Crimson Truth (Onyx Assassins 4)

Alek shot me a look. “Uncomplicate it.”

I arched an eyebrow at my king. “What exactly would you like me to do? I’ve been with Jocelyn every waking moment for the past four days, either training with her or sitting silently while she scries and casts, looking for Avi. She’s coming up empty and exhausted.” Watching her try time and again with no result was excruciating. She started each day fresh and full of hope, and finished it drained with dark circles under her eyes.

“Fuck!” He slammed his hands down on the heavy table, shaking the stone. “She didn’t just disappear into thin air!”

The chamber fell silent, none of us daring to voice the question we’d all no-doubt wondered: was she still alive?

Lachlan cleared his throat. “Alek, there is the matter of Conclave justice—”

Alek’s phone rang and he whipped it out of his pocket and tossed it onto the table, reaching for the decline button, but pausing. “Unknown,” he muttered before accepting the call. “Who is this?” he snapped.

“Alek?” Avianna’s voice was soft, but clear.

Holy shit, she’s alive. Relief hit me with the force of a two-ton truck. None of us had even let the unspeakable possibility of any other outcome pass our lips, but the fear had been palpable.

Jocelyn needs to know.

“Oh thank God.” Alek hit the speakerphone button. “Where are you? Are you hurt?”

“I’m not actually sure where I am,” she whispered, “but I’m not hurt. I don’t have much time.”

We all leaned in, the only sound in the room coming from our indrawn breaths. Our princess was alive. For now.

I bolted over to the security equipment and computers that covered one of the walls, and jumped into the system. Right now would have been the perfect time for Ransom—our resident tech genius—to make his appearance, but he and Olivia had gone off the grid for their honeymoon. Sending up a mutter of thanks that he’d trained me on the basics of the system, within a few keystrokes I was recording Avianna’s call.

“Did the twins take you?” Alek asked, resting his head in his hands.

“Yes.” There was a pause. “That part was...unpleasant.”

“I’ll fucking kill them,” Hawke seethed, his hands gripping the table like he might just shatter the damned thing. There was a frenzied desperation in his eyes that had me on edge. Hawke always existed in the gray area of morality when it came to our missions, but when it came to Avianna, I had no doubt he’d set fire to the whole fucking earth to get her back.

Guilt was a powerful force, and he’d been assigned as her bodyguard since Olivia was gone. But more powerful than guilt was another emotion he was going to have to deal with some day.

“You’re on in the war room,” Alek said, his breath visibly shaken. “Tell us whatever you can, and we’ll find you. We’ll bring you home.”

“Alek, don’t you think if I wanted to leave, I would have just pulled my little disappearing act and walked through the walls?” she asked, keeping her tone hushed.

She didn’t want to leave? My spine stiffened and I whipped my chair around to face the table. Every Assassin in the room had tensed. There was no lie that I could tell in her voice, but my abilities didn’t exactly work through phone lines. I needed to be near enough to someone for my body to pick up whatever their body was throwing off.

“What the hell do you mean, Avi?” Alek snapped. “If you can walk out, then do it.”

“You want me here, big brother, trust me. They didn’t take me to hurt me...at least not that I can tell. Samuel’s been gentle and either he or one of the humans brings me food and clothes.”

Alek’s eyes started to glow that eerie shade of blue that always manifested when he was beyond the point of fury. “Where. Are. You.”

“It’s an estate of some kind from what I can tell. My bedroom is underground—”

“Bastards,” Alek seethed.

I tried to eliminate all emotion from the situation and focused on every detail she gave us, and the ones she didn’t. There wasn’t any background noise that I could pick up on.

“Not like a dungeon,” she corrected. “Like the homes we all used to have before we discovered the blackout panels to safely sleep aboveground. Everything is...traditional and kinda dated, but I’ve only seen my room, the bathroom, and the library.”

“You’re not hurt?” he asked again.

“I’m not hurt,” she assured him.

“How are you calling? Whose phone is it?” he questioned.

“I’m not sure. I found it in the bathroom, so either it’s a guard’s or...Alek,” She loosed a heavy breath. “I think maybe Samuel left it for me to call you,” she finished in a whisper.

“You don’t think he’s in on it?” Zachariah questioned.

Every other Hunter exchanged a look that set my teeth on edge. Logically, I understood them wanting to exclude their brother from this narrative, but the evidence was pretty damning.