“Hope?” I ask. “Wait, you’ve been to see him? Why didn’t you bring him back with you?”
“Not in my house of powers,” Devon says. “Besides, Tiamat showed up and tried to kidnap me. Cole distracted Her long enough for me to get away.”
“Shit,” I whisper. “I should have seen this coming. She was being way too quiet. Burning down my house notwithstanding.”
“Huh?” Devon asks with a frown. “Which house?”
“Buckinghamshire,” I say with a shrug. “But fuck that, Dev. It’s not important. I don’t know if I can go to him. I am not his sire anymore. We aren’t connected.”
“Neither are we, but I went,” Devon presses.
“He is your half-brother. You will always be connected,” I remind him.
“You are still connected to him, Lizzie. If you still love him, you are connected to him. He still loves you. You have to try,” he says.
“Okay,” I say determinedly and make myself comfortable on the bed. I lie down and close my eyes and I feel him lie next to me. I concentrate on Cole, the love that we used to share, the connection that we used to have.
“It’s no use,” I say after a few minutes. “I can’t do it.”
“You can,” Devon encourages me. “You must.”
I close my eyes again and try to slip into his subconscious, but it is just too far out of my reach. I am about to protest further when Devon takes my hand and squeezes it tightly.
“Let me help you,” he says.
I feel a zing of power pass between our palms that shocks me in its intensity. Devon is growing really strong in his Demonic powers. If I didn’t already see Cole in my mind’s eye, I would have praised him.
“Got him,” I murmur and let myself go where the pull is taking me.
It’s a small cell, definitely carved out of a cave wall. I am sure we are in the huge cavern that Tiamat uses when She is in the Underworld. I see Cole, he is hazy at first, but as I step closer, he becomes clearer. This is definitely a dream reality, and not me Astralling myself to him. I can feel the pressure of the wards around me and it makes me feel lightheaded and nauseous. I also feel weightless. He hasn’t noticed my presence yet.
“Cole,” I whisper to him. He is lying on a small cot with just a thin blanket covering his naked body. I kneel at his side and assess his health. He doesn’t seem to be in any physical pain, which is good. He looks tormented, though, especially when he opens his eyes and glares at me.
“Go away,” he says and turns his back to me.
I fall back a little bit, startled at his words.
“I told you I don’t know about any back doors,” he adds, and I lick my lips. Who does he think I am? That scares me. If my mother, or even Remiel, has been entering his mind to try and get information out of him, no wonder he looks so ragged.
“Cole, it’s me, Liv,” I say to him. “Look at me.”
“You have fooled me once with that, not again. Just leave me the Hell alone or kill me. I can’t help you,” he says.
My stomach lurches when I realize that my mother has come to him as me, trying to get information out of him. Information that he doesn’t have because we are no longer together. It is a desperate ploy on Her behalf and one that makes me sick. If She so much as touched him in any way, I will kill Her myself. That makes me take in his naked body again and I have to reach out and touch him. Something has gone on and it fills me with utter rage to see him like this.
“Cole,” I say again. “Feel with your heart. It is me, Liv.”
After a moment of silence, he turns to face me. His eyes are black as night in this dark cell, but I can see the hope there. He reaches out to touch my face and then pulls back.
“He said you wouldn’t come,” he murmurs.
I take his hand and squeeze it. “Cole, listen to me. I am here in your dreams; I can’t get to you otherwise. Devon has helped me. Are they hurting you?”
It has become increasingly clear to me that this cell is heavily warded, and it is why I couldn’t get in without Devon’s help. It is giving me a splitting headache in my less-than-actual-body and I think that is because it is directed specifically at me. I have never met a ward I couldn’t get around, so I don’t even want to know how my mother accomplished this.
“Not really,” he says. “She has to know that I don’t know anything by now,” he says.
“She has been into your mind?” I croak out.