Bri held hers, more pieces of the puzzle falling like boulders into place.
“It’s funny,” she continued, watching Bri closely. “Jonah, the all-knowing and powerful Commander hadn’t known his youngest Warrior was in the room with them. It wasn’t planned, I just happened to be there. I cloaked my presence when I heard them coming in, but he should have known. They both should have.”
“I had a sister?” Bri whispered the question, her heart breaking.
“Have,” Celeste corrected.
Bri blinked, and her heart lurched back into action, the truth about to slap her in the face.
“One day after she left, Byron told me about Rowan’s past. She’d confided in him, and he wanted me to understand why she’d made the choice to leave.” Celeste sighed. “I was angry at her.”
“What did he tell you?” Bri asked.
“That Rowan had a child about three hundred and fifty-two years ago. And Jonah had forced her to give the child up when she was only a few days old. He’d taken the child to a remote village in the northeast and never told Rowan where her daughter was.”
“She was your mother, too.” Bri’s entire body buzzed, and a strange ringing shot from her ears to her temples on a sharp clang.
Celeste was her sister.
The brilliant green of the trees nearly blinded her. The intensity of the sun burned her eyes. She blinked, trying to focus.
“I’ve never told anyone what I just told you.” Celeste crossed her arms over her chest, her back ramrod straight. The breeze tossed the few strands of dark hair that had escaped her braid. Clad in leather, knives strapped to her thighs and forearms, she appeared every inch the Warrior, except for the raw anguish gleaming in her sea-blue eyes.
Bri’s heart broke for the lonely life she’d lived. Hundreds of years isolated by the truth. “Celeste.”
“Don’t feel sorry for me.” Her anger flashed quickly, covering pain. “Rowan gave me up when I was a baby. She may have given birth to me, but she was not my mother.”
Bri took a step back at the force of her emotion.
“The only reason I’m telling you this now is because Rowan has come to both of us in our dreams. She’s trying to tap into our power, and we need every piece of available information to fight her. Jonah keeps secrets. We all do. I’ve made my peace with it.”
Bri wasn’t sure she believed that, but right now her focus was on the fact that she had a sister. “You knew this whole time, and you didn’t come to see me?”
Celeste shrugged. “He kept you separate from the Quytel and your power when he adopted you, and I can’t say I blame him.”
About to protest, Bri suddenly felt tired, so tired she could barely move, barely lift her arms. She tried to ask Celeste what was happening, but couldn’t make a sound.
Her head too heavy, she closed her eyes as the forest and sky slid into darkness.
The oblivion of unconsciousness consumed her.
Chapter 24
Something wasn’t right. Cole blinked and gripped the railing, staring at the spot where Bri and Celeste stood. The way the afternoon light played through the trees and leaves made it hard to see them clearly. Tension pricked the surface of his skin as his hackles rose.
The screen door banged shut behind him, and Cole spun to see Darius crossing the porch in long, angry strides.
His heart spiked, as he wordlessly questioned the despair on Darius’s face.
The Warrior stopped in front of him. “We lost Celeste.”
“What the hell does that mean?” he demanded.
“We lost the Quytel bond linking her to the rest of us, to Jonah. It’s gone,” Darius bit out. His dark, nearly black eyes were penetrating. “It means she’s dead or has been captured by someone powerful enough to block the bond.”
Cole whirled and scanned the tree line where Bri and Celeste had been standing only moments ago. They’d disappeared. Deep in his core, the pearl stirred, coming to life with a driving need. It held the wolf in its merciless grip and squeezed until Cole felt the lone howl of separation reverberating in his soul. He ran an agitated hand through his hair, disturbed at how much it shook.
“This is incredibly powerful magic. Stay here,” Darius ordered as he leapt off the deck and ran for the tree line. “I don’t need another one of you going missing.”
The Warrior didn’t know him at all if he thought Cole would stay put. Shedding his clothes, he embraced the shift. His bones popped and contorted, fur burst through skin. A second later, he landed on all fours and took off at a dead run for the place where Bri had been standing. All keen senses alert, he caught the faint scent of jasmine and lavender hanging in the air, mingling with Celeste’s more spicy tone.
Dense trees lined the meadow, the darkened interior of the forest uninviting. He stopped where the subtle indentation of female footprints ended. The women had been right there.
Cole called on the earth for information. No answer came to him, no trail. They had disappeared into thin air.
The wolf snarled and growled, pawing the ground, sniffing, searching for any clue leading away from that spot. Nothing. Bri and Celeste had been there one moment and then gone, as if someone had airlifted them without a trace. Cole had never felt his other half so out of control, and in the body of the wolf, it was much more difficult to find reason.
Confused and chaotic, the wolf searched. A part of him wanted to embrace the animal’s wild grief and destroy the threat. But his human mind was more logical. They didn’t have a target. No place to start.
Cole gulped a lung-expanding breath, and then another. Infusing human thought into his wolf-mind, he called on the deep grounding force of the earth for information and strength. Paws became hands and feet, and his muzzle morphed into his human face in one smooth motion.
