Heart in my throat, I snapped my wings taut and angled, wrapping myself in a tight defense spell so I could safely look back.

Bile rose. Austin was gone.

Elliot forgotten, everything beyond Austin forgotten, I banked fast and dove for Broken Sue, who was slapping at the ground and roaring. As soon as I landed, I changed into my human form so I could talk, not worried about nudity for once.

“What happened?” I demanded amid the deep rumble of the mountain’s shifting. It was quieting now, settling.

Austin’s distance grew. He was being carried away, not toward the collapsed tunnels but in the other direction, still unconscious. I sent a thread of healing in case it had been blunt-force trauma of some kind.

“What happened?” I yelled, fear climbing into my throat. Black rage such as I had never known rose within me, seething, pressing for release.

“Elliot appeared right next to him,” Cyra said, newly changed into her human form and running over. “I saw it. He appeared right next to the alpha, the alpha collapsed, and they both disappeared.”

I swore, remembering when Elliot had made that delivery truck disappear. I still had no idea how he’d done it.

The Ivy House link between Austin and me went dead. My gut churned as I tried, and failed, to bring it back online. Fear ate at me.

But I knew he was still alive, because we had another link, a deeper one, that was alive and well. Our mating bond, newly forged and continually strengthening. His heart pulsed with mine in my chest, strong and sure.

“Shifters, change,” I ordered, a pulse of magic pulling the gargoyles to the ground. I had no idea how I was doing all of this, but I’d figure it out later, once Austin was safe. “Change into your human form. The gargoyles will carry you with us.”

Niamh landed beside me in her nightmare alicorn form, her crystalline horn bloodied and her golden hoofs stamping at the ground. Edgar, returned from chasing the mages, jumped onto her back.

Isabelle, the first to change, turned to Jasper as he touched down. “Give me a lift?”

He hopped, his wings fluttering, and she jogged over. He scooped her up in a princess hold and swiftly rose into the sky.

Kace changed and then shook his head at Mr. Tom, who’d stepped forward. “I’d prefer someone I don’t know. This is going to be awkward.”

“Only if you let it,” Cyra replied.

“Oh, I intend to let it,” Kace muttered as a large male I didn’t know grabbed him by the chest and pushed into the sky. “Holy sh—”

Broken Sue, face a mask of rage, stalked up to me, his body all scars and muscle, his beast owning his powerful movements. “Do not let him kill your mate, Jessie Ironheart. It is a soul-crushing pain that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Unlike me, you have the power to save your mate. Save him.”

I nodded, unable to speak, overwhelmed by both his pain and mine. He walked to the nearest gargoyle, a big, scarred creature that kind of matched him, and held out an arm. The male swooped him up like a bride, neither of the guys caring or reacting, and pumped his wings. They shot up into the sky.

Cyra joined them, and Hollace and the other flyers were already up there. I prepared to change again, but Nathanial landed next to me.

“Yeah. Good call.” I jogged to him, turned, and stuck out my arms like a child. “I’d just slow everyone down.”

“It does nnnot lo-ok bad on you, I-ron-heart.” He grabbed me and shot skyward, faster than any of the others. “You we-re not ma-dde for aer-eeal warfare. You pro-tect with ma-gic.”

“Let’s hope so.” I pointed in the direction Austin was still traveling, moving fast. Elliot had to be flying somehow. There was no other way he could be moving so fast, not without a road.

Nathanial pumped his wings and carried us forward, faster than the others, and everyone else spread out behind us. The wind whipped at my face, and I realized flight was more comfortable in my gargoyle form. Too late now. I’d change once we landed.

“There,” I shouted over the rushing wind, my eyes watering, Austin’s heart beating true and mine on the verge of breaking. I let the black rage in my chest seethe and boil, the aggression blotting out some of my fear. I would get him back. He’d saved me yesterday. It was my turn.

And I would make Elliot Graves regret the day he’d shown up in my life.

Austin stopped moving, and I could feel he was being lowered. We were gaining on him fast, gargoyles blotting out the sky as they carried my fighting unit over a smaller peak and beyond. I monitored Austin’s movements and worked at the Ivy House link, trying to get it back online.

“Why won’t it respond?” I asked Ivy House.

“Magic, somehow. A vulnerability?”

I could feel the uncertainty in her tone.

It didn’t matter. Even if Elliot had severed it for good, it wouldn’t matter. We had our mating link, deeper than magic.

