Crucible of Fate

gone.
    Everything was whirling. I’d just gotten Yuri back—I couldn’t lose him. It simply wasn’t possible. What was I supposed to do?
    There was yelling suddenly, two of my men had joined me, and the sound almost shattered me.
    “My lord, we found your sheseru.”
    I was up and running again, and Logan was right behind me. Taj had been discovered and taken to the makeshift hospital. When we arrived, Dr. Pakhom was working frantically to stop the bleeding as Taj fought to keep an oxygen mask off his face.
    I reached him and got around the doctor trying to cover his mouth. He grabbed my hand, and they squished together with blood.
    “Hanif Tarek has ten men,” he rasped, and I saw his pallid skin; he was ready to pass out. “They shot Jin when we came up to the house. I didn’t see them, I wasn’t ready and then Jin went down and Yuri got in between a machete and Jin, and—oh God, Domin, he’s dead… I’m so sorry. He’s dead.”
    My knees went out and I sank to the ground beside the bed. The same bed Yuri had been in earlier in the day.
    “But you have to save Jin. Jin… save….”
    “Get out!” Dr. Pakhom screamed. “I can’t save men if you don’t— Get out!”
    Everything spun, and I was grabbed and lifted and yanked. I realized Logan had me and I was being dragged after him. Then we were back outside in the hot, sticky night air.
    “Where?” Logan demanded. “Tell me where they would be!”
    “I—I don’t—”
    “Domin!”
    Jamal’s words came back to me then, our conversation about the tribe of Feran.
    “Conceal him?”
    “Yes.” Jamal nodded. “If they were to take him into the catacombs of Abtu to hide him or simply abandon him there, then for us, who are not familiar with the cavern, it would be highly unlikely that we could locate him….”
    “Domin!” He yelled again.
    “They took them to the catacombs,” I apprised him. “Hanif wouldn’t think we’d ever go there because we don’t know them. That’s where they are.”
    “You’re certain?”
    “I am.”
    “Okay,” he said, and that quickly, I saw his reason return, saw the frenzy leave him, and watched him take a breath and settle.
    “Kabore!” I yelled over at my steward. “I need you to get keys to a car and meet me at the catacombs now! Right now!”
    “At once, my lord!”
    He never second-guessed me, so by the time we reached the Hummers, he was there with five men. Logan and I got in the back of the one Kabore pointed at, and Koren followed, scrambling in after us as Kabore got in the passenger seat and one of my men slid behind the wheel, ready to drive.
    “Where are we going?” Kabore shouted.
    “To the catacombs,” Logan roared. “Domin knows that’s where they went.”
    “How do you know?” Koren yelled as the engine roared to life and four other men climbed in before we lurched forward.
    “I just do,” I said, lowering my voice so everyone else would, ordering the driver to hurry.
    “Logan, we should wait to speak to the yareah or see if Rahim or Taj will wake—”
    “No, Domin knows,” Logan assured his brother.
    “This is crazy,” Koren chided. “You don’t know and—”
    “Domin,” Logan cut off his brother, his tone solid. “Yuri’s no more dead than I am,” he announced, and I when I gazed into his golden eyes, he was him again, all strength and power. “Do you have any idea what you would actually need to do to kill Yuri Kosa?”
    “It just takes a gun, Logan, which they have.”
    “Yeah, but that makes no sense,” he said thoughtfully. “If they were going to kill Yuri, they could have shot him like they did Rahim and Taj. It’s not logical.”
    I closed my eyes and breathed in and out and tried to think with my head and not my heart.
    The Hummer made it to the top of the hill, and the headlights found a black panther in the darkness.
    “My lord!”
    Logan was out of the car before it even stopped, running fast, legs flying, arms pumping, covering the ground and then falling down beside Jin. I was right behind him, glancing around for Yuri and seeing nothing.
    “Check everywhere!” I ordered the men fanning out around us.
    “Jin!” Logan howled, and I watched him wrap his arms around his mate and bury his face in his fur. “No, no, no… please.”
    I had never seen Jin so still, and it was hard to watch Logan lift the large head of the panther into his lap.
    “I need you! Your son needs you!”
    Nothing happened, and I noticed Logan’s shirt