Chapter Two
“How did they get beyond the Mystic shields?”
Charlotte wasn’t sure who had asked the question, the room buzzed with overlapping conversations. She clung to Tal’s side, unable to stop shaking. Disbelief had given way to terror about ten minutes ago. Tal’s reassuring words and tender hugs couldn’t change reality. Someone had kidnapped their daughters.
“Why were E’Lanna and Echo in the meadow?” Tal directed the question to Lor, who was attempting to organize the information. Zane stood beside him, a newly applied bandage encircling his head. The younger men exchanged guilty looks and tension rippled through Tal’s body. “Neither of you saw anything?”
“They were like ghosts. I was thrown around for a minute, and then something slammed into the side of my head,” Zane told him.
“They struck incredibly fast,” Lor agreed, disbelief evident in his expression as well as his tone. “I wasn’t able to get off more than a spark. It was almost as if they were waiting for us.”
“How could they have known where to wait?” Charlotte snapped. The need to lash out was nearly overwhelming, but hysterics wouldn’t bring the twins back. They needed information. This was not the work of ghosts. Someone had to have seen something.
“This was no random act,” Lor persisted.
Trey moved up beside Tal, his gaze nearly as worried as his brother’s. “None of the perimeter guards saw anything. Have you been contacted yet?”
Tal shook his head. “Just the faint transmission from E’Lanna, but she has no idea where they’re being held.”
“We’re either dealing with a new kind of shield suit or a group of rogue Mystics.” Trey turned to the younger men. “Would either of you care to venture a guess?”
“I have no idea how they got in, but they teleported out,” Lor explained. “They were manipulating some kind of magic.”
“Who would want the twins? Why?” The queen in Charlotte knew they were useless questions, but the mother in her had to ask.
“I can only think of one group brazen enough to attempt this, but they haven’t been active in so many cycles we’d begun to think they’d disbanded.” Trey glanced away from her as the implication sank in.
She licked her lips and pressed her hand to her throat. “Shadow Assassins prey on the weak and unprotected. They only ‘hunt’ in remote settlements. They’re cowards who…”
“Appear and disappear like ghosts.” Trey put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We have to consider every possibility.”
Tal cupped the side of her face and raised her gaze to his. “I’ll convene a Seeker Circle. We will trace E’Lanna’s signal back to the source. I don’t care who took them, my love. We will get our daughters back.”
Royal Obsession (Shadow Assassins 1) Page 3