Many nights I'd sped off into the darkness on Leof's customised bike. I'd done so to outrun myself, to escape the cohort, or to leave his echo behind me. On the morning of Will's disappearance, I rode more slowly than I ever had before, even though I would've loved speed. Adrenalin was pumping and I felt frantic, but I couldn't let that control me. Care was essential because nothing, not one clue as to what had happened to him, was going to get past me.
Following the route which Will would have taken from Fenn's camp to Milbank, I noted every detail of my immediate surroundings. Mentally cataloguing every tire mark on the road took time, but I didn't want to miss anything. I'd rather inspect every skid line, where someone had slammed their brakes on too hard and left rubber smeared over the asphalt, and every dent knocked into lampposts and street signs, than miss a vital clue.
Fenn and I investigated every barn and abandoned building we passed in the hope of finding Will alive and well. The Grian Amulet protected me from the rising sun, and I was grateful for that, as nothing could've pulled me from the search. I didn't care how slow our progress was, or how long it took to reach Milbank, not as long as I knew I'd done everything I could to find him.
Miles of road disappeared under our wheels and the first early morning commuters were beginning to pass us, blaring their horns and shaking their fists, long before we found the cohort Range Rover which Will had been driving. It was in the middle of a field, with deep grooves cutting through the dirt where the vehicle had ploughed across the agricultural land. Broken branches and bits of debris from the broken down fence, which the car had crashed through, were scattered behind the vehicle in a chaotic trail of destruction.
Whatever hope I'd retained of finding Will safe, disappeared. It forsook me as I sent my bike bouncing over the muddy and uneven terrain, towards the abandoned Range Rover. At least... I prayed the vehicle had been abandoned.
I wouldn't be able to cope if I found ashes or scorch marks.
If Will had died, I doubted I'd be able to bear it. I'd as good as lost Conn; I couldn't face losing Will as well, not after how he'd supported me. He'd been my anchor when no one else could be, and the thought of him being ripped from the world, of him being forced into Valhalla, horrified me. My stomach twisted at the thought because I knew, without a doubt, that if such a fate were to befall him, Tiw would torture him to get to me. To get to Conn.
In a way, what was waiting for me in the Range Rover was as terrible as finding ashes, because it represented such a similar fate. What filled me with terror wasn't the blood on the by-then-deflated airbag. No, airbags often broke noses, so that was nothing. What caused steel bands of dread to constrict around my chest was a scrap of card, a simple slip of paper with faded print and ragged edges. A ticket.
Seeing the press-printed card, which had been tied to the steering wheel, was like a punch to the gut. I recognised it instantly, as familiar with the winged, feminine silhouette which decorated the front as I was with the event it advertised. The slice of my past was more than a hundred years old; one of Ragnar's original tickets to the Celebratio Sanguinem, and I assumed it was Osgar's calling card.
Osgar had Will. The realisation settled over me like a chill, burrowing deeply, painfully, into my bones. Osgar wouldn't have killed him. Ragnar had taught his student too well for that. Instead, he'd keep Will alive. Osgar would make Will suffer, and he'd make sure Conn and I knew about it.
My blood pounded in my ears as I struggled to draw a breath, on the verge of a panic attack. Fenn saw my fear and he understood what the ticket meant for Will. Osgar had taken so many vampires to use and abuse. Why not take someone who was close to me too? Why not take that next step? It was logical. Hell, even Fenn had gone and made such a move in the end. He'd taken Lex. Osgar had taken Will. In the distant past, Ragnar had taken me in the hope of getting to Conn. I should've predicted the manoeuvre. I should've prevented it.
