Rise Against: A Foundling novel (The Foundling Series)

by Hailey Edwards

  Nodding as if that’s what she figured, looking a little proud of herself for ratting me out, which prompted the call from him in the first place, she led the way back into the living room where the men chatted away like old friends. And, much to my disgust, there was a new light in Rixton’s eyes when he looked at Cole. Dare I say it was admiration? Adoration? Hero worship?

  Geeze. Let a guy ride your dragon, and all of a sudden you’re back in his good graces.

  After we all sat and did the small talk thing for a few seconds, Rixton reached the end of his patience.

  “I rode a dragon today,” he said proudly, not the smoothest segue ever.

  “You did drugs? When? Where? Why?” Sherry’s eyes popped wide. “Luce is FBI now. She’ll take you in for testing. Maybe charge you with possession. What is wrong with you, blabbing in front of her like that? Putting her in this situation?”

  “You’re thinking of chasing the dragon,” I cut in. “He means he literally rode on the back of a dragon.”

  Edging the baby to her side of the room, Sherry glared at me. “Did he share his drugs with you?”

  “This is not going well,” I told Rixton. “You shouldn’t have led with the dragon.”

  “That’s the best part,” he protested. “Okay, we’ll rewind. Sherry, love of my life, lust in my loins, hot momma of my angel baby, divine goddess of — ”

  “Cut the crap.” I slapped the back of his head. “Get to the point.”

  For the first time in memory, the family man slipped behind the cop mask in his own home, and Rixton fixed calm, clear eyes on his wife, ready to pace her through questioning. “You’ve heard the shit people talk about Luce.”

  “Yes.” Sherry darted her gaze between us. “I frequent the coffee shop and read the papers.”

  Meaning she grasped the fine line between gossip and what got printed.

  “They weren’t all wrong about her.” Rixton reached for his wife’s hands, gathered them in his. “Luce isn’t human. She’s a dragon.”

  “She’s the dragon you rode?” Puzzlement turned to righteous fury. “Are you trying to tell me you’re having an affair? With Luce?”

  “What?” He reared back, stunned. “No. I would never cheat on you.”

  “Then what are you talking about with the drugs and the riding dragons?” Tears sprang to her eyes. “Johnny, I don’t understand. You’re making less sense than usual, and that’s really saying something.”

  Before he somehow made it worse by implying Cole had been involved in a threesome with us while we were all high on narcotics, I clamped a hand over his mouth. “Shut up, Rixton, and let me handle this.”

  And then I told Sherry my story, in my words, and waited to see if I still had a friend at the end of it all.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The glazed eyes told me Sherry was struggling to process long before I finished my story. I wasn’t known for lying. I was considered an honest cop, a straight arrow, but the story I was peddling threw her as much as her husband nodding along with the high points.

  Voice soft and tentative, she turned to her husband. “You knew about this?”

  He brought her hands to his mouth and kissed the backs. “I found out today.”

  Sherry searched his face. “You believe her?”

  “I saw Cole,” he said calmly, electing to edit me out for the moment. “He’s a dragon. An actual dragon. With wings. Like a flying dinosaur but less extinct.”

  “I don’t understand.” She faced me. “How long have you known?”

  “Luce was ignorant of her heritage until the night she helped Harold Trudeau pull Jane Doe from the swamp,” Cole said, speaking to her for the first time. “After that, I had no choice but to meet with her and warn her about the dangers of a world she had no idea existed.”

  “This is a lot to process.” Sherry stroked her daughter’s cheek. “I can’t … ” She shook her head. “I can tell you all believe what you’re saying is true, but how can I believe it too? Luce as a demon is … impossible. She’s one of the best people I’ve ever known. She has a good heart. She was a cop, for pity’s sake. A damn good one. How can she be evil?”

  Explaining how Ezra had slanted public opinion against us from the dawn of time would only cause more smoke to pour out of her ears, so I kept it simple. “We’re not evil. Not all of us anyway. We’re just different.”

  Cole measured her reaction to that news. “Would you feel better if you saw proof?”

  “No.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “Sorry, but no. I need time. I don’t need … ” She raked her gaze down Cole. “Thank you, but no. I can’t … ” Her bottom lip wobbled. “Luce?”

  “I’m still me.” I crossed to her and sank to my knees in front of her. “I’m still Edward Boudreau’s daughter. I’m still the same woman who pinned on a badge and rode Canton’s streets each night. That’s me. That’s who I am. The rest of this … I’m still figuring it out too.”

  Head loose on her neck, she nodded and stood. “I’m going to lie down.”

  “Sherry … ” I bit my lip, but she gathered Nettie and escaped to her bedroom.

  “She’ll dissect what she’s learned, absorb it, then shelve the information where it belongs.” Rixton linked his hands in his lap, his cop face still on. “Have a seat.” He exhaled. “I can tell there’s more. Something happened. Cole didn’t decide to initiate you on a whim. It was too risky for you, and him, if it went bad. You mentioned Jane Doe. She kicked this off, right? She had the same bands as you do. What’s the connection?”

  Ah, Rixton. Using one of his best investigative techniques. Letting a suspect think they were off the hook before he yanked the line taut. “She was, technically, my sister.”

  Given all he was risking, I had no choice but to tell him the rest. Conquest. War. Famine. Death. I explained who I was, or had been, to the best of my ability. He peppered me with questions, pressing until sweat broke along my spine. Then, just when I caught my breath, he gave Cole the third degree.