Closer now, nearly there, I spotted a flat spot on a big outcropping of a mountain, open to the sky. A helicopter waited, its rotors still spinning. The maw of an open cave could be seen beyond it.

“How in the hell?” I murmured.

There were too many questions to process—how had Elliot managed to get Austin into that bird? How had he silenced the chopper? How powerful was this guy?

The most important of all—was he still toying with me?

I gestured for Nathanial to descend, and he squeezed me to his chest and dove at a stomach-losing pace. On the side area beside the helicopter, he snapped out his wings, slamming on the brakes, and gently lowered to a stop. Despite the fact that we’d practiced these maneuvers—a lot—my stomach rolled. I wasn’t sure if I would ever get used to that.

Austin’s progress had stopped, inside yet another mountain. Elliot was cutting off my aerial artillery.

Hollace dropped the basajaun before rising higher into the air and changing form. With people already gathered on the small platform beside the chopper, he was too big to land.

A gargoyle swooped toward him before I could point and shout, grabbing him up and depositing him next to us.

“What do you want me to do, Jessie Ironheart?” the basajaun asked as he caught up.

“What can you do? Can you feel his positioning within the mountain or anything?”

“When I get inside, I should have a better idea. It’s hard to make a first acquaintance on the surface.”

“Then let’s get inside.” I turned back to everyone, the platform filled up and gargoyles still in the sky. “Keep on your guard. We don’t know what we’re walking into.”

I stayed in my human form, checked to make sure the helicopter was empty, and then jogged to the large opening in the side of the rock face. The air changed as soon as I passed through, much colder than it should’ve been. I pulled magical warmth over myself as my eyes adjusted to the darker interior.

The tunnel had concrete sides and was similar in size to the one leading to our rooms. Service lights were on one side, giving off enough of a glow for me to see a few steps in front of me but not enough to illuminate the way ahead. I suspected that was by design.

The basajaun didn’t follow, and I glanced back to see what was keeping him.

A rockface greeted me. Rough and dark, it gave zero indication that it had ever been anything else.

I backtracked and put my hand against it. It felt exactly as it looked.

Scowling, I pulled at my magic—

“That’s not going to work.”

I jumped and spun, pulling my defenses tightly around me, recognizing Elliot’s smug voice and looking for the source. A momentary bout of vertigo dizzied me. The tunnel from a moment ago had changed. Smaller but just as dim, this one had electric-blue and butter-yellow flowers crawling up the sides. As I watched, they moved softly, swaying in a magical breeze.

I blinked and rubbed at my eyes, holding on to that well of black rage.

Instead of asking where I was, or what was going on, as I desperately wanted to, I took the situation in stride, walking forward with clear purpose. Austin’s presence pulsed straight ahead, a hundred yards or so.

“Do you want to cover up?”

A little table appeared on my right. A garment lay folded on the flat surface.

Right now, I didn’t care about my nudity. Nor did I care about the likelihood that I was trapped down here with a manipulative mage and no backup. I only cared about Austin’s safety.

Without comment, I continued walking onward, working closer to Austin.

“Are you at all nervous?” the floating voice asked.

No comment. I was done playing his games.

“Do you think your power is greater than mine?” he asked. “It was your team that won those battles—all of them. I should know, I’ve been watching. But now you are alone.”

I was never alone. I had Austin in my heart, and my links to the Ivy House crew remained fully functional. They were all frustrated and angry and trying to find a way in. The basajaun was calm, probably because he was trying to make nice with the mountain, however that worked. They might not be physically present, but they were still with me. They wouldn’t give up on me.

Rage burning bright, determination fueling me, I strode on, getting closer. The tunnel was long and unchanging, the lights spaced a consistent five feet apart.

“So much for pleasantries,” the voice said. An opening glowed up ahead, bright lemon light spilling into the shadowy passage. “Let’s get to business, shall we?”

The slice of light was shaped like a half-moon on top and straight at the bottom. I couldn’t tell if it was a doorway or a bend leading to another tunnel with much better lighting.

“I want a trade,” Elliot said. “You for him.”

No. There would be no trade. There would be a dead mage and a safe shifter.

The opening grew in size as I neared it. Above, the basajaun stayed stationary while the others spread out farther, searching. If they found an opening, it would still be a chore to get through the tunnels without a map, unless they were all as straightforward as this one. My hope for reinforcements probably rested on the basajaun making friends with an inanimate object.