Page 5 of Fae King's Forbidden Love

I stared dubiously at the palace enchantress, rising from behind my desk, hands splayed open over the surface with so much force, my knuckles turned white. Cirilla was supposed to be the best in Goldhaven, but sometimes I wondered about her abilities. “What do you mean, you can’t find her?” I growled.

Cirilla’s violet irises were stoic as ever, but I read the alarm behind them, despite her collected exterior. “You should have looked for her the minute you found out she was missing, not waited a day,” she grumbled. “I told you that when it happened. Now she’s too far out of range for me to find with a locator spell. It’s beyond the scope of my abilities.”

Long, multi-colored braids spilled over her slender shoulders as she, too, leaned forward on the desk, casting the Royal Guards a scathing look. “And shouldn’t they be out looking for her, too? Why are they standing around here, doing nothing?”

“Looking where?” I demanded. “If she’s not in the range of a locator spell, where would they even start? Give me some sense of direction, and I’ll send the entire military out after her!”

I’d already done as much, sending teams scouring through Geldon the day after Elix had failed to return to her brother’s apartment in the city or to the palace. But it was like Cirilla said: it was too late.

There had been no camera captures of her on the street outside the apartment building, Elix either purposely or luckily avoiding any of the security cameras indicating which direction she’d gone. The guards had been scouring other cameras nearby, but so far, they were having as much luck locating her as Cirilla’s locator spell.

Sighing, Cirilla fell back, folding her arms under her full bosom to stare at me warily. “I’m sorry. I don’t have a clue where to start. You waited too long. You know that I only have a short range with a locator spell.”

“What the hell good are you?” I roared, slamming my fists against the tabletop so hard, everyone in earshot jumped. My rage was uncharacteristic, and it surprised me as much as anyone, but this helplessness was unwarranted.

“Jace, you need to calm down,” the enchantress told me quietly. “Losing control isn’t going to help matters in the least right now. I’ll enlist a warlock to do a long-distance locator spell, and we’ll find her, but for now, there’s nothing you can do but wait for her phone call.”

Heavily, I sank back into my leather back chair, eyes darting toward the wall sconces on my left, pain searing through me.

I have no one to blame but myself for this. I was an idiot. How did I not see her leave? Why didn’t I go after her right away?

“She didn’t take her phone,” I muttered numbly.

“She can borrow a phone to call,” Cirilla replied. I raised my head and glowered at her.

“How many phone numbers do you have memorized?” I challenged.

Elix had purposely left the phone behind to avoid speaking with me. She hadn’t wanted to be tempted to call me or Saint. She had planned to leave us behind. “I don’t even know how she managed to go without me and Saint seeing her. How could she have?”

But if I were being honest with myself, I hadn’t been thinking of Elix in those moments when me and Saint sat in the living room of his modest apartment, arguing over who was at fault for what had transpired. I’d been so caught up in the betrayal of it, I hadn’t stopped to think about what our words were doing to my lover, who had been sitting in the other room, listening to every word we spoke.

Cirilla gazed around the office as if she realized for the first time that Elix’s brother wasn’t present. “WhereisSaint?” she asked worriedly.

“He’s out looking for Elix in any place he thinks she might have gone.”

“Now?” Cirilla asked skeptically. “Shouldn’t he have done that yesterday?”

“He did!” I sat forward and exhaled. “He’s doing it again. He can’t just sit around, and neither can we. Find a damn warlock and locate her! Now!”

She eyed me like she was going to snap back, but I checked my tone and added, “Please,” between clenched teeth.

“You know what it means if we enlist a warlock, don’t you?” she asked.

I scowled deeply. “Yes. I know what it means. We’ll give him whatever he wants in trade. I don’t care. Just do it.”

Cirilla nodded once and spun around on her heels, marching toward the door before vanishing in a cloud of crimson smoke.

Using a warlock was always a last resort, their favors always coming at a price. They preyed on desperation, knowing that no one would dare use them unless they were at their wits’ end, and fully took advantage of the situation. I would have to wait and see what the trade-off would be for the long-distance locator spell, but I honestly didn’t care if it meant bringing Elix home.

Llyodiver, the head of the Royal Guards and my personal escort, stepped forward in her absence, his shoulders stiff as he waited for my command. But I wasn’t sure I had one to give him now.

“Check in with Saint,” I ordered, not wanting him to stand around staring at me. “Take your best men and accompany him wherever he needs to go.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

Llyodiver also left, but as soon as he disappeared, I wondered if I shouldn’t go with them. I’d spent the entire previous day knocking down doors and questioning anyone who had the remotest relationship with Elix, still convinced at that point that she just needed some time for herself and that she would come back.

I had been more annoyed than concerned at first when we’d discovered her missing, guilt preventing me from going after her because I’d know that it was my words that had sent her away.

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