Page 123 of Silk and Sirens

A cold weight settled low in my stomach when voicemail kicked in. Raj knew to always answer his phone unless there was trouble, and even then he was trained to deal with everything swiftly. Switching to Aeris’s phone tracker, I found her last position at Portobello Road Market. But that was fifteen minutes ago before it lost signal.

My pulse kicked harder.

Trying to keep my breathing steady, I opened my contacts and video-called Langdon. “I need you to head to Atlantis,” I said, already moving while Sebastian barked orders on his own phone.

Langdon frowned, propping his phone up against something. “Why Atlantis?” he signed.

“Selene knows about Vivienne, so we need to split up.” My pulse roared in my ears, every worst-case scenario flashing through my mind in rapid, brutal succession. “I need to find Aeris.”

Chapter 51

Aeris

“What about this one?” Oscar said, holding up a glass bowl with one hand above his head.

“Wow, let me just take that.” I carefully took the bowl out of his surprisingly strong grip and then smiled apologetically at the stall owner before dragging him away.

“What was wrong with it?” he cried, trying to pull me back. “You said you collect pretty things! That was pretty. It’s a green dinglehopper!”

“A what?”

“A dinglehopper! A thingamabob!”

“It’s a bowl.”

Oscar looked at me with disgust, as if I was destroying his life.

“Okay, where’s your mum, huh?” I glanced across the market, finding Brooke and August looking through the handmade wooden toys.

“This one, Mama!” August held a toy train against his chest, refusing to let it go.

“No, honey. You’ll just⁠—”

“I’ll get it,” I said, turning to Oscar before he could get upset. “You can pick something too.”

His crumpled face immediately grinned with delight, and he became busy meticulously looking over every single toy the stall had to offer.

“First we see you twice in one month,” Brooke whispered to me as she cradled her coffee in one hand while slowly rocking Nohr in his pram. “Then you bring a boyfriend home and spend a ridiculous amount of money on your nephews? Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”

“So funny.” I rolled my eyes. “Firstly, I always spoil my nephews. And secondly, Caden’s not my boyfriend.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She took a sip of her coffee, smiling behind the cup. “Oh, by the way, have you heard from Dad?”

I stiffened instantly. “You promised you wouldn’t call him if I met you today.”

That was the only reason I was here. Brooke had always been frighteningly good at blackmail. It was either meet her and the kids or she’d send Dad straight to my house—or worse, to Atlantis. Something I absolutely could not risk.

So this was the safer option, especially since I had chosen a busy open-air market, full of people and multiple exits.

“No, I mean, he’s been acting weird. I’m worried. I haven’t been able to get a hold of him for a few days.”

“You know Tristan, once he’s on a case he buries himself in work.”

“Maybe,” Brooke hummed, as if thinking about it. “It just feels like something’s wrong.”

For fuck’s sake.

“I’ll try to ring him. Will that make you feel better?”