Page 42 of Immortal Burden

“Yes,” she ground out, folding her arms across her chest.

“Mia—"

“There’s no time for that. Call Ry. He’s not taking my calls, so me reaching out will be useless.”

I fished out my phone and dialed quickly.

It rang for a moment, then abruptly cut off.

I tried repeatedly and experienced the same oddity.

I looked to see Mia’s eyes wide as she took in what was happening. “Cornelius is blocking communications in and out. He’s going to descend on him.” She wrung her hands.

I’d never seen her react emotionally to anything. She’d always put on an impervious front. An extremely uptight front. This was the first time I was seeing beyond that and getting a very good indication that there was much more beneath that well-crafted surface she showed the world.

“The effects of his magic are still impacting me. I can’t track or teleport.” She grasped my hand. “It has to be you. You have the speed and Cornelius respects you, meaning you have a good chance of being able to reason with him.”

“Even through these clearly desperate acts of his ever since he received word of Draco coming?”

She managed to recover herself a little, squaring her shoulders and telling me resolutely, “We need to hold out hope.”

Hope had nothing to do with it.

But there was no time to debate it with her, so I merely asked, “Where do you believe Ryker to be at this moment in time?”

“He’s not on shift today because his slot went to me and he’s obviously not hanging out with you at Polaris, so he’s likely at home. If not right there, he could be walking the surrounding woods or meditating at the Maven Coven. The latter he ventures out to when he’s in distress.”

“All right.”

“Be careful, Lucian. Not just regarding Cornelius, but because dawn is near.”

I rapidly calculated the fastest path from here in order to hit all locations as swiftly and as efficiently as possible.

And then I gave her a chin lift and sped away.

12

~Ryker~

Enthralling. Irresistible. Dominant.

“Son of a bitch!” I bellowed, my frustration reverberating through the dense oak forest extending for acres all around me.

Opening my eyes, I pulled my upturned palms from their resting position on my crossed legs upon the grass and snuffed out the green glow of my magic.

It had been just shy of two hours and I’d gotten absolutely nowhere with my Ruminat.

It was a form of meditation specifically designed to be practiced by magic-wielders. Its intent was to assist in times of stress and emotional upheaval, to facilitate the magic-wielder with restoring clarity of mind and regaining absolute control. Both were vital to performing magic safely and effectively.

After the recent mindfuck of events that had come at me, it had seemed more than a little necessary.

Yet, I’d failed to clear my head long enough to even start the cleansing process.

My mind was in a whirl, driven by an intensity on multiple fronts that just wouldn’t seem to settle.

I was still dealing with fallout from the revelation that Mia turning from me had been driven by something other than her waning love for me like she’d claimed. Something much more, big picture shit. The fact that she hadn’t confided in me and had gone completely the other way instead, burned down deep, just as much as her shattering the love between us. For decades, I’d been the only one she’d entrusted with her secret. I’d never faltered in safeguarding it and, honestly, it had been one hell of a burden to bear. Yet I’d been beyond strong enough to do so. Somehow, she hadn’t trusted me with the rest, though? Where had she lost faith in me? When?

Part of me regretted kicking her out of my home without pushing for the truth, of finding out every detail about what was really going on in regard to Draco and what it had to do with her breaking things off with me, Lucian’s involvement, all of it. But the other, more rational part knew that she’d never give it up no matter how much I pushed it, unless she truly wanted to.

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