I immediately called him.
“Where is Avalyn?” I growled when he picked up.
He was silent for a beat and then hissed. “What do you mean where is Avalyn?”
I swore under my breath. He has no idea. “She is fucking kidnapped. By your people.”
“You had one job, Nikolai.” He thundered. “I trusted you with my daughter. If anything happens to her, I will kill you.”
I will kill myself too. Without Ava, there is no reason to live.
“I have taken more care of her than you did in the last decade.” I bit back. “Keep your fucking people on a leash. Once I find the motherfucker who did this, he won’t remain alive.”
“This is not the doing of the people of my kingdom. This may he hard for you to digest but not everyone is bad. How do you know it’s done by my people?”
“Because she is on a ship right now. Going goddess knows where.” I screamed.
“I’m changing the water current.” He said patiently.
“Thank you.” I took a deep breath.
“Keep me posted.” He cut the call.
I let out a breath.
Going downstream was a totally different story. They must be in the open sea by now, well out of reach.
“Now what?” Remi asked.
Exactly. Now what? For the first time in my life, I had no plans.
“We need reinforcements.” I replied.
‘Avalyn is kidnapped.’ I mind-linked Dimitri.
‘What?’ He asked incredulously.
‘Exactly what I said,’ my breath got caught in my throat, the reality finally sinking in. ‘We are at a river bank. She is a boat being taken Goddess knows where. I don’t know what to do.’
I punched a tree out of anger. And then again. And again.
‘Where are you?’ He asked me.
‘At a river bank.’ I grunted. I fucking hated this. I feel so helpless.
‘Come back home. We will figure this out together.’ He told me.
Yes. I needed more people to help me think. Or else I will drive myself crazy and end up with no solution.
Silently, I made my way back to the car and Remi followed me. I drove us back to the palace, feeling sick to my stomach.
Images of Ava with a collar, kneeling by the foot of some faceless asshole flashed across my mind.
I blinked fast, willing the image to go away.
She thinks of me as her saviour. What good am I if I can’t even keep her safe?
Upon reaching the palace, I went straight to the living room where I knew Dimitri would be. He was there, talking to Symon, Algebra and Chiara.
“What happened?” Dimitri was on his feet.
Clenching my jaw, I recited the whole story.
“I’ll take Remi with me and comb that house for any clues.” Chiara said and left.
My entire body was shaking. I didn’t know what to do. How to find her. Where to even begin. My heart felt weak.
But I steeled myself. Without Ava, nothing mattered. Certainly not my feelings. I needed to use my head. I need to think.
I paced around the room.
I shook my head, trying to push all the dark thoughts away.
Ava has powers. She is strong, stronger than all the supernaturals. She can defend herself.
But then how the hell did she get kidnapped in the first place?
There has to be something.
There has to be a clue I can work with.
Tessa and Eliyah arrived running in the west wing, breathless.
And then it clicked. “Ava has her phone on her right?”
Tessa shook her head. Ava never had the habit of carrying around her phone. I punched the fucking wall. I was so fucking pissed!
My hope deflated.
This didn’t work.
“Was she wearing any sort of jewellery?” I asked Tessa.
“Huh?”
“Jewellery. Was she wearing any?” I repeated.
She nodded. “She was wearing a necklace and a ruby ring.”
“Was it a grey coloured heart shaped stone?” Please be it. Please be it. Please be it. She usually wore the necklace with that pendant when she went out. The grey stone was exactly like the colour of my eye. And Ava used to say it made her feel like I was watching over her when she went out. And I was. Literally.
“Yes.” She replied.
I took a breath of relief. “It has a a tracker.” It was the first piece of jewellery I had gifted her. I was extremely paranoid about her safety then because she was weak. She didn’t have a wolf or her powers. It was an assurance of her safety.
I whipped out my cellphone and opened the app. It took the fucking app a couple of minutes to load.
The location was in the middle of the ocean. In the middle of fucking nowhere.
We’re fucked.