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Gavin stepped back, shaking his head. “I’ll go wake up Billie and Aislin.”

He took off upstairs while I was left with Everett, exposed to a whirlwind of uncomfortable emotions. Anger. Fear. Anxiety. I wanted to take off right now and drive to the spot where I suspected the crash had taken place, looking for Kiara myself. No, it would be a better idea to go straight to the mine and intercept them before they could hide Kiara back in that cave. I wanted to confront my father and yell at him for endangering my fated mate. There were so many things I wanted to do and nothing I could do, at least not yet.

Everett’s phone rang again. He answered, nodding as his eyes remained downcast. “Everyone that was in the SUV is dead, including Sebastian.” Grave concern lowered his voice as he looked back up at me. Everett didn’t reveal much in his expression, ever—but I saw a flicker of grief and pain behind his cutting grey eyes for the sudden, ruthless death of his contact. He swallowed. “They took Kiara.”

I balled my fists, aching to strike something, anything. “Fuck!”

Within minutes, Gavin was charging back down the stairs with a sleepy Aislin and Billie trudging after him. They had barely even fallen asleep before he’d roused them.

“What happened? Is she okay?” Aislin asked, wrapping herself up in the arms of an oversized sweater she borrowed from Everett.

“The Inkscales have taken her,” said Everett. “Sebastian is dead.”

“Oh.” Aislin frowned. Then as the news sunk in, her face wrinkled up in frustration before she shouted, unable to contain her anger. “Those fucking dragons! Sons of bitches! Getting Muriel wasn’t enough; they had to take Kiara too? Augh! What are we supposed to do?”

“We have to rescue Kiara,” said Billie. “They’ll be taking her back to the mine.”

“We can’t go on our own,” said Everett.

“We have to do something!” argued Aislin.

“We have to wait for backup from the Mythguard!” insisted Everett. “If we go to the mine now, we’ll be outnumbered and killed. I know you want to act now; we all do. But we have to be logical about this. They won’t kill Kiara unless she’s in her beast form, and I doubt Kiara is going to give up and transform so quickly. Besides, the full moon isn’t until tomorrow night.”

Everett had a point, but it didn’t relax me at all to think about allowing the dragons to take Kiara and hold her prisoner again.

“You and Billie stay down here and try to get some more sleep on the couch, okay? You need to rest, at least.”

“You really think I’m going to be able to sleep now, knowing what just happened?” Aislin fired back.

“At least try,” said Everett.

Billie gravitated to Aislin’s side. “I don’t know if I can sleep either, but let’s just lay down on the couch and wait, okay? The Mythguard will probably be in contact with us again soon.”

Aislin’s eyes turned to me, clawing at me for solidarity. “What about you? What do you think? The dragons have your fated mate.”

“Obviously, I want to race down to the mine and save her,” I growled. “But Everett’s right. Acting too rashly will get us killed.”

She narrowed her eyes, and I knew she wanted to accuse me of holding the group back, allowing the dragons and my father to do whatever they intended to do to Kiara. I hated that she still didn’t trust me and would sooner assume that I’d let my fated mate be slain. I wanted so badly to protect Kiara. But I wasn’t about to risk everyone’s life for recklessness like Aislin would have done.

“Fine,” she muttered, returning to the couch with Billie.

Everett and Gavin sat at the table again, but I couldn’t bring myself to sit. I paced for long minutes while the two Alphas discussed possible approaches to our newest issue. Restless, I grabbed one of the feather darts off the table and examined it, feeling its weight in my hands. I couldn’t wait until the opportunity arose for me to drive these darts into the dragons’ hides. They had terrorized my home for far too long and went so far as to steal Kiara tonight—it was too much.

Finally, Everett’s phone rang again. “Hello? Yes. …Only four of you? No, I agree, that’s not enough. Are you certain we can wait until morning? Yes, I suppose that would give them enough time to get settled, so we’d know for sure she’s back in the mine. You’re right. Okay. We’ll be awake and waiting.”

Gavin and I looked at him expectantly.

“The Mythguard’s reinforcements are coming tonight instead of tomorrow morning. They should be here around 4 or 5 AM. Some of the operatives that were with the caravan are coming back and will perform reconnaissance around the mine to confirm that’s where they took Kiara. They’re asking that we wait and not make any moves until backup arrives and the reconnaissance report comes in.”

I clenched my jaw. Even if they got here at 4 AM, that was still five hours we would have to wait, holding our breaths while Kiara could potentially be suffering, tortured into transforming by my father and Lothair.

“We have no choice but to wait,” muttered Gavin.

“I know,” I grumbled. “I just hate feeling so helpless.”

Once more, Gavin rose and loomed over me. I was accustomed to his intimidating figure bearing down on me, threatening to hurt me, but this time his body language had tamed into understanding. He met my eyes, reaching out with empathy that I hadn’t expected of him. “We’ll save her. You understand? We’ll avenge Muriel, we’ll take out Lothair, and you can get everything off your chest to David before we take him out too. I promise.”

There was still a part of me that was conflicted about Gavin’s eagerness to kill my father. I’d always love my father, in a small way, but I had to tell myself that the man I loved, who raised me and cared for me, wasn’t the man I wanted him to be. He was evil, and he had to be destroyed… for everyone’s sake.