Not the best argument, but all I wanted right now was to keep my old friend alive. Maybe he could tell Forge what happened. What my asshole brother had done, yet again.
“Very well,” the Elder agreed. “Wipe his mind. I don’t want to leave a trail for Forge.”
I watched helplessly as the bodyguard did some voodoo bullshit and Emerson’s face smoothed out, his eyes going blank. So much for that plan.
29
I’d spent hours going over the footage frame by frame, looking for any small clue that would help me track Selena. While I knew who’d taken her, I didn’t know where, though my plane was already waiting on the tarmac, with a flight plan filed for Scotland.
Cursing my limited abilities—if only I could materialize directly to Scotland—I shut down the computer, grabbed a coat and re-emerged at the airport. With luck, the pilot could cut an hour off the travel time, but the Elder would have a head start.
As I boarded the plane, I reached out once more to Selena: Stay calm, remember your training and, for the love of God, don’t do anything stupid.
I was smiling when I boarded, only because if she had heard me, she’d be fuming over that last bit.
Finally, after my usual take-off panic attack, they’d untied my hands, though it took hours before I could hold a glass of water without dropping it. For some unfathomable reason, Brandon was accompanying us, but I had the feeling that it wasn’t for the reasons he thought. I figured the Elder viewed him more like a loose end than a valuable member of the team. But I couldn’t waste my time on Brandon, not when there were so many other things to worry about.
Like whether or not Emerson still had his faculties.
If Forge had figured out where I was.
How I’d get out of this mess.
All these problems intertwined in my head until I thought I’d go mad. The only bright side was that the Elder, and his henchmen, left me alone. I guessed there wasn’t anywhere for me to go at forty thousand feet. For the time being, I was stuck obsessing.
I spent some time poking around in the bodyguard’s heads, but as expected, they knew nothing. They operated under a do-as-I’m-told directive, and other than a few worthless tidbits—one of them was very, very hungry—I got nothing. As for the Elder, we went back and forth the entire flight, studiously ignoring each other, while trying to break through each other’s shields.
Good news: he wasn’t successful.
Bad news: neither was I.
We landed in Scotland in the middle of the night, and as we disembarked the Elder’s plane—a rattling, antiquated dinosaur compared to Forge’s—I wanted to kiss the ground.
I didn’t know where we were—some outpost of human civilization, from the looks of it—but at least I was back on terra firma, and alive.
“Scotland.” Brandon sidled up beside me as if we were now besties. “Can you believe it, Selena? I never thought I’d get here, even though Dad told us a thousand times he’d take us.” He’d been drinking steadily on the plane, and from his numerous disappearances to the bathroom, I assumed he’d been snorting, injecting or smoking as well.
I walked in silence toward the waiting car, the bodyguards an ominous wall behind me, herding me onward. Brandon didn’t shut up, and I prayed he wouldn’t be riding with me to wherever we were going.
Unfortunately, that was one prayer God didn’t answer.
Selena was in the wind by the time my plane landed in Edinburgh, but it was a small matter to get myself to the outskirts of Falkirk. The Elder wasn’t here, but someone else was.
“Awrite—you in there?” I called, while I rapped on the derelict cottage’s door. Little more than a potting shed, there was a tendril of peat smoke coming from the chimney, so I knew the bastard was here.
“Fuck off.”
At least he’d answered in English, so he knew it was me.
“Open the door, Cade. I need your help.”
I heard him coming, heavy, resentful footsteps before the door was thrown open and he filled up the opening. “I must not have heard you right. It sounded like you need my help.”
True, I’d arranged our blood match, knowing the Elder would choose Cade as his champion.
Also true: if he helped me, I’d sworn to never involve him in my bullshit again. Too bad I was here less than a week later, breaking that promise.
“Damn it, Cade, let me in.”
He leaned against the doorjamb, blocking my way. “Not too good at keeping promises, are you, mate?”
“The bastard took Selena. All I need is a location.” I knew the Elder holed up somewhere between Callander and Strathyre. But right now, I didn’t have time to search every bloody loch and valley in the Highlands.
Cade narrowed his eyes, deciding, I supposed, if that was a good enough reason to help me.
“You’re going after the Elder by yourself?”
“I can handle him.” Of that I was sure. Depending how many were with him…that might be another matter. “Just tell me where he is, and I’ll leave you be.”
Cade disappeared, then came back, slipping his coat on in the process. “Never hurts to have a bit of help,” he said coolly, locking the door behind him as if anyone would be interested in breaking in. “Ever heard of Castle Runacraig?” When I shook my head, he grinned. “Follow along, then, laddie, and learn from the best.”
His words hung on the air as we materialized, reappearing in a forest. Through the trees there were spotlights shining, and the faint scent of fire in the air.
We crept through the underbrush until the castle came into view. It jutted from the granite as if it were part of the mountain, one lone, scraggly tree on the east side,
