Smoke & Fire (Smoke & Fire, #1)

But he had a plan for his uncle. Ulrik needed to remember that before he lost what little control he had over his anger and showed Mikkel exactly who was King of the Silvers.

He was tired of hearing what Mikkel was going to do when he took over. His uncle would never get close to ruling. The fact Mikkel didn’t even realize that Ulrik had all of his magic back and was once more the King of the Silvers proved how unprepared Mikkel truly was.

Ulrik was going to enjoy bringing Mikkel low. Though it wasn’t time. Right now he got pleasure watching as Mikkel upset the order of things at Dreagan.

Though it didn’t go unnoticed by Ulrik of just how they were using Kinsey against Ryder. A betrayal. And not just any betrayal. Ulrik had seen Ryder with Kinsey. They were mates, regardless of whether Kinsey had accepted it or not.

Ulrik knew how it felt to have a woman he thought to be his deceive him in such a way. That didn’t sit well with Ulrik in the least.

It was time he went to Dreagan and took a look at the situation. Obviously Con wasn’t there or Kinsey would already be dead.

Ulrik cut his hand through the air at whatever Mikkel was saying that he didn’t care about. “I’m no’ killing Muriel. You want to take your anger out on me, then take it out on me.”

“What better way to hurt you than taking something you care about?”

Ulrik chuckled wryly. “Oh, uncle. If you really knew me, you’d know I doona care about anyone. Now, I need to return to the store.”

“I’m no’ finished with you yet.”

A third slip in less than half an hour. Mikkel wasn’t nearly as in control of himself as he led others to believe. Ulrik would have to remember that. It could be used against his uncle.

“Then what do you need of me?” Ulrik waited impatiently as Mikkel tried to think of something for him to do. “Exactly. When you need me, you know where to find me.”

Ulrik walked from the office and down the hallway to the front door. Fast moving clouds hid the moon, making the night seem darker.

It was a night for wreaking havoc.

Ulrik got into his McLaren Spider and drove away from the manor on the west coast of Scotland. It would take him a few hours to drive back to the store, but that was time he didn’t have.

He waited until he was forty minutes from Mikkel’s before he pulled over at a small village. He went inside a restaurant and used his new skill of teleporting to take him to Dreagan.

As always, he arrived in his mountain. It was the one place he knew he could go that no one at Dreagan would ever think to look for him.

From there he used the tunnels below the mountains to take him toward the mountain connected to Dreagan Manor. Dreagan was on high alert, which made Ulrik waste more time avoiding Kings who patrolled the tunnels.

He paused to look in on his Silvers for a moment. Later he would go and spend more time with them. For now, he had to find Kinsey and Esther.

Ulrik located Esther first. She was lying on a chunk of rock, unmoving. The mortal Henry North paced the cavern as Banan attempted to talk to him.

Next to Ester in the adjoining cavern was none other than Kinsey, who was also unconscious. Except Ulrik didn’t find Ryder with her. It was Con and Dmitri.

Ulrik wondered why neither of the mortals had been killed yet. Unless Con sent Ryder away as he’d done to Ulrik so long ago. But the Kings didn’t look as though they were getting ready to slay a human.

They were in their locations for battle.

Just what was going on? This wasn’t what he’d expected to see when he arrived. No wonder Harriet was so sure she could get Kinsey to do what she wanted.

Ulrik wished he’d learned exactly what it was Harriet and her team had done to Kinsey and Esther, because it was enough that they knew the women weren’t dead.

Some kind of tracking device perhaps? That was the most plausible answer.

Ulrik ducked into the cavern across the narrow corridor as he heard voices. He saw Tristan and Roman walk into the chamber where Kinsey was.

“Tristan, I need to see if you can get into her mind,” Con ordered.

Ulrik moved to the other side of the cave opening so he could see across the way into Kinsey’s cavern. He watched as Tristan moved to stand at her head. Then he placed his hands on either side of her head and closed his eyes.

“I can no’ find her,” Tristan said with a frown.

Ulrik knew then that Kinsey hadn’t truly betrayed Ryder by her own choice. Mikkel and Harriet were controlling her. And that changed everything.





CHAPTER FORTY

Ryder finished going through the log of Kinsey’s every key stroke since she’d arrived at Dreagan. He’d expected to find instances where she saved information about Dreagan and forwarded it or even downloaded it to a PIN drive.

Yet there was nothing.

Kinsey was good, but she wasn’t good enough to get through his firewalls because there hadn’t been enough time when she was alone to get through them.