Harper again tried to get out of the bath. “Let me the fuck out! It’s too hot!”
Again, Knox held her down. He hated to force her to stay there, hated the accusatory glitter in her eyes. “I’m sorry, baby.” His head whipped around to look at Levi. “How long do we have to keep her in cool water?”
“Mia didn’t say. I’ll ask.” Digging his cell out of his pocket, Levi left the room to make the call.
Harper grabbed Knox’s arm. “Something’s happening to the baby, isn’t it?” Her shoulders shook, eyes tearing. “I’m losing it, aren’t I?”
“No, no, no,” Knox quickly assured her. “Someone tried to hurt you with magick. Your system is fighting it. That’s a good thing.”
She grimaced. “It doesn’t feel like a good thing.” She sucked in a breath and then hunched over again.
Knox rubbed her nape. “If I could do something, if I could help, I would.” But despite how powerful he was, he couldn’t do a damn thing to take away her pain. He was built to destroy, not to heal. And for once in its very long existence, his demon regretted that.
Levi re-entered the bathroom. “Once her skin cools, you can take her out of the bath, but you need to keep her covered with a towel or blanket. Basically, we just have to wait it out.”
It took half an hour for her fever to break so that they could take her out of the water, but the cramps lasted for over an hour. It was a further forty-five fucking minutes before her blood no longer felt hot. Then, wrapped in her snug terry robe and huddled under the bed coverlet, she finally fell asleep.
Stood over the bed, Knox scrubbed a hand down his face. His jaw ached from how hard he’d clenched it as he’d fought to keep his demon from rising. The entity was a little calmer now that she no longer suffered, but it demanded vengeance.
“Thatcher,” Knox spat. “It fucking has to have been him.”
“Maybe, but we can’t just go to his house and grab him, Knox,” said Levi. “He’s a powerful Prime. His lair is almost as large as ours.”
“I don’t fucking care. Look at her, Levi. He’s an incantor; she was hexed. Are you not seeing the correlation here?”
“I’m seeing it. But I’m also seeing the consequences of you killing him without proof. You remember what happened to the last demon when he killed another Prime without evidence of wrongdoing, don’t you?”
Yes. Most of the other Primes had united against the demon and killed him. “You don’t think it’s Thatcher,” Knox sensed.
Levi sighed. “You said yourself that he’s too smart to do anything that would cast suspicion on himself. Think past your anger, Knox. I know it’s fucking hard, but try. For Harper.”
Knox inhaled deeply, rolling back his shoulders. Before Harper, he’d never let emotions get in the way of his decisions – mostly because he hadn’t felt many. He called on that practical side of himself as he paced, thinking it through. “The person who sent the emails was very careful to conceal their identity. Hexing her would not be a careful move for Thatcher; it would be damn stupid. He’s not a stupid person. And, yes, it would be odd for someone who’s been so cautious to then repeatedly act in ways that led back to them – I know all this. But what do you want me to do? Sit back and wait for whoever it is to make another move? If it is Thatcher, he’s notorious for being like a dog with a bone. When he has an issue with someone, he doesn’t let it go. He won’t just stop.”
Larkin, who’d arrived half an hour earlier, raised her index finger. “Um… about people with issues.”
Knox turned to her. “Did you find a direct link between Thatcher and Harper?”
“Not one, so I checked to see if he’d had any problems with Jolene. I wondered if maybe he had beef with her and he was using Harper and Heidi to hurt her or something like that. Thatcher’s never had any major issues with Jolene, from what I can tell. But Jonas has.”
Keenan’s brows snapped together. “Jonas?”
Larkin nodded. “And it was very recent. It’s not clear what happened. Just that he wanted something from Jolene and she refused him, so he threatened to make her pay for it – something along those lines. I’m not saying this is related to everything that’s gone on lately, but I thought it was worth mentioning.”
Tanner’s eyes narrowed. “Jonas may have planned to hurt Jolene by taking Heidi and by hiring hunters to steal Harper’s wings.”
Larkin shrugged. “Possibly.”
“Fuck.” Knox pulled out his phone, dialed Jolene’s number, and stalked out of the room. He was in the hallway when she answered. He got straight to the point. “Why didn’t you tell me you had problems with Jonas?”
There was a silence of sheer surprise. “Why would I? That’s my business, not yours.”
“It is my business if he has something to do with your granddaughters being targeted, since one of them is my mate.”
Jolene sighed. “Knox, I’ve had problems with many Primes. It’s the curse of having a small lair. What’s this about? You really think Jonas is responsible?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. But I’m not willing to rule out any possibilities. I need to know what problem you two had.”
“Jonas saw me and members of my lair talking with Lou at the anniversary shindig you threw at the Underground.”
Knox ground his teeth. “It wasn’t a shindig.”
“In any case, he later came to me with a rather surprising request.”
As Jolene repeated her conversation with the Prime, Knox’s jaw hardened until it ached. “How long ago did he approach you with this?”
“A few weeks before the hunters went after Harper.”
“And you didn’t think the two things could be linked?”
“No. I assumed it was the Horsemen, given that they’d already targeted both of you twice before.”
Knox couldn’t even fault her for that, considering he’d done the same damn thing. “It was a reasonable assumption for you to make,” he allowed. “Jonas was no doubt counting on people to blame the Horsemen.”
“Can we be sure he’s our boy? We have to be completely certain before we take action, Knox.”
Halting, Knox inhaled deeply. “At the moment, no, we can’t be sure. I’ll be calling for all the Primes to meet with me tomorrow. I need to look him and Thatcher in the eye. I need to see how they react to me and what I have to say.” While the practical side of him believed that Thatcher wasn’t at fault, Knox’s emotional side wouldn’t allow him to take chances.
“I’ll be there. Now, why don’t you tell me what this has to do with Thatcher and why you sound as though you’d like to see someone drowning in a pool of their own blood?”
And here was where Jolene would lose her mind.
CHAPTER TWELVE