Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 1063 - 126 : Dark Artifacts

Chapter 1063: Chapter 126 : Dark Artifacts

*Sasha*

The muddled conversation I’d managed with the other Sasha using my dream dancer powers did not comfort me in the least. If anything, it made me more desperate to find her. She seemed to be more like Stone’s prisoner now.

What would happen if I didn’t find her before the baby was born?

I decided to go to Queen Lena to see if she could help. I wasn’t having any luck with my dream dancer powers, but she was the White Queen, the Goddess incarnate. Surely she’d at least be able to point me in the right direction.

The guards stopped me at the palace gate, looked at my belly, at each other, then let me pass. I guessed Lena and Xander had warned them that they might run into more than one Sasha, and to let me in without incident.

I appreciated that. At least they were on the lookout for her as well.

When I got to the doors of the palace, I asked to see Lena and, again, was brought straight to her sitting room–no questions, no delays, as though she’d been expecting me and just waiting for me to reach out.

“Sasha,” Lena said, standing up from a chaise lounge and walking over to take my hands. “It’s so good to see you.”

“You’ve been expecting me,” I shared my guess.

Lena gave a sad half-smile. “I knew you would need my help eventually.”

“You were right.” I sighed and sat when she gestured for me to join her on the lounge. “I’m having trouble contacting her. She’s somehow gone beyond my reach. I don’t know how, but it’s nearly impossible to reach her. I can’t find her most of the time, and when I can, it’s just this distant flicker.”

Lena nodded thoughtfully. “Hmm. You think she’s with Stone?”

“You’re well-informed,” I said.

“It’s my job. So you do think she’s with Stone,” Lena replied.

“Yes. Yes, I do,” I confirmed.

“I would imagine he is using a dark artifact, then, to block her dream dancer powers and to shield her whereabouts from you,” Lena mused. “It wouldn’t surprise me, anyway. He does seem to have a tendency to get his hands on powerful objects he has no business using.”

“Tell me about it,” I groaned. “I just... I don’t know what to do. Even with all these powers I got from Morianne’s staff....”

“Let me help you,” Lena suggested.

I blinked at her. “How?”

“I’m a powerful White Queen. You’re a powerful Dream Dancer. Surely if we combine our powers, we’ll at least be able to make a dent,” Lena said.

“Makes sense,” I responded.

Lena held out her hands to me again. “Shall we give it a try?”

I laid my hands in hers. “Can’t hurt.”

Lena closed her eyes and began murmuring to herself.

I closed my eyes as well, seeking my own meditative state.

The magic rose between us, separate at first, then twisting around us like licorice. It took some time, but finally, our powers combined, and we sat in the center of a whirlwind of power.

“You take the lead,” Lena said, eyes still closed. “It is you who has found her before. You’ll know what we’re looking for.”

With our combined power, I cast a net out around us in all directions, seeking the spark of dream dancer magic that would be the other Sasha.

Our net yielded no little-energy fish, however. I trembled, the magic hard to hold and the disappointment positively crushing.

I cast out again, as far out as our power would go, stretching it to its absolute limit in the forests outside the city. I could feel Lucas clearly, at home. I could sense Sara and Rochel. But I could not sense that niggle of energy that was “me.”

“Lena, it’s not working,” I cried in despair.

“Keep trying,” Lena replied, sweat beading on her forehead, her teeth set and chattering with the force of the power we were trying to control. “Don’t give up.”

I could feel my underarms soaking through my shirt, sweat dripping between my breasts. Twice more, I cast the net of power. Twice more, nothing.

Lena doubled over, and I almost lost her hands.

“We should stop–” I began.

“No. There!” Lena shouted, directing my mind as though slapping my consciousness in a different way.

“There’s nothing–” I stopped myself.

There was something.

It wasn’t the other Sasha we sensed, but a great big sinkhole. Magic was being pulled into a cottage not far from the area of the city where I’d been taken by Donovan.

“That’s something,” Lena wheezed.

I couldn’t argue that. I pushed against the sinkhole experimentally, overloading it with the sheer amount and force of magic we were wielding.

The sinkhole flickered and tried to eat it all up, but it was not stronger than our combined magic. A few minutes of dumping magic down into it overwhelmed it, and I felt her.

She was there.

“Yes!” I cried triumphantly.

“Ugh,” Lena said and released my hands.

Our magic snapped back to each of us so hard that we both fell off the chaise.

“Ouch,” I groaned.

“Let’s not... do that... again... anytime soon,” Lena panted, running a shaking hand over her hair.

“Agreed.” I sat up with difficulty and gripped the lounge, hauling myself to my feet. My legs felt like spaghetti, and they were not happy to hold my weight.

Lena got herself onto the chaise, not even trying to stand. “Well,” she said tiredly. “I suppose now you will go see Lucas and formulate some sort of plan?”

“Yes,” I responded. “I will do that.”

“The Royal Guard warriors are at your disposal, of course,” Lena said. “Make good use of them.”

