"Que diable se passe-t-il?" I said. A husky familiar laugh had me spinning around. "Kona? What are you doing here?""You know, I can actually understand your other language in here? How weird is that? And to answer you: what the hell is going on? I'm apparently here to heal you. This is what has happened every time I went to touch someone before I ascended. I would get sucked into their spirit landscape to heal them."She spun around like she was taking in the view. I'm not quite sure what she saw, but I saw my old Resting ground at the cemetery. Sebastian's wife's grave was the only one there. Marie Consuela Moreau, beloved wife, from now until eternity.Just like they always had, the words ripped at my insides. The old hurt a numb and perennial friend. Sebastian had never lied to me, had never led me astray. But he also had not returned my love. His heart had been given in full to his human wife. A statue of stone could not rival that, not even with the gift of the

"Then find her trail, Junior," I leaned down and snarled into Xander's tiger's face. "Don't yell at him, Saint. He can't help. She pushed him out of there, remember?" Xander said as he ran his hand through his tiger's fur."Do you feel that, mes amis?" Mason interrupted. He put a finger to his lips as if silence could help us feel something better.We all shut up. We had no other firm direction to follow. Mason's head tipped to the side. Shook his head. Squeezed his eyes tightly shut. "Join hands. Our Kona is calling," he shouted as he reached for the person nearest him. We all linked hands. I, for one, prayed. Like I've never prayed before. Eternity passed with no answer. No glimmer of hope. Hellion popped into the lobby, arms full of a bloodied and broken Kiema. "She's been attacked on the spirit plane. Give her your magic or she will die," he said right before he vanished again. Nononononononononono, it spun on a loop inside my head. Ransom had to p

"As much as I love that idea, Ki-Ki, I would like to give you a hug." Asher walked over, picked me up in his arms, squeezed me tight. Setting me back on my feet, he stepped back. "And get some fucking sleep. Between training today and getting magic sucked out of my body, I'm pooped. I don't even want to think about how Xan and Cherrypie are feeling." He shook his head. I stopped him as he tried to move past me. "Why would Xander and Scarlet be feeling any crappier than usual?" I turned back to the two in question. Xander did look like he'd been on a bender for at least a week. His dark brown eyes were sunken. The bags under his eyes looked like he was hosting a sleepover in them. The laugh lines around his mouth made him look haggard instead of happy. Scarlet was faring a little better, but I could still see that she'd been zapped by what happened. Her white hair, usually so shiny and white, looked more dull and gray than anything else. Her bottle green eyes were muddy and tir

The next dayNow that the time had come to implement my plan, I was terrified. Of my mate. She was going to go batshit crazy. Oh well. She'd do the same exact thing if she'd thought of it first. I nodded to Ransom. He leaned over, kissed Kiema awake. "Ransom?" she asked, her voice sleepy and relaxed. "Yeah, angel. It's your favorite mate." He shot me a grin as Kiema snickered.I rolled my eyes. "That's what I tell all of you," she said. I pumped my fist into the air. Suck on that, Ransom.He flipped me off behind her back. "I need you to wake up, angel. We've got a plan we want to run by you."She popped up as if she was spring-loaded. "Hit me."Saint laughed, gave her a mug of coffee. "We're still not hitting you, but we'll tell you the plan anyway."She nodded, took her first timid sip. "We're going to send out the word that we're ready to dance, metaphorically. Once Heppni gets word, you're going to dash in, bitchslap your mother back to the

I forced Kiema behind me as Atlas fell to his knees. A look of pure rage covered his features. I parried the blow that Heppni shot, letting my sword absorb the magic. I shot her a fierce smile as her howl of rage rent the air. "Back to back, just like we've been training," Taryk said. His back bumped into mine as the twins took up their positions on either side of us to form a weapon-wielding cross. The boys had guns that Kord had managed to fill with magic powder. I had my sword.We slayed a swath through the Directs who had allied with Heppni. The head woman herself was staying near the back, biding her time. A true coward.The goddess who had taunted Kiema lay directly in my path. "Lock arms, we're going invisible," I said to my men through the mental link Kiema had set up. "We're going to destroy this bitch.""Get down wit' cha bad self, Cherrypie," Asher called. "Just make sure you leave some for us. We're the men you know."I chuckled as I drew my invisibility power ov