Page 116 of Untamed

Fuck.

“I was just telling Mikhail about what you found in California. One more minute. Can you tell him the rest?”

His grip tightens slightly as if to warn me. Mikhail Romanov stares at me, his gaze unyielding. “I heard you had some blowback. Tell me what happened. I have friends in California.”

I look for Ember but don’t see her.

“I will,” I say with a nod. “I need to talk with Ember first.”

“Rodion—”

I shrug out of Rafail’s grip and head for Ember.

“I’ll be right back.”

But I can’t find her. Anywhere.

The Romanov estate is an enigma, rooms upon rooms, and everywhere I go, I find more people, more uniformed staff, clinking glasses, and small talk. Everyone… but her.

I barely stifle the need to scream her name, to raze this fucking party to the ground to find her.

I should’ve stayed right next to her.

Logically, I know I shouldn’t fear the worst. The Romanovs have a legion of guards and protective measures, but tonight… tonight, there are so many people.

Where is she?

I weave through the crowd, my pulse hammering. The air in here feels suffocating, and my patience is at an all-time low.Where the fuck are you, Ember?

That’s when I see it, the faint shimmer of white turning around a corner at the far end of a corridor.

Her dress.

I move fast, my steps silent against the marble, but when I turn the corner? Nothing.

Just another empty hall.

“Ember?” No response.

I find Polina and Zoya chatting in a library. “Hey,” I say, trying to keep myself calm when I run my fingers through my hair. “Have you two seen Ember? I can’t find her anywhere.”

“She was outside?” Polina says. “I told her we had open access to the garden…”

My heart races. It doesn’t matter if she went outside because the Romanovs have this place locked down tighter than the Kremlin.

But still… still…

I head to the garden when I hear a scream.

I turn the corner, my pulse racing and gun in hand, when I see—I come to a halt.

It isn’t Ember but a woman I’ve never met before, her cheeks flushed. “You shouldn’t sneak up on me like that!” she chides a young man who’s laughing his ass off.

I turn away before they see me.

Not Ember.

I tear through the frigid gardens, looking for a clue. She couldn’t just disappear…

---