"Your mother." Bowman swallowed, a world of pain inside him. "She's gone."
"Gone where?" Ryan's question held no panic, only need for information.
"Don't know." The words rasped. "Lost her."
Cristian quickly filled in about the idea of the pockets Gil had told them about. "We think Kenzie stumbled into one of those. But the way was closed when we tried."
Afina's face had lost color as he explained, her hands balling. "The mists?"
Cristian nodded. "I thought they were legend. Stories to frighten children."
"No," Afina said, her words hushed. "They are holes to other places, some of those places worse than Faerie."
"Worse than Faerie?" Ryan said, worry entering his voice. "And Mom's in one of these?"
"I have all my trackers looking for her," Bowman said, "and the Guardian and Gil are working on how to get in . . ."
His words ran out, his mouth too dry to continue. The idea that Kenzie was no longer in the world took the air out of the room.
Ryan came to him and took Bowman's big hands where they dangled uselessly at his sides. "You'll find her, Dad."
His words rang with conviction. No doubts, no hysteria. Ryan believed.
Bowman wished he could. "Everyone has told me that because Kenzie and I don't share the mate bond it would be easy for me to let her go." He shook his head. "They're wrong. I won't let her go. I won't stop until I've found her."
"Screw the mate bond," Ryan said, scowling. "You and Mom are madly in love, and everyone knows it. You'll take the world apart looking for her. All the worlds. Doesn't matter about the frigging mate bond."
"He is an intelligent lad," Cristian said with warm approval. "I have raised him well."
Ryan rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Uncle Cris? I'll help you find her, Dad. I love her too."
"And I," Afina said. "Kenzie is as my own daughter. We will, as Ryan says, take the world apart."
Cristian nodded his agreement. "If she can get into these mists, she should be able to get out. Gates to worlds work both ways. We need to discover the key, as it were. And where the gate opens out. They might not have a two-way door in the same area, and some can lead to more than one place."
Bowman looked at Cristian, his vision fuzzy around the edges. "You're saying she might come out in this world again, but in a different place?"
His breathing became slightly easier as Cristian explained that was exactly what he meant, and began outlining plans to find the second gate.
But Bowman's heart was like a stone in his chest as Afina fetched a map of North Carolina and spread it over the dining room table. This world was vast; the one Kenzie had stumbled into might be just as vast. The odds of finding her among all those possibilities were slim.
Bowman, however, never let odds mess with him. He'd allow his wolf to take over and solve this with a finality only a wolf could. He'd clean up the mess later-after Kenzie was back home with him, alive and well.
* * *
Wherever this place was, it was boring. Kenzie yawned as she sat curled around herself on the ground.
Brigid, in an act of generosity Kenzie would never have associated with the Fae, had removed her cloak and spread it across a dry patch of earth so Kenzie could sit down. When Kenzie had thanked her, Brigid shrugged it off, saying it was too warm here for a cloak anyway.
The mists around them thickened, but they were clammy, not chilled. Kenzie peered into them . . . and sprang up in delight.
"Bowman!"
She saw her mate raising a hand to her, grinning his Bowman grin. Ryan was next to him, waving as well, his smile wide.
Kenzie darted forward. "You found me!"
"No!" Brigid shouted at her. "Kenzie, stop!"
Kenzie made for Bowman and Ryan, who watched her, still smiling. Brigid caught her with strong hands and jerked her back.
Kenzie snapped around with a snarl. "Let go of me!"
"It's a trick," Brigid said, her face rigid. "They aren't really there."
Kenzie swung away from her. The mists had thinned again, but her mate and cub had vanished.
"I saw them," she said, anguished. "What happened? Did the way close? Why did you stop me?"
"They were never there," Brigid said. "It's a glamour. Giving you your fondest wish. When I first came in, I saw my sisters and my daughters, calling to me. They held out their hands, imploring me to come to them. When I drew closer, the mists boiled up, and I swear the ground tried to suck me down. I extracted myself with difficulty and ran back here. I've seen the images many times, but it is a trap. You must resist."
"Damn it!" Kenzie spun on her feet and brought her fists down. "I hate just sitting here. Why doesn't he do something?"
"He will come for us," Brigid said. "He is greedy, and he wants what I can do for him too much to stay away."
"Greedy? For money? Or . . ."
"Power, it seems. Position. He is gambling all to raise himself."
"I'll raise him," Kenzie growled. "And then throw him back down."
"Ah, Shifters," Brigid said, as Kenzie settled herself on the cloak again. "Always so violent. I believe I will like that about you."
* * *
Bowman had reached out to his contacts before, and he reached out again. Eric was in the process of sending one of his trackers to North Carolina, but it was always difficult to transport Shifters, as they couldn't travel from state to state without permission. They had to move covertly, and that took time to set up. Las Vegas was on the other side of the country, Austin eleven hundred miles away, so the process was slow.
Bowman called Eric in Las Vegas first for a reason. "Get that dark Fae you have-Reid, that's his name-to answer some questions," Bowman said, after he explained the situation.
The next thing he knew, the phone was pulled from Eric, and a woman's voice came to him. "Bowman? You all right?"
The smooth tones belonged to Iona, Eric's mate, a half human, half Shifter. She and Kenzie had met last year when Eric had paid a brief visit to Bowman to discuss Shifter business. The two women, though one a Feline and the other Lupine, had bonded. They had a common fate-being mated to pain-in-the-ass alpha males-or so they said.
"Kenzie's smart," said Iona, a woman who wasn't lacking in brains herself. "She's resourceful. She'll figure out how to get back to you."
"And I'll figure out how to get to her," Bowman said. "We'll meet halfway."
"What about Ryan?" Iona asked. "How is he?"
Over her words, Bowman heard the soft gurgle of a cub Iona and Eric had brought in a few months ago, a boy they'd called Callum. Callum was already tough, Eric had boasted when he'd last spoken with Bowman, a blue-eyed leopard like the rest of the family. Shifters with human blood were usually born human, not changing into their animal form until age three or so. Callum, though born in human form, had shifted into a leopard within a month. Eric was very proud.
"Ryan's fine," Bowman snapped. Never let another Shifter know your offspring might be weak, was Shifter reflex. In this case, Bowman wasn't lying. Ryan was being stouthearted, refusing to crumple.
"Make sure you don't keep him in the dark," Iona said. "I know you'll want to protect him, but let him reassure you. He's stronger than you know."
"Yeah," Bowman said. "Thanks."
"Hang in there, Bowman," Iona said. "Trust Ryan."
"I will," Bowman said, his heart tight.
Iona gave the phone back to Eric. "I'll give you Reid if you think you'll need him," Eric said. "And Graham. They're two of my best. Might take a bit of doing." Eric meant he'd have to contact the man who flew his Shifters where they needed to go, but didn't want to say so on the phone. Eric chuckled. "Graham definitely."
Graham hated to fly. Eric liked to send him places in the cargo plane because of this, part of Eric's battle of wills with Graham, the head Lupine in his Shiftertown.
"Thanks," Bowman said. "Keep in touch."
He put down the phone and turned to find Cristian two feet away. "This Eric will send help?" Cristian asked.
Bowman nodded, his neck stiff. "Some. An expert on Faerie. I've met the guy. He's weird, but he knows a lot."
"Good. Let them get on with what they do. And we will get on with what we do. Which is find out everything we can, by interrogation when necessary."
Bowman scowled at him. "Turner's mine."