Brother’s Best Friends Are My Mates novel Chapter 110

Lia

Days start to blend when you are on the road. It’s hard to remember one from the next and in the beginning, all I could think about was how much school I was missing.

School had become important to me now that I was able to focus on it. I was still taking magic lessons on the side, even with me being a full-fledged licensed witch. There was no such thing as learning too much. One could always find time and opportunity to learn!

But now I was neglecting both my academic studies and magical studies. The Rosewater Coven was the cause of this and it filled me with annoyance.

Simone was feeling the same way but she was more positive about it. She kept saying that it was important for us to find this coven and if we had to put school on the backburner then that was all we could do.

Right now we were on day… god, I wasn’t even sure. We checked into the hotel and got a room for just the five of us. There were three beds and while it was going to be a bit crowded, I was fine with sharing with my four mates.

The whole pack had been through a lot the past few days. I was so ready to fall back onto the bed and sleep, exhaustion seeping into every bone in my body.

Slowly my eyes looked around the room. The hotel room was stifling, filled with the weight of failure and frustration. I sat cross-legged on the bed, arms wrapped around a pillow, watching the others simmer in their irritation.

“This is pointless,” Jesse muttered, rubbing his temples. “We’ve been searching for days, and we’re no closer to finding the damn coven.”

It was rare for Jesse to show how annoyed he was. This proved to me how exhausting this situation was. I felt for him-felt for everyone, including myself.

Simone and her two mates were next door. I didn’t wonder about them going through the same thing because I could hear Simone snoring through the walls.

During every sleepover we have had, Simone has snored as loud as a fog horn. There were times I was tempted to smack her with a pillow and wake her up.

I felt for her mates, but at least they were heavy sleepers. If they weren’t then they wouldn’t be able to sleep in the same room as her.

“We knew it wouldn’t be easy,” Matt countered, though the exhaustion in his voice said otherwise. He was leaning back in the armchair, staring at the ceiling. “They’ve been in hiding for years. They’re not going to just leave a neon sign pointing us to them.”

Colby exhaled sharply from his spot by the window. “So what? We just keep running in circles until we drop?”

I sighed, shaking my head. “No, we keep going until we find them. If the Rosewater clan knew how to put the dragon shifters back to sleep, then we don’t have a choice.”

“We always have a choice,” Jesse grumbled. “This just happens to be the shitty one.”

“Wow,” Rain drawled, flopping onto the other bed with his hands behind his head. “I love these motivational speeches. Uplifting.”

I glanced at Rain, shaking my head at him. He was getting a little sarcastic on this trip, something I wasn’t used to. Guess this traveling was starting to get to him.

My mind drifted back to the song he sang on the first day of our road trip. He was happy and while he was bored, Rain was still bouncing off the walls. His excitement was often hard to ignore, drawing you in and uplifting your mood.

This Rain was not something any of us were used to.

Jesse shot him a glare. “Forgive me for not being thrilled about wasting time in a city that doesn’t want us here.”

“Maybe it’s not about the city,” Rain mused, tapping his chin. “Maybe it’s about us. Do you ever think about that? Maybe we’re looking at this all wrong.”

Matt frowned. “What are you getting at?”

Rain sat up, legs dangling off the bed. “We’ve been trying to track them the normal way-through old records, local rumors, even a few sketchy leads. But what if we changed our approach?”

Colby folded his arms. “And what brilliant idea do you have, oh wise one?” Rain grinned. “Magic.”

All of us turned to look at him as if he were the craziest person in the world. But then it hit me that he might be onto something.

Jesse scoffed. “Oh, sure, let me just grab my wizard hat and summon a coven out of thin air.”

“I’m serious,” Rain said, unbothered by Jesse’s sarcasm. “Magic leaves traces. If we stop looking for people and start looking for residual magic, we might get somewhere.”

I tilted my head, considering it. “That’s… not a bad idea.” Jesse rolled his eyes. “Oh great, now there are two of you.”

Matt rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “It’s worth a shot. We don’t exactly have a better plan.” “See?” Rain grinned. “This is why I’m the brains of this operation.”

Colby snorted. “You’re more like the comic relief.”

Who was I to break that focus for her?

Grumbling to myself, I decided to concentrate on driving.

Lia would tell me which way to turn and I’d jerk the car in that direction. She would occasionally give me a look, but I’d flash her a soft smile. My smiles tended to scare people, but this time it seemed to calm her down.

Eventually, she told me to stop. I did and Lia hopped out of the car, looking around desperately. “Lia, what’s going on?”

“I can’t see the magical trail anymore,” she whispered, sounding more than devastated.

I frowned. “You can’t see anything.”

“No, it stopped here.”

Fuck.

“Why would it vanish out of seemingly nowhere?”

Lia sighed. “I have no idea, Jesse. I’ll try to reach out to the witch association. They might have some answers.” “They never have answers any other time,” I muttered bitterly.

The witches association just seemed to jerk us around as much as the wolf association did. Sometimes, I wondered what the point of these associations was. They never seemed to help. It was only the vampire association that helped.

“Well, I don’t know what else to do!” she shouted, tears coming to her eyes.

It was getting to her more than I realized. Frowning, I pulled her into a hug. She was shaking, obviously upset by the recent turns of events.

“Let’s get back to the group and we’ll talk about this with them, okay?” Lia was in desperate need of a rest.