Page 122

By lunchtime, I was feeling seriously antsy. I passed the time with Rose, then made the family lunch and stopped by Ren’s place, just in case. Still no sign of Warrick. By dinnertime, I was close to losing my mind. I’d been calling him all day and had left a bunch of messages.

Something wasn’t right. I didn’t know what it was, but I had this strange feeling inside me, like something was missing, like there was this gaping hole right through the center of me.

Maybe they’d found Maddox? I tried to convince myself that was what it was, and Warrick would call when he could. But by midnight, I was jumping out of my skin. “I’m going to the clubhouse,” I said to Mom.

“Me and Nia are coming with you,” Iris said.

Usually, if there was even a sniff of danger, I’d tell my sister she had to stay here, but I couldn’t do that anymore. I needed to stop treating my sisters like they weren’t capable. They were, and they’d be tested on that in the near future. They needed to learn how capable they were for themselves.

We headed out and pulled up outside the clubhouse’s chain-link fence thirty minutes later. I climbed out. The bar was dark and shuttered, the big roller doors of the garage down, and none of the hounds appeared to open the gate. It was padlocked, which was usual, but the clubhouse was dark, no sign of life whatsoever. There was always someone keeping watch, lights on somewhere.

Striding to the back of my truck, I grabbed the bolt cutters from my toolbox and cut through the lock.

Iris watched me, Nia at her side. “This is weird, right?”

“Warrick wouldn’t vanish on me like this. He wouldn’t just leave.” Fear swirled inside me, doubt trying to surface, and I shoved it back down. He wouldn’t. He promised me. He said he’d never leave me. The chain fell away, and we shoved the big gates open, got back in the Morris, and drove up.

No bikes here either and no hounds came out to check who I was, or why someone had breached their territory. Nothing. Not even a whisper of sound. I opened the clubhouse door. It was dark and I couldn’t see anything. I reached for a light switch and couldn’t find one.

Iris switched on a flashlight beside me and shone it around the big space—

The big, empty space.

Everything was gone, the tables and chairs, the bar—they were all gone.

I strode to the door that led to the hall behind the main room, my heart beating so fast I felt dizzy. The stairway that led to the underground den was gone as well.

I spun and ran to the door that led straight to Warrick’s quarters and yanked it open.

It was a closet. I stepped in, running my hands over the walls as if they would magically disappear, as if this were some Narnia shit and I’d keep walking and end up in Warrick’s room. And he’d be there waiting for me.

But that didn’t happen.

Because it was gone. It was all gone, as if they’d never been here. Like they didn’t exist.

“He left,” I said.

He’s left me.

Iris gripped my shoulder. “No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t just leave like that.” She frowned and turned, looking into the shadows, shivering. “Can you feel that?”

“What?” There was no danger, my blade was still at my hip.

Iris hugged herself and Nia whined. “I’m not sure, I’ve never felt anything like it.”

I forced myself to calm the hell down and reach out with my senses. Power, so strong, it lifted goose bumps all over my skin and vibrated through the room. It had faded, only an echo remained, but it was still there. I couldn’t place it, had never felt anything like it before either.

The hellhounds were a fierce pack, brutal fighters, and incredibly powerful, I couldn’t imagine an enemy strong enough to do this, to make them, everything, vanish into thin air.

It had to have been the hounds themselves. “The hounds have powers of their own.” I turned slowly, taking in the empty room again. “They would’ve had to have used them to return this place back to the way it was. I think that’s what we’re feeling?”

“Maybe,” Iris said and ran her hand over Nia’s side. “I don’t know. I don’t understand any of this.”

Neither did I. All I knew was the male I loved had vanished into thin air, without so much as a goodbye.

* * *

“Any word?” Mom asked when I walked into the kitchen.