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John takes another step back.

“No! No! Tell me where she is, you bastard.” I fight the magic, bucking and ranting and screaming. “CARVER!”

“Goddess above, is she rabid?” John says to Drake.

“No but she is a Feral Blood,” Drake replies, as if that explains everything.

I’m going to kill him. My gaze swings in his direction. Instead of only finding Drake, I discover a world superimposed over this one. A couple I vaguely recognize staring in horror. One of them is pointing at something. The fire is louder now. A deep, rumbling bass of a roar that’s so loud it swallows up every other sound around me.

Dread unlike I’ve ever known . . . no. Not dread. Fear. Pure terror sinks into my marrow as I slowly start to turn toward the flames, but before I can see what’s happened, something snaps and the ward holding me in place breaks.

The release is so unexpected, I crash to my hands and knees, and as my palms slam into the earth, into reality, cold washes over me. The sounds of the inferno are nowhere to be found, now. I blink, shake my head, and dig my nails into the dirt, sucking in a lungful of smoke-free air. I take a moment to ground myself. Am I going crazy? My hands tremble, and I push aside those thoughts, whatever they are.

John is here. Finally, finally, I’ve found someone who might know where Addy is.

My head whips up, searching for him, but all I find is Drake and Carver watching me. They’re alone. Devastation carves through me. “No. No, no, no. Where did he go?” I stagger to my feet, catch my balance, and storm toward the bonded. “Where is he?”

I grasp Drake’s shirt, but he doesn’t even react. Simply watches me with that impassive fucking coldness that eats at my insides. “Where the fuck is he?”

“Raina,” Carver says, voice low and soothing. “Take a breath.”

“No.” I shove Drake away and whirl on him. “He took my sister, and I want to know where she is.” I close the distance between us, scowling up at him. “Your wards stopped me.”

“You’re lucky they did.” My lip curls at Carver’s words. Before I can snarl a response, he continues. “That was the chief justice of the ruling council. You’d be dead if you attacked an agent of the empire.”

Clenching my fists, I try to tame the anger, but it’s like leashing a starving animal at the first sight of fresh game. Still, if what Carver says is true, I can’t run after the man and attack him. Not only would he destroy me with his magic, if I happened to survive, he’d personally have me executed. No one attacks an agent of the empire and lives to tell the tale.

I whirl on Drake. “You know him?”

“Unfortunately.”

My eyes narrow. “Tell me where to find him.”

“I can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t?” I demand.

His emerald eyes are almost defeated, but I don’t understand why or what from.

“Does it matter?” he asks.

“It matters more than you could ever know.” The muscles in my jaw ache. “You really are a heartless Foundation, aren’t you? That man took my sister, and he—” Wait. What am I doing telling these two anything about this? They don’t care.

I storm past them and grab my cart, shoving through Carver’s door.

“What are you doing?” Carver calls.

“Finishing my job,” I snap, cramming the dirty laundry in with the rest.

The fine hairs on my arm rise as Drake and Carver watch me work. I spin around, half expecting the two of them to block my way. They don’t, though. The way Drake watches me as I head to the door unsettles me to my core. It’s like he knows every dark and vulnerable truth I have. I don’t like it, and I don’t like him.

“Why are you even here?” I growl.

The edges of his lips quirk. “I live here.”

I glance at Carver for confirmation.

He nods.