I nodded. “We will. Thank you, Lena. I know this wasn’t easy.”

“If it were my baby, you would do the same,” Lena replied. “Now, go. I’ll call and make sure Ian is ready for you when you get to the gate. I would imagine, if Stone realized we overloaded that artifact, that time will be of the essence.”

“Hopefully, today we’ll have both–Stone in prison and the other Sasha back with us, safe and sound,” I said.

I gave Lena a quick hug, then wobbled down the hall, back to the entrance of the palace.

Ian was waiting patiently when I got there. He ushered me into the backseat of Lucas’s town car.

“Get us home as fast as you can, Ian,” I told him quickly.

Ian didn’t need to be told twice. His foot hit the floor, and we shot through the city streets as though we were drag racing.

I fastened my seatbelt, then gripped the door, but did not once ask him to slow down.

When we reached the house, Lucas was already standing out on the driveway. He must have seen us speeding up the hill.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, hugging me to him when I stumbled out of the vehicle.

“We found her,” I said excitedly.

Lucas’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Then a hopeful smile crossed his face. “That’s great!” He looked at me, at Ian, at the car, then back at me. “Where is she?”

“Stone has her on the edge of the city. We couldn’t just go snap her up. He has some sort of power-dampening artifact. And... there’s the baby to consider. I don’t want either of them to get hurt,” I replied.

“Alright. Then I suggest we go in at night,” Lucas said.

“Lena says the Royal Guard warriors are at our disposal,” I informed him. “That will help. Though... it’s still risky.”

“I think it’s much riskier if we continue to let her stay in Stone’s care,” Lucas pointed out. “I’ll go in tonight with the Royal Guard as backup.”

I snorted. “If you think you’re going anywhere without me, you’ve got another thing coming.”

Lucas sighed. “I was sure you were going to say something like that. Okay. Okay, you can come, too.”

“Like I need your permission.” I pulled away from Lucas and stomped toward the house.

“Where are you going?” Lucas asked, trotting along at my heels.

“I’m calling the Royal Guard. We need to get this rescue ready,” I said.

Lucas scrubbed the faint stubble on his face. “Well, tell them to be ready for anything. Who knows what Stone has up his sleeves?”

***

Under cover of darkness, Lucas, Brady, several members of the Royal Guard, and I crept through the dilapidated portion of the city where Donovan had kept me. I’d told Lucas it was possible, after sensing our attack on his artifact, that Stone may have taken the other Sasha anywhere. I just hoped and prayed they hadn’t left the area.

Without Lena, my senses were not quite as powerful, but they were nothing to sneeze at. This close, I could sense a fog of magic ahead of us that just got thicker and thicker as we approached the cottage.

‘I think they’re still there,’ I said to Lucas over the mindlink.

‘Good. Then we don’t have to go chasing them all over creation,’ Lucas responded. He looked at the members of the Royal Guard and told them to surround the cottage, but not to move except on his signal.

Everyone was hyper-alert. My stomach twisted at the idea that this raid might somehow endanger our baby, but Lucas was right. It was more dangerous to leave her and the baby and in Stone’s clutches.

As wolves, we padded in, closer and closer. The artifact, if that was indeed what Stone was using, sucked at me as though I was being wrapped up and strangled by a squid.

‘It’s here,’ I said to Lucas. ‘They’re here.’

“Stay frosty, everyone,” Lucas ordered the others, making sure they were all ready for anything.

The Royal Guard moved in as close as they could to the cottage without the wind catching their scent.

Lucas leaned back into position, about to spring at the front door.

‘Stop!’ I heard in my mind.

‘Stop!’ I repeated to Lucas.

Lucas uncoiled himself and turned to look at me, confusion in his eyes.

‘I can feel her,’ I said to Lucas. ‘She’s talking to me.’

Lucas sat back on his haunches, and the Royal Guard did the same, everyone looking at me for direction.

‘I’m here!’ the other Sasha told me. ‘I’m here and Stone is down for the count. Please, don’t wake him! Just come in and get me.’

I frowned. ‘What do you mean down for the count?’

Lucas looked at me expectantly.

‘I knocked him out,’ she said. ‘Please, hurry, I don’t know how long it will last!’

‘Go in,’ I said to Lucas, ‘but carefully. She has somehow knocked Stone out, but she doesn’t want us waking him up.’

Lucas huffed. ‘And are we trusting her now?’

I felt along our connection, and she easily let me in. I felt her honesty and her fear of Stone, her willingness to return to us for the baby’s sake.

‘We are. She’s going to let you in. Don’t go breaking down the door,’ I replied to Lucas.

Lucas seemed unconvinced over our bond, but I knew he trusted me. He shifted back to human form, as did the Royal Guard.

The door to the cottage opened, and the other Sasha peeked her head outside, looking at all the naked men.

“This way,” she whispered, gesturing for us to follow her into the cottage.

I prayed this was not a trap.

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