Page 291 of Halfblood Deceived

“Do you know where I can find Hudson?” Zeydan asked Jasmine.

She shook her head. “No. But her address must be in the personnel files. I can get it for you—”

Burning pain cut through Zeydan’s chest like a searing blade. So potent it made him bend over.

Panic clawed at his insides with brutal, tearing force.

But it wasn’t his panic or pain.

It was Aella’s.

He placed his hands on his knees and breathed hard.

He saw red and tasted phantom blood in his mouth.

Celene, please protect her, please; he prayed as his stomach twisted with sickening force. He coughed. His ears rang.

Hands took hold of Zeydan’s arms. He was led out of the suffocating room into a hall, but he could barely see, hear, or even think.

They were hurting Aella.

They were hurting his Aella.

They were hurting his soulmate.

Fuck him for never admitting it before. But that is who she is. His soulmate. And those bastards who took her were tearing her to pieces, and he was useless to help her. Again.

Strong, cool hands cupped his face. “Zeydan. I know it hurts.” That was Kerian’s voice. “I know how much it fucking hurts. But you need to focus. Focus on Aella. Try to find her. Try.”

Zeydan panted and squeezed his eyes shut.

Aella, he mentally called. Aella. Aella. Aella.

Another invisible blow hit his chest, leaving him breathless.

He gritted his teeth, pushing down against the nausea, the ringing in his ears, and the empathic pain threatening to drive him insane.

He searched and searched. Trying to find that bond of energy connecting them, and he found it, but it was feeble… and it led nowhere. Fucking nowhere.

Zeydan opened his eyes, blinking to clear his sight. He found five pairs of worried eyes on him. His back was against a wall. With his peripheral vision, he saw Aroth giving him a somber, knowing look.

Kerian cradled his face with one hand and kept him steady with the other on his shoulder. Kamilla, pale and horrified, had an arm around a teary Diana’s shoulders. The twins were dressed in the casual clothes they wore at home—slacks and shirtsleeves for Kerian, and a simple blue dress for Kamilla. Aroth must have found them having breakfast.

Nurse Jasmine and Aylana were looking at him with the same amount of horror still echoing in his system.

“I can’t find her,” Zeydan forced out. “She’s too far away. How can she be so far away?”

“I don’t know,” Kerian said. “You can’t sense a direction?”

Zeydan shook his head. His breath was sawing through his teeth. “No. It’s—it’s just her pain. I can feel her pain as if it were my own. But I can’t track her.”

“Have you ever drank her blood?” Kamilla asked.

“Just a few drops the night we met,” Zeydan said. “And when I healed her after that fucker almost killed her, but it was mixed with mine, and not since then.” He cursed. The bond was incomplete. If he’d taken Aella’s offer to drink from her the night of the ball…

Fuck.

Fuck!

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