Page 208 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

“I can’t find Adam. I think he ran away.”

“Have you looked in the kitchen?” she asked.

“Yes, and the living room, Cade’s room, Hugh’s room. He’s not anywhere, Violet.”

“Okay. Don’t panic. He’s a little boy. He can’t have gone far. Where are you right now?”

“Looking room to room on the alpha floor. Hugh’s looking in the bottom two.”

“Okay. We’ll head toward the front door and see if we can smell him around any of the paths and follow his scent.”

“Oh. Good idea. I’ll go to the back door.”

“We’ll find him, Bells.”

I ran downstairs when I didn’t find him on the alpha floor. There were footprints in the slush leading away from the back door, but they weren’t Adam’s. The footprints were too big. Still, instinct told me they shouldn’t be there. Violet was with Chrisso these weren’t hers, as there wasn’t a second set of footprints. They looked too small to be Hughs, and the most concerning thing was that they were fresh, and I couldn’t smell who they might belong to.

I shot off a text to Violet as I entered the woods so she knew where I was looking. The tracks were harder to follow here but I didn’t care, because I passed by a tree and caught the scent of Adam lingering on the bark. My knee gave in and I dropped to the ground, when I heard Adam cry out in pain somewhere ahead of me. I scrambled up and ran. Fear gripped me when I saw Cade’s hat lying on the ground. I picked it up as I ran, knowing Adam would never willingly leave it behind.

I made it into a clearing and skidded to a stop, the sight before me both terrifying and infuriating.

“What the hell are you doing with my child, Martha,” I growled.

My ex-mother-in-law was standing on the other end of the clearing. The area was oddly missing snow. Instead, the cold dark ground was covered with strange rocks, in a pattern I could not discern this close to it, except to say it was somewhat circular. Ever so often, the pattern of regular rocks was disrupted with black ones with a carved rune on its surface. I couldn’t recognize what they could be.

“Waiting for you, Rose.”

“Why? I thought you left weeks ago.”

“I was at a hotel nearby, biding my time. I needed you to put your guard down.”

“For what? What the fuck is this, Martha?” I growled, though by this setup, I was guessing she was the blood magic user Uncle Helios warned me about.

Which meant I needed to get Adam away from her and fast. The problem was the ceremonial-looking knife she was holding to my little boy’s throat right now.

“This? Didn’t Brandon tell you anything, silly girl?”

“Brandon never told me shit!”

“I meant before you killed him that night?” Martha hissed and every word died on my lips. She knew. She knew all this time and she didn’t say anything. Against all attempts to stay in the present, my mind went back to that night.

“Brandon! There you are.” I ran into my luna office, wondering why he was in there, but we had bigger things to worry about. “Rogues are attacking! There are so many of them. They breached the eastern borders. Everyone’s looking for you, but you blocked off your mind-link. We need to help our warriors. They’re getting overwhelmed.” I grabbed his arm to drag him with me, but he broke my grip, making me stumble a step as I regained my balance.

“No. We don’t,” Brandon growled.

“What do you mean? We’re getting slaughtered. There’s too many!” How many times did I not suggest we kick up the training in the last year?

“They’re here for you, Bells.” Brandon leaned back against the desk. One leg crossed one over the other as if he was unbothered by what was happening.

“What do you mean? How do you know?”

“Because they told me.” His words were like buckets of ice over me.

“They t—me?” I asked weakly.

Brandon nodded.

“Someone wants you dead. The precious wayward pup.” A shiver of fear ran down my spine at the hateful tone he was using.

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