“This means…” I slid the ring onto my finger, “…my brother is alive.”
That was the obvious conclusion.
What does this mean?
A direct link to my brother rather than my sister hinted that the coven knew my true identity.
What does this mean?
I didn’t have a frakking clue.
“Boaz’s ring was planted. They meant for you to find it.” He crouched again and ran his hand through the ash one last time. “The Remys and Bishop wouldn’t have missed it. It’s too big.”
“Who planted it?” I rubbed my thumb over the stone then slid the ring off my finger and put it in my pocket. “The bomber? Boaz? The coven?”
“Boaz would have called or made contact if he was able, so that leaves the coven or their agents.”
“Why haven’t they reached out? If they took hostages, why not name the terms for their release?”
“I don’t know.”
But we both had a good idea why they might have kept them, what they might have done to them.
If my brother or Addie, or their—our—parents, had miraculously survived, I would have no choice but to greet them with a finger stick and not a hug.
That really, really sucked. It made my head throb and my heart ache. But I had to be smart about this.
Until I reached for him, I hadn’t noticed Ambrose’s absence, which unsettled my stomach. Usually, I kept a closer eye on him. Now was not the time to relax my vigilance, no matter how well-behaved my darker half had been acting lately. Key word acting. More than likely, he had been hiding from the crowd in the loft he suspected might lynch us. Normally, I would applaud the performance, but just now I needed his help.
“Can you sense anything?” I reached into my pocket, impressed by how well I had trained myself to stuff them full of chocolates without thinking about it. “I know you taste magic on a person, but what about a place? Can you try?”
I paid a modest toll of three white chocolate truffles rolled in crushed pecans for his cooperation.
Midas watched, more curious than anything about Ambrose’s quirks. “Do you think he’ll find anything?”
“I’m not holding my breath.” I walked the rest of the site but knew better than to expect another clue. “I should have asked him sooner, but it didn’t cross my mind. He’s attuned to energy sources that will fill his tank, not residual magic that’s less than a mouthful.”
I got my answer when Ambrose swirled to a stop before me and bounced his shoulders in a shrug.
Disappointed when I should have known better, I asked, “Would sampling the other sites help?”
Quick to stick out his hand, he waited for me to toss him more chocolate to buy his opinion.
“I’m guessing that’s a yes, but also that it will cost me.”
The shadow bobbed its head and curled its fingers in a gimme motion.
“I’ll pay up once we get there. Otherwise, you’ll act like I tricked you into working for free and pout until I waste premium chocolates on one of your tantrums.”
Ambrose, who was quick to laugh at me, did, miming a fit of hilarity that bordered on slapstick.
“Midas?” I checked with him to see if Ambrose freaked him out as much as he disturbed Bishop. “Do you mind two more stops?”
“I’m game for whatever you think will help.” Curiosity brightened his eyes. “Can I…feed him?”
On his best behavior, Ambrose walked over to Midas, bent at the waist, and stuck out his hand.
“Don’t fall for it. You can’t touch him.” I shooed the shadow away. “He’s just sucking up to you.”
“Does that mean I shouldn’t feed him?”
“Now that you can see him, and you’ve expressed an interest, I expect he’ll start begging you for scraps.”
We started walking back to the site of the first fire, Choco-Loco, which was closer to our position.
“What can he eat?” Midas laced our fingers. “Is there anything I shouldn’t give him?”
All of a sudden, I felt like a pet parent giving instructions to a gullible pet sitter.
“Never tell him it’s okay to feed on anyone or anything. He needs my permission for that.” Though, after watching him skim from random people on the street, I had my doubts that was as true as it used to be. “With you and I bonded now too, I’m not sure how it will work going forward. It might be like my ability to issue you orders. You might be able to do the same to him with a direct command.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” Midas angled his head toward me. “We’ll need to figure it out, eventually.”
“Yeah, we will.” I glared at the shadow tucked within Midas’s shadow. “Or else accidents might happen.”
Hand tightening around mine, Midas took my meaning, and he set his jaw.
One wrong word from him might damn me as easily as I could damn myself. How terrifying was that?
At least as terrifying as it must be for him to know that I could wrest control of his beast away from him.
“Are we soul mates? Fated mates? Cosmic partners in a predestined love?”
Based on Claudia’s explanation, and Ambrose vouching for our bond, the answer was a resounding yes. Such a connection would explain the influence we each held over our other halves, but it felt weird bringing it up to him instead of the other way around.
“We’re…complicated.” He rubbed his jaw. “The truth?”
Tugging on his arm, I leaned against him. “That would be nice.”
“I don’t know.”
“Explain.”
“At first, I thought so, yes. Now I’m not so sure.” He was quiet for a moment. “There is a bond. We know that much. We can both sense it.”
“But?”
“It doesn’t function how it was explained to me.” He slanted me a searching look. “Each pair is different, but usually not this divergent. We don’t pick up on each other’s thoughts or emotions. We’re connected, but I’m not sure how. A link has been established, but it’s almost like it
