Tables and bassinets were overturned, scattered across the room.
My stomach plummeted, and all my hopes turned to ashes in my mouth.
There was no way in hell Kade would have allowed the NICU to remain in that condition. Not if he had managed to survive the attack and stay here.
I glanced back at Grant, who was surveying the damage with as much interest as I was.
“Do you know what happened here?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “Our orders were to do our best to grab the babies without engaging with any adults.”
“Well, looks like someone has already screwed that part up.”
He shrugged, a sheepish grin stealing across his face. “Looks like. I think I might’ve learned something important in the process, though.”
I hoped it was something beneficial to us.
“What’s that?”
“You aren’t the kind of lamia I’ve grown up hearing about.”
I blinked. I knew that, of course—but it was nice hearing a werewolf state it.
“Any idea where they would’ve taken Serena?” I impaled him with a hard stare, his admission be damned.
“Not exactly.” He wrinkled his nose, looking more and more uncomfortable.
My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean not exactly? How about you figure it out exactly as soon as possible?”
Up until this point, I had simply been afraid for Serena and Kade. Now I was terrified. And that, as Coit would say, put me in a hittin’ mood.
“I can take you to the place was supposed to be our safe house,” Grant said. “But I won’t be up to get you man or anything.”
I was sure he was right — after all, they had never expected me to leap through to another world. No way would anyone be sitting there with my babies, just waiting for me to just show up.
I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of doing that, anyway. I wouldn’t leap through blindly anymore—not without knowing what was waiting for me on the other side.
But I could track them down. Just as I had been able to sense that Kade and Serena were somewhere beyond the portal in Amalya’s world, I could now feel the ties between us tugging at me, pulling me eastward.
Kade and Serena were somewhere out here. Somewhere on this earth.
And I was determined to find them.
No way in hell was I going to allow a bunch of werewolves to dictate my life to me.
As if reading my mind, Coit leaned in and whispered, “Werewolves is a bunch of A-holes.”
It took all I could manage not to giggle. But once I had my response under better control, I introduced myself.
“Really?” A lazy lamia princess is going to visit us?”
I didn’t even ask him how he knew I was supposed to be a process.
It didn’t matter.
The only thing that matter was ensuring Kade’s safety, and the safety of the lamia baby he carried with him.
I turned around to Amalya. “If you really want to help those infants, you can do it by helping me find them.
“Of course,” she said.
I glanced around my tiny crew and winced. The werewolf was the only one trained to fight.
But I wasn’t going to wait for anyone else to get ready to travel.
The rest of us would just have to make do.
Right up until I found my boyfriend and my baby.
And I would start searching now.
When I found them...
Well that would have to wait until then.
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USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times bestselling author Margo Bond Collins is a former college English professor who, tired of explaining the difference between “hanged” and “hung,” turned to writing romance novels instead. (Sometimes her heroines kill monsters, too.)
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The Hunters’ Academy, Year 1
The Hunters’ Academy, Year 2
SURVIVE OR DIE.
It’s not much of a school motto—not as inspiring as, say, “Let us give light to the world,” or “Knowledge is liberty,” or even just “Light and Truth.” Those are all real school mottos. So is this one. It belongs to the Hunters’ Academy. And now, so do I.
Since she was twelve years old, Kacie Deluca has suffered debilitating migraines. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, she learns her headaches are the result of untapped psychic abilities. She’s given a choice: continue to suffer or leave behind everything she knows and join the Hunters’ Academy. The only catch? If she doesn’t pass the entrance exam, she’ll die.
A teen with blocked psychic powers, a panther shifter who can’t—or won’t—shift, a secret academy, and the power to defend the entire world...if only Kacie can unleash her potential before it’s too late.
Fans of Vampire Academy, Mortal Instruments, Harry Potter, and Dragon School will love Hunters’ Academy!
