A non-answer was always ominous. He pushed himself up, his body creaking, horribly weak. “How long have I been out?”

“Seven days,” Asa answered with gravity. “Which is why you need to rest and take this recovery slowly. See if you can drink this water. I’ve been using magic to keep your body going, but that doesn’t replace real food and water.”

Gabriel drank slowly, his throat feeling as stiff from disuse as the rest of him. Seven days. Nic should have been wild with worry. Something was very wrong that she wasn’t here. “Where is Nic?”

“After this, we’ll try some broth. Work you back into solid food slowly.”

“Answer the question, Asa. It should be an easy one.”

Asa winced. “There’s nothing you can do and I’d really like you to be stronger before you have to confront unpleasant news.”

Rage cleared away the cloying weakness like the sun burning through morning mist. Magic flowed into him, and he realized he was pulling still from Narlis, the woman gamely holding his hand. Abruptly he let go, guilt riding him as she swayed faintly. “I’m sorry, Narlis.”

“You’re a good boy,” she replied with a sweet smile. “You needed my magic, and Nic needs you.” She got up and tottered away at a slow pace, someone Gabriel didn’t recognize coming to help her.

Gabriel pushed up to a sitting position, swinging his legs to the floor, ignoring his body’s groaning protests and Asa’s arguments. “Tell me, right now, what happened, or I swear, healer, I will break every bone in your body.”

“She’s gone,” said a voice behind him, so like Nic’s warm contralto that he twisted around, hope wild in his heart—and his head spun with it, pain stabbing sharp at his temples. Alise. With her dark curling hair bobbed short, her face familiar and not, eyes wizard-black instead of emerald green, the sight of her rent his heart. “House Sammael arrived with hunters and a Convocation warrant for her arrest,” she told him flatly.

Gabriel struggled to assimilate all the horrible things Alise had packed into one sentence. “And you all just let them take her?” he inquired, keeping the roaring pain out of his voice by clamping it down to a steely whisper.

“They had no choice,” Asa said, clamping a hand on his shoulder. “And you need to lie down.”

Gabriel shrugged him off, the movement making his head spin. “I’m going after her.”

“You are in no shape to do that,” Asa retorted.

“I’m getting her back,” Gabriel ground out. “I rescued her before, and I can do it again.”

“Not if you’re fainting on your feet,” Asa insisted. “You can’t fool me, Lord Phel. I can feel how weak you are.”

Weak. And worthless. He’d promised to protect Nic, and he’d failed. “How long ago?” he asked Alise, who was apparently the only person willing to tell him the truth.

She grimaced. “Six days ago.”

So long. She’d be at Convocation Center by now. Dark arts only knew what they were doing to her. “And you’ve heard nothing from her?”