Wooo! Another update? It MUST be blitz week. Thought you'd enjoy a little peak into Jaxon's world. As always if you find any needed edits please feel free to mention them to me. ENJOY!

I yanked the covers off her. "Get up!"

"Jaxon, what the—"

If looks could kill, I'd be dead. "Jessica, get the hell out of bed now. We leave for Acklemar in an hour. So, get your girly crap together and move it."

"Are you crazy?" She yawned and snatched the covers from my grip. "I'm not leaving. Now, get out of my room before I start screaming and wake-up Robin."

Robin. I could feel the heat rise to the surface of my skin with the thought of his betrayal. Traitor.

"Suit yourself. But before you make up your mind you might want to know Kellan's already home. Oh, yeah, you'll love this bit of information, Wren and Robin are with him."

She sprung up to a seated position like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on her. With her hair standing on end every which way and the scowl on her face, she looked like she was going to burn down the room around us.

"Hold on, wasn't she going out with you last night? Geez, Jaxon, only you could screw-up a date with a girl so badly she'd take off with another guy." She pursed her lips and ignited a small flame in her palm. She forced down a breath of air, closed her hand and extinguished the flickering light into a tendril of smoke.

"Yeah, well, if you weren't such a she-devil, maybe you wouldn't still be begging at Kellan's feet for him to take you back. By the way, if you haven't noticed, I don't think he's interested."

Her eyes narrowed, and the charms around her neck started to glow. "Takes one to know one. But at least I don't have to call home and let daddy know I've lost Wren, again."

I wasn't in the mood for her crap today. I had enough to deal with. But she was right that my father was going to be pissed when he found out.

"You know, personally, I don't care what you do. But if the Circle finds out you did less than nothing to help, my head won't be the only one he's calling for. So, if I were you, I'd get moving."

"You just had to go and pick her, didn't you? Forcing me to help in your insane little quest for power."

I ground my teeth together, and my body tensed. That wasn't why I chose Wren.

She tipped her head to the side, gasped and then started to laugh. "You're in love with her? Oh my God." She laughed even harder. "You're so pathetic."

"And you're such a—" I held my breath and flexed my fingers. "No wonder Kellan moved half a galaxy away to get rid of you."

Her laughter died, and her eyes lit up an intense yellow. "I hate you." She picked up a pillow and threw it at me.

I snagged it out of the air before it hit me. "Well, it's costing me a fortune to take your miserable butt with me. So right now? I don't really care what you think." I chucked the pillow back at her on the way out, leaving her sitting there to stew.

"You sure you don't want to leave her behind?" Dystan leaned against the wall looking less than impressed. "We'll be travelling some rough terrain, and frankly, I don't know if princess is up for it."

"Jessica?" I laughed at the thought of her roughing it. "She's no princess, even if she acts like one. I'm not worried about her. She has to do what I say or pay the consequences with my father."

"Well, that's enough motivation for anyone to shut-up and take orders." He looked at his fingers and dusted them off on his jacket. "Going to pack?"

I nodded and started walking up the stairs toward my room. I stopped when I heard something smash against Jessica's door. She was now yelling, how ridiculously stupid I was, along with a few other choice words. Dystan cocked his head a looked at the door.

"You're certain she needs to come with us?"

I forced the air from my lungs. "Yeah." If anyone could help play interference between Kellan and Wren—it was Jessica.

"All right, it's your money. I'm off. I'll be back in an hour to collect the two of you."

"Where are you going?"

"I need to pick-up some supplies, find a colleague to help and buy a large roll of duct tape for princess's mouth. There's no way I'm going to be able to make a tight deadline like this if I have to listen to that for the next four days."

I laughed. Yup, definitely hired the right guy for this job.

"What's the fastest way out of this maze?" he asked.

"That way."

He walked down the hall, descended the stairs and disappeared from view. I took a deep breath, shook out my hands and decided I better head toward the basement and make a call, then pack.

This isn't going to be a fun call to make. I could already hear my father's voice in my head.

When I got downstairs, I walked past the bar and stood in front the wood panel that flanked the entertainment unit. I pushed on the square panel at the top, the until I heard a click. The wall swung open, and I could see the scrying bowl at the back of the cellar attached to the cement foundation. The empty basin filled with water when I pulled the cord next to the dish. My charms dangled from my hand creating a small current as I circled them through the water. When I pushed my mind through the syrupy expanse, my charms lit up, and a moment later I heard him.

"Jaxon." My father's voice boomed.

I swallowed. "Yeah."

He had grown his beard out since I'd last spoke to him. It made him look even more intimidating than usual. "I don't hear from you in a year. Then there's a ripple in the circle so large, half of Acklemar felt it, and I happen to get a call from you the same day? That's not a coincidence, is it?" He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Wren does have a talent for disappearing."

He looked up. "She's back on Acklemar? You're sure it's her?"

The thought of her fading from view locked in Kellan's embrace flashed through my mind. My lungs tightened, and it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. "Yeah, I'm sure."

He let out a deep guttural roar, pulled a dagger from his belt and drove it deep into the wooden table next to him. "You let her escape again?" he yelled.

The waters in the basin shook with his voice. "I don't even think she knew she could do it. If it wasn't for Kellan—"

"Kellan!" He grabbed the edge of the table with both hands a flipped it over. "No one makes a deal with the Fire Circle and goes back on it. Ever! That girl is going to pay for her decision to run off with him."

Say nothing. Don't give him anything more to blow up about. I held my breath and tried not to appear rattled by his rage.

He grabbed both sides of the basin. He lowered his face to the water. He was so close, all I could see was his eyes turn to a glowing red. "You better hope you find Wren before I do or she might not be as pretty the next time you see her."

The next thing I saw in the bowl's water was his belt, the leg of his pants and then his feet before the transmission cut. He must have pushed his basin over and smashed it again. It's been great talking to you too dad.

I held on to the sides of the bowl and hung my head. I couldn't help thinking how angry I was when I forced a connection to Wren. She's going to hate me. Me and my stupid temper.

"Wren!" I hollered letting her name echo and bounce off the walls. I've never felt so hurt, alive, angry, elated, confused or happy with anyone else. She drives me crazy. I only hoped I wasn't too late to find her, apologize and with any luck win her back.

An hour later, Dystan and his colleague were standing on the doorstep ringing the bell. They had on huge backpacks and looked like they were ready to take us up, Mount Everest. "I know you said the terrain was going to be rough but is all that stuff necessary?"

He nodded. "Do want to be alive when you get there?"

"Jaxon, there's no way I'm going anywhere with those two mountain trolls."

I eyed the roll of duct tape hanging from the outside of Dystan's pack and couldn't help but smirk. "Suit yourself." I shouldered my bag. "I'll be sure to give my father your regards when I see him."

She stood up and bumped her shoulder into mine when she walked past. "I'm only going so I can get Kellan back from that wretch of a partner of yours."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself."

"Are you two done bickering?" Dystan said. "We have to hike an hour to get to the labradorite slab at the top of Swallow Falls still."

They filed out the door in front of me. I took one last look around the foyer and slowly closed the door behind me. "Let's go get her."

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