“Do you know he left a note? For the rebellion?”

Kiran froze. “What? What did it say?”

“It said he knew we had a gift for him, and he wanted to offer a gift in return. We assume he means Casimir, but with the increased patrols, no one on our side has actually attempted to make contact with the Stormlord yet about offering him the Locke prince. We had thought that he had gathered the intelligence another way, perhaps using magic. But…”

“But…” Kiran trailed off, piecing things together. “Now you think Aurora told him?”

“It would make sense. Why she went missing, why you could find no trace, and how the Stormlord learned of something that was supposed to be top secret. Maybe Aurora brought it up as a bargaining chip.”

Kiran needed to sit down. There were no chairs available on the dock, so he gave in, and sat himself on the wooden planks, needing to feel something sturdy beneath him. He needed to know that the world was not falling away, no matter how much it felt that way.

“Can we do that?” Bait asked. “Trade Casimir for Aurora?”

“We can try,” Zephyr said. “But truthfully, we do not even know if he has her.”

“He has her,” Kiran murmured, finally giving in to the dark, churning dread that had been stalking him for days.

“You do not know that,” Duke said, clapping a hand on Kiran’s shoulder.

“I do. We did something different that day. She had been using only benevolent souls to call storms, but that day I needed to take a Stormheart, so we decided it would be better to use a darker soul. One less monster out there. It must have led him right to us.” He climbed to his feet, his adrenaline pumping even though fatigue clung to every part of his body. “We have to do something. I brought magic. We need to start planning an attack, a rescue.”

Zephyr held out her red-gloved hand. “Take it easy, Thorne,” she said. “Let’s start with bargaining and see where that gets us.”

His eyes strayed from the water witch to the members of his team, and he was glad to see determination and courage staring straight back at him. They would find her. They would not stop until they brought her home. He was certain. That was what family did.

Time twisted in on itself. Long hours passed with Aurora alone and the Stormlord off doing goddess knew what. With her body stretched and bound, she was at the mercy of the elements. The flesh around her lips grew dry and cracked. She could not remember the last time she had been given a drink of water. Yesterday? Maybe the day before?