The place is a wreck. Furniture is crushed and broken, the floor is covered with a thick layer of grim, and the chandelier has been shattered, glass everywhere.
Panic consumes me as I hurry further into the house, completely on guard and also on edge.
“Alex?” I call out as I reach the bottom of the stairway. “Blaise? Jax? Hadley?”
When no one answers, I run up the stairs and down the hallway. Halfway down, I find them. Blaise is passed out on the floor with a gash on his forehead., andAlex is sitting beside him, leaning against the wall, with his legs stretched out across the floor.
The scene is enough to cause my anxiety to spike, but the look on Alex’s face is what causes me to plummet into panic, which is something I don’t usually do.
“What happened?” I ask as I reach him.
His hollow gaze shifts to me. “A doom storm came through and flooded the house … We tried to fight them off, but …” He makes this choking sound, like he’s about to cry. “I had Hadley lock herself in her room, but by the time I got up there, she was gone … and Jaxon … I don’t know where he went, either.”
So much panic storms inside me that I feel like I might collapse
Struggling to remain composed, I say, “What do you mean they just disappeared? That’s not how doom storms work.”
“I know,” Alex whispers. “I don’t know what the fuck happened. All I know is that the flood of monsters somehow took them somewhere.”
I rack my brain, trying to process what the hell could be going on. But I feel so lost, and I hate the feeling. I need to fix this. It’s what I do. And my brothers, they can’t go through this again. They can’t lose someone else. It’ll break them.
I start to examine Blaise. “How long has he been out?”
“For about thirty minutes,” Alex replies. “Basically since the flood cleared.”
I sit back on my heels. “Do we have any more of the healer’s blood left?”
Alex doesn’t answer, staring at the wall. “I left her again. I promised I wouldn’t, but I did. But I thought she’d be safe… locked in her room.”
“You did what you had to do,” I tell him. “The storm would’ve found her regardless of where she is.”
When he says nothing, I snap my fingers in front of his face. “I need you to pull yourself together, go see if we have any healer’s blood left so we can get Blaise fixed, and then we’re going to track down Hadley and Jaxon.”
He blinks a few times, then sits up straight. “How the hell do you plan to do that? We don’t even know if they’re even alive.”
“They’re alive,” I assure him. “I can still feel their presence through the sealing spell. It’s faint, but it’s there.”
That snaps him out of his trance. “Fuck, you’re right.”
“Of course I am. I’m always right.” I stand up. “Now go check on the blood. I’m going to go have a chat with the elf downstairs and see if he knows anything about this.”
I take off, heading for the basement. While I do, I try to do something that I’ve only been able to achieve with my brothers a few times: speak telepathically. We can’t always do it. In fact, it’s only worked twice after we managed to summon up enough power, and we had extra power in that moment. Right now, we’re all drained. But I’m going to try anyway.
I focus the best that I can and think of a few words to tell Hadley.
“We’re coming for you,” I push the words through my thoughts. “I swear we are.”
Quietness follows but I swear I detect the faintest: Rhyland? But I’m not sure if I really heard it, and I can’t reach her again. So I quicken my pace, practically sprinting down the stairs and into the basement, which the storm has also torn up. When I reach the cage, though, my hope for answers nosedives at the sight of the elf, lying lifeless on his side, dried blood beneath his nose.
“Fuck.” I press my hand to my forehead, panic trying to consume. I know if I break, it’ll take me over. And I can’t do that. My brothers need me. I’m always the calm in the storm. I’ve had to be since the day we met.
Calm down.
You’ll figure this out.
You have to.
I turn to head upstairs so I can make a plan, but when the elf coughs, I pause and twist back around.
His eyes are open, though it’s pretty clear he’s dying. He’s not there yet, though.
“Tell me what you know about Hadley?” I demand, stopping in front of the cage.
“Can’t … Dying …” it mutters.
“I know you can,” I snap. “Even if you were spelled not to speak, the magic has faded enough with your impending death that you can work around it. So do something good with your final breath and help Hadley.”
The elf coughs up a mouthful of blood, its eyes rolling back into its head as its life slips away.
Right before it does, it breathes out a few final words.
“Her blood will be the cause of the end of the world,” it whispers. “It’ll open a portal that’ll give him all the power and end you all.” Then its eyes slip shut, and it stops moving.
I stand there, stunned at what I just learned, and wondering who the hell this him is that the elf mentioned. Maybe the elf was lying. I really hope he was, but I get the feeling that maybe he wasn’t. And, while I may not have gotten the answer to where Hadley or Jaxon are, I did learn something.
We not only need to find them as fast as we can to save them, but we also need to find Hadley to maybe save the entire fucking world from ending.
Enticing Hadley
(Cursed Hadley, Book 3) will be available May of 2023!