.
“What are you doing?” Gryke growled, popping up beside him.
Rykaur ignored his irritated tone. “I am looking for Mary. I have a feeling she returned to shore the moment we left her in the catacombs.”
Gryke pushed his wet hair back from his face. “She knows the plan. Why would she do something so foolish?”
“She thinks that Jefferies planned this entire scenario as a test to see if she truly poisoned us or if we would pop up on the third day, just as we have. She also thinks that he will dispose of the children tonight, and that he has spies watching the shoreline as well as the entrance.”
Gryke blew out a breath. “She knows him better than we do, Rykaur. What if she is right?”
“My gut tells me that Jefferies expects Mary to come back on the third day, whether she poisoned us or not. He will wait for her to return home and question her before he makes a move. And he knows she will return. The children assure him of that.”
Gryke didn’t push further. “Then, we wait.”
Rykaur shut out everything around him and attempted to reach Mary several more times. But every time he thought he was close, she would begin with that irritating humming noise. “I am going ashore.”
Braum gripped him by the arm. “Use your head, Rykaur. You cannot go running in there now. You will get her killed.”
“I was in that camp for months,” Rykaur ground out, snatching free of Braum’s hold. “A perfect target for Jefferies had he been brave enough to show.”
Zaureth moved around to stand in Rykaur’s path. “One Bracadyte would not have been worth the risk of getting caught to Jefferies. But if he thinks that we are on to him, he will not hesitate to open fire on us and every innocent human in his path. Including Mary and the children.”
Rykaur knew Zaureth spoke the truth. They all did. He met the healer’s concerned gaze, swallowing around the lump in his throat. “He will kill my Mary.”
“There is a chance she will die,” Zaureth agreed, holding Rykaur’s intense gaze. “But if we do this right and keep our heads about us, we could prevent that from happening.”
“Why did she do this?” Rykaur ran a hand down his face and glanced at the lights of the shoreline. “She does not trust me to know what is best.”
Zaureth reached up and laid a palm on Rykaur’s shoulder. “Love will cause us to take risks and do things we would not normally do. And she loves those children more than she loves herself.”
“I know she does,” Rykaur softly admitted. “I only wish that she could love me a modicum of that much.”
A furrow appeared between the healer’s eyes. “Are you certain she does not?”
“I am.”
Zaureth let his hand fall away. “I would not be so sure about that. Her emotions were easy enough to read.”
“Trust me, Zaureth. She holds no love in her heart for me.”
Gryke blew out an impatient breath. “She is a female, Rykaur. You will never understand females. Not even when you mate with one.”
Rykaur would have laughed if his heart didn’t hurt so much. He lowered himself up to his neck in the water and prepared to wait. “Mary…”