As Sel blurs from one end of the room to the other, opening the bathroom doors and the closet, a heavy, cold feeling settles in my stomach. “Sel?” When he stops in front of me, he roars in frustration. “Sel—”

His eyes find mine, and they are wide, lost. “They took him. They took Nick.”

I pace the room calling his phone without success for half an hour before Sarah stops me and pushes me to the couch. She disappears into the kitchen mumbling something about caffeine. Panic and tension have set every Legendborn on edge.

“Has anyone else tried calling him?” Tor asks for the fifth time.

“Kidnappers don’t tend to let their hostages call home, Victoria!” Sel bites out. He shifts beside me in the chair, and I feel the heat of aether radiating from his skin.

“How do you know it was Lord Davis and Isaac?” I ask around the catch that has formed in my throat. I’m trying to push fear for Nick out of my immediate consciousness, but the efforts are no good.

“Because,” Sel says, shoving himself to his feet, exasperated to be repeating his story for a third time, “Isaac mesmered me. I was up late in the kitchen after we returned from the cave because I couldn’t sleep. Isaac slipped into the house, I turned around, and he was just there—taking over my vision, eyes locked, full mesmer. Then I woke up thirty minutes ago in the woods two miles from here. He got me out of the picture so he could grab Nick.”

“And Nick’s not in danger?” Tor demands.

“No. I would feel if his life was being threatened.” Sel shakes his head. “Doesn’t mean he’s safe, though.”

“But Nick and Bree were in the same room,” Felicity says in a wavering voice. She looks horrible. Her hands won’t stop shaking. My heart hurts just looking at her, trying to be strong when Russ is… gone. “Why didn’t Isaac take her? Control the Scion of Arthur?”

Sel’s already considered this. “Because an Awakened Scion of Arthur he can’t control with powers he doesn’t understand is too risky. Dangerous, even for a Master.”

“Speaking of powers he doesn’t understand…” William enters the room with more records. “A Medium, you said? And…?”

Sel watches me respond as he paces. “I—yes. A Medium and… a Bloodcrafter. I can generate my own aether.”

William whistles. “Handy. The Medium bit explains why Arthur can possess you the way he did. We sometimes inherit personality traits but… what he—and you—did is nothing I’ve ever heard of—the Pendragon speaking directly through his Scion—”

“You’ve never heard of it before because it’s never happened before.” Sel drags both hands through his hair. “William, this isn’t the time—”