Page 63 of Fallen Heirs

Fortunately, I’d seen the possibility coming the moment my dad had shown up and witnessed the insanity that had taken place.

So I’d hidden the mark that one of the sorcerers had left on my chest, a mark that had fortunately healed and disappeared on its own within a couple of hours anyway.

There was no way I could explain that to him.

That sorcerer had taken a sliver of my magic and teleported it to Constantine. It had happened when Talon and I had rushed into the main building to evacuate the beings still stuck inside, or too hurt to make their own way out. Fortunately, as Talon had been focusing on calming the fire, I’d managed to fight off the sorcerer, but not without him managing to steal my magic first.

If I’d told my dad about it, the hunting I’d been doing with Alena would have come up, the fact that we’d tracked some ofConstantine’s acolytes. And he would have locked me down so fast.

I couldn’t risk it.

Not with the way things currently were.

I couldn’t fucking believe it, but it had happened again—Alena had been attacked and taken.

Fuck, at least thetakenpart had been by Orpheus this time.

The way she’d disappeared from view like that pointed toward an illusion being perpetrated. He’d obviously removed her from the dicey situation.

That situation being that she’d outed her ability to destroy dark magic.

Word had already spread across the supernatural world within the last few hours. And it wasn’t going over well at all.Exemplarwas on edge, expecting Saryan Hart himself to show up throwing threats and demands all over the place.

Not just him either.

The Dragon Empire was full of beings wielding dark magic also.

Then there were the many magic-wielders in the human realm here who were dark magical beings, many belonging to covens, who were gathering in protest and slated to head to the compound and raise all kinds of hell.

What I didn’t understand about Orpheus spiriting her away was why he hadn’t yet reached out to let me and Talon know where he’d taken her, or what his longer term plan was to safeguard her now the truth was out there about her. What was he playing at?

As if that wasn’t bad enough, during the debriefing, my dad had popped in to make sure I was doing okay, and it had come up that Orpheushadn’tbeen in the DFR when the attack had happened. In fact, my dad had no idea where he was.Apparently, Orpheus had even disabled the tracker in his IC Watch. It seemed like he’d gone off the grid.

Without tellingus?

How could he do that?

And why?

That also begged the question as to how he’d known to swoop on in and remove Alena from that volatile situation.

I looked up from the bench I was sitting on in the courtyard of the compound as Talon finally emerged after finishing his debriefing.

“Fucking finally,” he muttered as he walked to me, looking exhausted, that tight black and orange tank of his shredded across the torso, his clothes covered in soot and his hair and skin too.

He shoved his hand over his head and more soot was dispelled.

“That was a magically-induced fire caused by those sorcerers,” I told him. “More devastating and with the ability to spread faster too. If it hadn’t been for your efforts, the whole building would have been destroyed. You saved it, firebird.”

“It was a team effort. You saved a load of students. A couple of faculty members too.”

“It’s a shame it was all a distraction so Constantine could take some of my magic.”

“Not just that. The way those sorcerers of his went at Alena, it’s like they wanted her to unleash her ability to destroy dark magic like that.”

“I know,” I murmured. I’d thought the exact same thing when we’d rushed down and taken in the scene out there.

“Shit, any word from Ore yet? I didn’t get anything from him while I was in there with thoseExemplarmembers breathing down my neck.”

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