Page 84 of Rising Reign

Rhys made a gagging noise. “All this lovey-dovey stuff is turning my stomach. First Ender, my brother, who I thought would never bite the dust, is a total goner for the little vixen…”

Ender let out a low growl. “I’m not a goner.”

Juan snickered. “You totally are.”

“Then my Dina abandons me for Clyde,” Rhys went on.

Dina arched a brow. “My keeping you in liquor doesn’t make me yours.”

“Damn straight,” Clyde echoed.

Rhys just rolled his eyes. “Even those two are all coupled up.” He gestured at Hera and Clara, his gaze lingering there. “Though, I would quite like to join that group. What do you say, ladies? Care to make it a throuple?”

Clara flipped him off, but Hera sent sparks flying in Rhys’s direction. They hit him dead-on, and he let out a little shriek. “That hurt, oh violent one. But I get it. It’s your kink.”

Hera turned to Puck’s sister. “Do you think he’d get that I’m not interested if I beheaded him?”

Clara shrugged. “Might want to burn the body for good measure.”

“Harsh,” Rhys mumbled. But the moment the word left his mouth, his body jerked, and his eyes turned pure white.

We all shot to our feet as Rhys’s whole form trembled. A handful of seconds later, he stumbled forward, and Ender rushed to steady him. Rhys’s eyes were wide with panic. “They’re coming.”

49

WREN

The moment the words left Rhys’s lips, everyone erupted. Questions were hurled from one direction and then another, everyone talking over each other.

“Enough!” Kingston ordered. The tone was pure alpha, and everyone instantly quieted. “What did you see?”

Rhys’s throat worked as he swallowed. “I…it was just snapshots.” His brow furrowed. “I think it’s of two different times because I saw images of the dark mages and then Red River.”

“Did anything clue you into a day or time?” Clara asked, her enforcers filing in around her as if she were about to be attacked here and now.

Rhys pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly in pain as he struggled to remember what he’d seen.

I turned to Locke. “Do you have any of your headache herbs?”

He nodded, pulling a packet from his pocket and handing it to me.

I crossed to the table, poured the contents into an empty glass, and then filled it with water.

“I’m not sure what day,” Rhys mumbled. “But it was full daylight.”

“That helps,” Kingston said. “We’ll know when to be more on alert.”

Stirring the tonic, I handed it to Rhys. “Here. It helps with headaches.”

“Thank you,” Rhys said as he took the glass from me.

“It might look like the worst thing ever, but it doesn’t taste half bad,” I promised.

He gulped it down and then set the glass back on the table. The lines bracketing his mouth were already softening. “That does work.”

“Could you tell where the attack happened?” I asked.

Rhys’s lips pursed, but this time, it was because he was searching through his memories, not because he was in pain. “In the forest…here. I recognized a spot where the creek hits the wards on one side. And that huge boulder on the other.”