Darius had run up behind him and now tossed him his clothes. “Thought you might want these.”
Cole grabbed the tight bundle out of the air. “There’s no trace that I can detect. They simply disappeared,” he growled as he yanked on his clothes.
Nodding, Darius strode to the exact spot where the women had been. Eyes closed, arms slightly raised from his body, the Warrior looked deceptively peaceful as he turned, coming full circle. It was clear he’d connected with some other power beyond his physical body.
Darius stopped and opened his eyes. “They’re gone.” He rested his hand on Cole’s shoulder.
“Gone, but not dead.” His stomach churned as the pearl pulsed sympathetically in his sternum.
Darius shook his head. “Not his style.”
“Anton?” Cole’s voice rang harshly in his own ears.
“He’s the one.”
Cole muttered a few choice curses. This guy was going down. He didn’t care about the extent of the man’s powers or his end game.
“Anton was among the greatest mages, the one with the most promise. A legend,” Darius cautioned, probably reading his intention in his body language.
“Good magician gone bad.” Cole didn’t bother hiding his frustration. He had no choice but to find Bri, with or without the help of the Quytel.
“Something like that.” Darius rubbed his eyes with a thumb and forefinger. “Some mages have longevity as we do, but it isn’t common, and those who do are extremely powerful, either to the good or to the evil. Jonah nearly destroyed Anton centuries ago. We all thought he had succeeded.”
“We need a damn plan to find them.” Cole jogged toward the house. The moment had narrowed to a pinpoint of grief, sorrow so deep he couldn’t touch it.
He would get Bri back, or die trying.
“And you think that gives you the right to do whatever you want?” His sister’s outraged question drilled Cole’s eardrums as he and Darius reentered the house, following the argument to t
he living room. The tension in her voice jangled Cole’s nerves.
“Sure.” Ash’s cocky response ramped up Cole’s temper. The man was a playboy menace, currently standing way too close to Maliha.
Cole stepped into the room. “You okay, Mali?”
She spun in a swirl of midnight-silver hair that framed her muscular body, clad—as usual—in solid black. Her irritated expression changed immediately to concern, and she rushed to his side. “I just heard.”
“We’re waiting for Jonah to return,” Byron added. “He’ll be here shortly.”
The pearl beat wildly out of sync with the rhythm of Cole’s body, his heart thudding erratically on the offbeat. The wolf prowled below the surface of his skin. He had never felt such a terrible driving need. As his rage pounded, he reached for his connection to the earth, seeking solace in the heavy soil.
Maliha watched him closely, her eyes filled with concern. Nathanial appeared by his side and laid a steadying hand on Cole’s shoulder.
“Anything?” Byron asked Darius.
The Warrior shook his head. “I could find no trace of them.”
“Neither could I.” Cole forced the admission through gritted teeth.
“Jonah is almost here,” Byron reassured, then frowned when he saw Cole. “Are you okay?”
Cole made an effort to stand without flinching. “Fine.”
“We have no idea where they are.” Ash stated the obvious.
“We found Bri once. I can do it again.” But Cole would go it alone this time. He didn’t want Mali anywhere near such danger; couldn’t risk losing her, too.
Maybe something he and Ash could finally agree on.
A moment later Jonah’s ice-cold presence swept into the room, an arctic wind howling in off a glacier. “Just how do you plan on accomplishing that, Mr. Courtland?” he ground out, taking in every detail of their somber group.
“The compulsion.” Cole stared him down. As far as he was concerned, her safety and wellbeing were no longer Jonah’s responsibility. “When I first experienced the vision, the woman—Bri’s mother—planted some kind of mystical homing device in me. A way to find her. I tracked her the first time without knowing her at all. I can find her again.”
“Rowan told Celeste she had to be destroyed. That she was the ‘death and destruction we seek,’ I believe were her exact words.” Jonah prowled to the other side of the expansive living room, pulling power to him with every stride. He wasn’t as tall as the other Warriors, but his presence commanded them all.
For a heartbeat of time no one seemed to even breathe.
“Can she be saved?” Cole blurted, sending his grief and rage deep into the protective haven of the earth, holding on by a thread.
A shadow dulled the piercing blue of Jonah’s eyes as they settled on him. “If there is even a small possibility, we will try.”
“And Anton?” Darius asked. “I felt a spark of his energy in the field.”
“Feel free to kill him if you have the chance.” Jonah pressed his lips into a thin line. “Anton contacted me several days ago with a cryptic message about guarding my children. Mack and I have been searching for him since.”
“Children?” Byron echoed, a frown creasing his brow.
The Commander waved his hand dismissively at the question. “He’s launched an all-out attack on the Quytel and is using Bri and Celeste as bait.”
“And Rowan?” Cole’s hands fisted at the possibilities. “What’s her role in all of this?”
