Jacob was the first to straighten. He looped an arm over my shoulder and pulled me into his side. “Come on, Jessa babe, it’s time for you to get some rest … and a shower wouldn’t go astray.”

I elbowed him, although he definitely had a point. I smelled like old ass that had been left to sit in the sun for a week. We made quick work of the distance to our room. I finished the cake and Louis kindly disappeared the plate for me. He grinned when I asked him he wanted a tip. If this sorcerer thing didn’t work out, he had a very successful career in hospitality waiting for him.

The ride up in the elevator was as horrible as always, but clenched hands were the only sign of my discomfort. I hoped anyway. I couldn’t wait to see the rest of my pack, and Mischa too. I’d actually missed my sister, she was working her way into my life.

Exactly how it should have been over the years.

Louis opened the door to our rooms. I didn’t bother to ask how he got himself onto the security. He was Louis, that was all I needed to know.

The main living area was empty, the floor soft on my poor abused feet. I turned to Jacob. “Where is everyone?”

“When Louis arrived, we were spending our time searching for you. He pretty quickly inferred that we were all dumbasses, and that you were most certainly in Faerie. I was the logical one to accompany him, since the land would recognize me as its own.”

“Inferred,” the sorcerer murmured. “I’ll have to work on making myself clearer.”

I ignored the idiocy in the room. “Are you telling me that the land could have started attacking us too?”

Jacob gave two hard nods. “Yes.”

Great! Sign me up for the all-inclusive week at Faerie land. Holiday from hell.

I moved across the room and opened the door to the bedroom I shared with Mischa. It was empty. I poked my head back around the corner. “Where’s Mischa?”

Jacob’s expression shuttered before recovering in almost the same moment. I narrowed my eyes on him. “Speak, Jake, or I’ll have Braxton beat it out of you.” I liked to fight my own battles, but with the Compasses, Braxton was the true threat.

The fey ran a hand through his white hair. “Something happened while you were gone. We all kind of lost our shit and … things went down between Mischa and Max.” His full lips thinned. “Tension has been pretty high, and, well, she hasn’t been around much.”

I couldn’t imagine my slightly timid sister wandering around this place on her own. What were they not telling me? I furrowed my brow and opened my mouth to blast the shit out of him, but Louis interrupted me before I could let loose.

“She’s fallen in with the twins.”