“I’ll shift and we can all wrestle,” Reiner hastily added, turning the incipient wails into happy giggles. “Come on, Danny, you too.”
Danny hung back, his brown eyes fixing on Rose. “Is my Da in danger?”
“Da goes into danger every day,” Hayley said firmly, before Rose could find words. “But he always, always comes back to us. You know that.”
Danny nodded, his mouth firming. “Then I’ll be alpha for the little ones until he gets back. Come on, Wenna. I’ll protect you.”
“I dragon,” Morwenna said indignantly. She drew herself up to her full height, which put her about on level with Danny’s elbow. “Protect you.”
Jane smiled, coming forward gracefully. “Well, I’m a dragon too, but not a big, fierce, fire-breathing one. Perhaps you would come and help guard my hoard?”
“Go with your Auntie Jane,” Virginia murmured, sending Morwenna off with a pat on her backside. With a last defiant glance at Danny, the little girl took the turquoise-haired sea dragon’s hand.
Neridia motioned the ever-present guards to close the doors again after the children had left. “Now we may speak plainly. Rose, what has happened?”
Rose had finally managed to stop her teeth from chattering, though she still shook with cold. She looked around at them all. “You can all still feel your mates?”
“I can sense John,” Neridia confirmed. “But I can’t reach him.”
“Dai’s further away than I’ve ever known,” Virginia said. “I can’t tell where he is, but I can feel that he’s furious.”
“So’s Hugh,” Ivy said. She swallowed hard. “And he’s hurt.”
“I think Chase is as well,” Connie said, her face pale beneath her flaming red hair. “He’s barely there. I think he’s unconscious.”
“Griff is knocked out too,” Hayley said. “And he’s…” She took a deep breath, as though needing to steel her nerves to get the words out. “It feels like something’s pulling him apart. As if his lion and eagle have separated and are fighting again.”
“It’s not that,” Rose said, and Hayley’s shoulders slumped with relief. “But he is being pulled apart. They all are. We have to get them back, quickly, now. Or they’ll lose their minds, their very souls. We have to get them back!”
She realized that her voice had risen shrilly on the last sentence. Her heart thudded against her ribs like a bird battering against a cage.
They could all sense their mates. But she couldn’t sense Ash. Had no idea if he was all right, or in agony, or already dead…
“Rose, dear heart,” Neridia said, crouching down. Even kneeling on the floor, the sea dragon Empress was still taller than Rose sitting down. “We will get them back. I have every warrior in the sea poised to move at my command. But you need to tell us exactly what’s happened.”
Rose ground the heels of her hands against her eyes. Her memories were a shattered mosaic, sharp-edged new shards pushing everything she’d known into foreign shapes. How could she begin to explain, when she barely grasped it herself?
But she had to. Ash needed her, now.
She dropped her hands, meeting their eyes again. There was only place to start, really.
“First, I need to tell you all how Ash and I met,” she said.
“Wait,” Virginia said, holding up her hands. “I’m still trying to grasp this. Ash is your mate?”
“Yes. No. It’s complicated.” Rose gratefully accepted a glass of water from Neridia. Her throat felt lined with sandpaper after telling her tale. “He was. But like I said, he burned our bond.”
The mates all exchanged glances. “He offered to do that for me, once,” Neridia said. “When I was still afraid of my destiny.”
“Yes, and I put a flea into his ear for even suggesting such a dreadful thing.” Rose sipped her drink, remembering that night. “The irony is overwhelming.”
“That—that—“ Connie appeared to be searching for a strong enough word. “That man! Oh, when we get him back, I’m going to kill him with my bare hands!”
“I think that’s my line,” Ivy murmured. “Though maybe you should do it. My venom would make it too quick.”
Despite everything, Rose found herself with an obscure urge to defend her ex-mate. “He did it to protect me. It was the only way.”
“Considering what happened the moment you two did get back together, it seems that he was right,” Virginia said with a sigh. “Evidently these—what did you call them? Wizards?”