“You haven’t spoken for two days, babe.” Haven groaned. “I had to call her back.”
Tegan’s eyes widened. “Oh no…I did it again, didn’t I?”
“Yep,” Hunter and I said at the same time.
I pushed up off my knees and sat on the coffee table in front of her. “I would’ve been here hours ago but Deacon only just finally got through to make you open up the portal—”
“I portaled you here?” Tegan’s face paled. She shook her head rapidly and pushed her hair back. “No, no, no. Don’t ever do that again. That is not safe.”
“Thank you.” Jackson threw his hands up and plopped down in the chair beside me.
Tegan glanced around the room and frowned. “Where is everyone?”
“Demon hunting or sleeping.” Devon stood and strolled over to her daughter. She ran her hands through her hair, or tried to. “On that note, the rest of us need to sleep. Bettina, it’s your shift to make sure these two eat, shower, and brush their hair. Okay?”
“Mom.”
I smiled and nodded. “I’ve got years of practice with both of them. I got this.”
It took a few minutes for everyone to say goodnight and go upstairs, but once they had it was just the four of us. Jackson was leaning back in the chair just shaking his head but I could tell his thoughts were running a mile a minute. Haven was pacing the foyer and tugging on his hair. My legs bounced and my fingers twitched. Yet Tegan was the picture of calm.
“Babe?” Tegan smiled and patted the couch beside her. “Come here.”
He was beside her in the flash of a second.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry I scared you. Again. That time was at least not intentional. And I’m okay now.”
He hung his head and rolled his neck.
“Okay. Why don’t you two tell us everything we’ve missed because I know it’s a lot.”
“Yeah, what Jackson said.” I leaned forward and put my elbows on my knees. “Everything.”
Haven took a deep breath, then looked up and grimaced. He jumped back to his feet and paced in front of the fireplace while he told us everything that happened since Christmas. Saffie’s sudden arrival in Manhattan, the attack on SOMA, and then their tracking Saffie to the Arctic Circle…and then a whole lot of demons and waiting since. When he finally finished, I wasn’t sure where to start.
But Tegan cursed and twirled the rings on her fingers. “I’m just missing something. That’s how I got...locked away in my head. There’s some important detail that I’m not seeing that’s integral to getting her back. I just keep going through every page of every book in my head trying to find it or trigger it. But I haven’t found it yet.”
I moved to sit beside her, then squeezed her hand. “We’ll find it.”
“I’m sorry, humor a bloke for a bloody second.” Jackson sighed and scrubbed his face. “Let me see if I bloody followed this right.”
I grinned and leaned against Tegan’s shoulder. “I love when he gets all British on me. Being in London all this time has done wonderful things for us.”
Haven spun and pointed at me with his eyebrows raised. “Gross.”
Tegan snorted and tried to stop herself from laughing. “Babe, c’mon…you’re hardly one to—”
“No, no.” He shook his head. “Nope. I just got my memories back, okay? This shit is still fresh. Okay? She’s still four years old in my brain. We’re in the grace period, remember?”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Oh, my dearest brother.” He could act like that all he wanted, it just made me so happy. It felt like we were little kids again.
“OI,” Jackson shouted.
All three of us turned back to him.
“Buggery bollocks.” He threw his hands out to his sides. “Can we bloody focus for a moment, lads? We went on holiday and no one tells us a thing? Rubbish.”
Tegan snorted and leaned into me and whispered. “He really did get more British, didn’t he?”
I bit my lip and nodded. My soulmate had moved to the States when he was six, so he’d basically become an American with a pretty accent…but being in England had rejuvenated that side of him. I was not complaining.
Haven sighed and sat on the edge of the couch. “I want a holiday.”
Jackson blinked, then turned to Tegan. “So the tracking jewelry that you had Keltie give to Saffie Christmas Eve…it didn’t work?”
“It did.”
Jackson shook his head. “I’m not following.”
“I felt its power weaken late on Christmas Eve, that’s when we assume she was taken into the Seelie Realm. And then Savannah in Salem, Saffie’s new friend, called Cooper and confirmed she was missing. Keltie was there to confirm Riah had taken her.” She rubbed her thumb over the wave ring on her finger, the one that would signal her of Saffie’s location. “Then near midnight on New Year’s Eve I felt it return. Tenn and I portaled to the location as quickly as we could but we had just missed her—”
“Meanwhile, Emersyn had annihilated some Knights with her Jedi fire swords.” I grinned as I remembered Tegan telling me that part a week ago when it happened. “I’m still jealous I didn’t get to see her in action. That twin of yours is fierce.”
Tegan smiled. “Dude. I can’t wait until something else attacks us and I can properly unleash her.”
Jackson turned to Haven but pointed to Tegan. “Are you not concerned about that?”
“Twenty-four-seven, yes.”
“Now who’s distracted?” I winked at my soulmate. But then I sobered and looked to Tegan. “Though I am also unclear of what happened between New Year’s Eve and now? You saw her once, right? Where? When? Why don’t we have her yet?”
She looked to my brother and my stomach turned. I knew they’d just explained this but it was a little difficult to follow from my brother’s anxiety riddled explanation. And I wanted to make sure I heard it all right so I could try and help Tegan figure out how to save Saffie.
“What?” I said softly. “What am I missing?”
Haven shook his head. “Time does not work the same in the Seelie Realm. We learned that the hard way ourselves.”
A cold chill slid down my spine. I didn’t like that bit of information one bit. “Tegan?”
She sighed. “It stands to reason that even though it’s been days for us, it could only be mere minutes for Saffie. Or years. When I felt her re-enter our realm, through the jewelry, I was waiting for it that time. We were there in a split second. And yes, we saw her. Emersyn described Saffie’s outfit when she saw her…and that’s exactly how she looked for us. We have no idea how much time is passing for her or if she was dragged farther into Seelie. But I do know, for a fact, that she has not re-entered —”
She gasped and threw open a portal and then dragged us through it with her.
Bright light shined down on us.
Jackson jumped. “Where the bloody hell are we?”
“Babe, tell me you felt her,” Haven’s voice was low.
“Yes.” Tegan frowned and walked forward a few steps, then spun in a slow circle. “I felt her.”