Chapter 13 · Mom's SOS

The second my mother's face vanished from every screen in Ash Meridian, I shoved Dorian hard enough to make his bad shoulder hit the marble wall.

"Where is she?"

His jaw locked.

Around us, the lobby had gone weirdly quiet. Reporters still crowded behind the security line. Cameras stayed raised. Half the lights on the media wall were dead, and the other half kept flashing the Ash Meridian logo like nothing had happened.

My mother had just screamed my name on every damn screen in the building.

Dorian looked at me, not the cameras. "Mara. Lower your voice."

"No. You lower yours. Where is my mother?"

A security guard took one step toward us.

Dorian lifted a hand without looking away from me. The guard stopped.

"I don't know where Elara is," he said.

"Bullshit."

His eyes went flat. "I know where she was being held three months ago. That is not the same thing."

"And you thought maybe that was something your wife should know? Before she got a hostage video shoved in her face?"

The word wife came out ugly. I hated that it still made something jump in my chest.

His fingers curled at his side.