“I can’t believe Rowan would have willingly caused so much destruction and chaos. At least, I harbor that hope,” Jonah admitted. For a few seconds, sadness made him look almost human, before hard stoicism replaced the emotion. “Mack has narrowed down a region outside of Seattle where he believes Rowan is. It’s probable Anton would take Bri and Celeste there. He wants their combined powers.”
Cole suddenly doubled over, pain searing his gut. He clutched his stomach as the pearl roared, a breathing monster inside of him, demanding action. His spirit, connected to Bri’s, jolted.
She’d regained consciousness. She was alive . . . and so was his internal tracking system.
“Cole?” Maliha was beside him instantly, worry stamped on her face.
He sucked in a fortifying breath and pushed the pain aside, then straightened and met Jonah’s hard stare. “I don’t think they counted on me.”
A grim smile touched Jonah’s lips but didn’t reach his eyes. “Let’s go. I have a plane standing by.”
Chapter 25
Bri caught the world swimming around her in flashes, her body somehow in motion, head pounding. Nausea bit at her stomach in reaction to the merciless spinning. She closed her eyes against the bile rising in her throat. Where the hell am I?
The last thing she remembered had been walking with Celeste not far from the farmhouse. Their conversation came crashing back and her eyes popped open. Sister. Celeste was her sister.
She was in the dark, on the floor of a large moving vehicle, a gutted-out van with no windows. Her hands were tied uncomfortably behind her back, a cloth gag pressed across her mouth so tightly she could barely breathe, and a knot forming on her forehead. She couldn’t see much in the dark, but the smell of steel burned her nose.
“She’s awake.” A deep voice came from the passenger’s seat up front. “Do you want me to knock her out again?”
“Keep her quiet,” another man rasped. “We’re almost there.”
Bri tried to sit up, but a firm, hard shove pushed her down. “You can stay conscious, but don’t push it,” the first man warned.
She landed on something, someone, and tried to scramble to the side when she recognized Celeste lying partially under her.
The gag bit at the corners of her mouth. Bri couldn’t utter a word, but a small sound of recognition escaped her throat. Celeste’s eyes flashed to hers and locked on.
She moved in Bri’s mind like a whisper. “They’ll be less restrictive with you. Do what they say, so they don’t pay attention to you.”
Had Celeste just spoken in her mind? “How did you do that?” Hesitantly Bri thought the question at her, shock holding her body still.
“Telepathy is a talent in our family,” she responded. “They have physically restrained me and some of my magic, but they couldn’t get to all of it. And they weren’t able to suppress all of yours either.”
The van sped around a corner, pitching them across the bare interior.
“You ladies okay back there?” The driver chuckled and accelerated around another curve in the road, slamming them sideways inside the vehicle. They landed in a pile on top of each other.
Bri rolled to the center of the van, ignoring the driver’s amusement, and focused on the path to her sister in her mind.
“How am I able to respond to you?” Confused yet excited, she managed to keep her expression carefully closed, as if scared.
“You are your mother’s daughter.”
Despite their situation and who their mother had likely become, Bri was flooded with warmth at the thought. My mother’s daughter.
“They’re taking us to her. Can you sense it?”
Bri’s heart began to pound uncomfortably in her chest with fear, anticipation, and hope. “I don’t feel anything.” What was she supposed to sense? Her jumbled emotions wreaked havoc with her insides. The zip tie they had used to secure her wrists had no give at all when she tried to move, and her hands started going numb.
“That’s probably a good thing.” Celeste’s inner voice echoed, heavy and tinged with sorrow. “If Rowan is behind this and is as powerful as I think she is, there’s a very good chance we will die.”
“That won’t happen,” Bri insisted. “It can’t.”
“You have to be prepared to see he
r. She won’t be the mother you remember. She may not even remember you . . . I’m afraid she may be too far gone for any of us to reach her.”
Even as her heart screamed in protest, Bri knew the woman of her nightmare was dangerous and out to destroy. She’d seen the aftermath of her destruction in the fight for her own sanity, Cole’s life, and the string of latent psychics they’d been investigating.
They pitched forward against the front seats as the van came to an abrupt halt. Landing on top of Celeste, Bri rolled onto her back, trying to see out the front window for some clue about where they were being taken. Any landmark would help.
“We’re here,” the driver announced.
The passenger turned around, wariness showing on his face the moment before Bri felt a brush of power dulling her senses.
The man remained in the shadows, the dangerous gleam in his eyes imprinted on her mind.
“So, you’re a legendary Quytel Warrior,” he sneered at Celeste. “You made it too easy to take you right from under their noses. I’m not impressed.”
He guffawed and smacked the driver on the shoulder. The driver grunted in agreement.
“Don’t underestimate them,” Celeste cautioned. “I may be able to help you get free if they let their guard down. Keep your mind open to me at all times.”
“How does it feel to be weak and, well, human?” the man taunted.
“Just do it,” the driver snapped, suddenly impatient.
The other nodded and raised his hand to signal someone outside. The side door of the van slid open and cold air flooded the interior. Bri shivered. The driver glared at her and raised his hand.
Everything went dark.
Circle of Dreams (The Quytel Series Book 1) Page 25