  He wanted to know it all. Everything. Down to who Cole was to me, why he should trust him, let alone the rest of the coterie, and a hundred other things I had never thought to question the night I learned all this.

  And I hated, absolutely loathed, how parts came across sounding like the recruitment spiels I had been giving — should still be giving, if I wanted world-saving numbers on my side — when I meant the exact opposite.

  We hit a snag in a predictable spot, and I hated filling in those blanks more than all the others combined.

  “There’s one more thing you should know.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat, the remembered pain of the moment, the guilt still brimming beneath the surface of every interaction. “Maggie is alive.”

  “I’m sorry.” Rixton mimed cleaning out his right ear. “It sounded like you said Mags was alive.”

  “She is,” I forced out. “She’s not … ” I cleared my throat. “She’s not the same.”

  “Why didn’t you lead with that?” he demanded, his temper sparking. “Does her family know? Of course they don’t. Stupid question. God, Luce. She’s alive? Really? I thought … It’s been so long … ”

  Explaining what really happened to her, and how she survived it, drained the color from his face. The awe and wonder from earlier had been erased by the horror of her near death and the circumstances of her rebirth.

  I told myself this was what I wanted, for him to grasp my life wasn’t just riding dragons through the sky and scratching winged cats. There was an ugly side to this world, my world, and I wished he never had to see it. But turning a blind eye didn’t mean it wasn’t still there, only that it caught you unawares when you glimpsed it on the edge of your vision. He was a cop. He understood the actions of a few weren’t a barometer to indicate the worthiness of the many. But he was also Maggie’s friend, and he was hurt that she had been alive all this time, that I had known that, and we kept it from him.

  “She had to make a clean break. It wa
s best for everyone.” The excuse sounded weak, even to me. “She’s okay. All things considered. She’s adapting.”

  “I’m going to talk to Sherry,” he said, rising, “and then I would like you to take me to see Maggie.”

  “We can do that.” I waited until he left then sagged against Cole. “That sucked.”

  Sighing into my hair, he wrapped his arms around me. “Not everyone’s good opinion can be bought with a dragon ride.”

  “She’s my friend. She’s been my friend for a long time. She was my friend when Rixton hated my guts.”

  “She’s also a new mother, struggling with raising a child in a violent and terrifying age for any parent, and she’s just learned that monsters under the bed are real.”

  “I guess,” I grumbled, still wounded. “It was stupid to think I would get two free passes.”

  “Sherry knows Luce the woman. Rixton knows Luce the cop. She’s going to judge you based on the person she believes you to be. He’s going to judge you based on the judgement calls you made over the years and their outcomes. It’s not a fair measuring stick, so give her time to absorb it all.”

  Happy to cuddle him, I kept my position while we waited on Rixton to rejoin us.

  “Ready.” He walked past ten minutes later and held open the door for us. “Your ride or mine?”

  “Really?” I glanced down the hall to the master bedroom. “She going to be okay?”

  “Pretty sure she convinced herself the FBI had kidnapped you and was holding you against your will. She’s got a thing about the FBI. Maybe she watched one too many Men in Black movies, or maybe it’s because of her Area 51 fixation, I don’t know. She doesn’t trust suits. When you joined, she wanted to be happy for you, but then you dropped off the face of the planet. That’s why I confessed to our … difference of opinion. She didn’t believe you had gone dirty for a hot minute, but I tried.”

  Sherry, the closet conspiracy theorist. “I had no idea she had a thing for aliens.”

  “She was careful not to geek out on you.” He winced to admit, “She worried you would think she sought you out, befriended you, because of your origins and not for my sake.”

  A cynical part of me accepted it as a real possibility, but even Mags had approached me to play the role of a lion in her pretend circus when we were kids. Our friendship grew from there, so even if curiosity or opportunity had brought Sherry into my life, I had no doubts she stuck around because she cared for me.

  “Tell her not to sweat it.” I shrugged. “Whatever made her reach out, I’m grateful for it.”

  Relief swept through him, easing his tight shoulders. “You’re good people, Bou-Bou.”

  “I will eat you if you call me that again,” I threatened, but it only made him smile.

  *

  Rixton got his wish. We flew Air Cole to the farmhouse. He didn’t whoop or holler this time, but he did grin from ear to ear until I worried his face might split in half. Maybe he hadn’t been kidding about his childhood obsession with dragons.

  Cole landed with a thud that brought Miller to the front door with a wave for us.

  Home.

  I was home.

  That’s what my eyes kept telling me, but my heart had other ideas.

  Without Dad, the farmhouse was just a bunch of wood nailed into a familiar shape, not my safe place.

  I didn’t have one of those anymore.

  “Hey … ” The greeting died on his tongue when he spotted my plus one. “You brought a guest.”

  Rixton slid off Cole like a pro then offered me a hand down I didn’t take. The prolonged contact with him jangled my nerves, making me twitchy. I disguised it as bravado, jumping to the ground with a bare flex of my knees to absorb impact then cocking a daring eyebrow at him that ensured his next dismount would blow mine out of the water.

  “You remember Miller.” I clasped Miller’s shoulder, the touch grounding me after prolonged contact with Rixton. “Rixton saw Thom. He had questions.”

  “Ah.” He flicked a glance at Cole as he strode up behind me. “That explains a few things.”

  “A few,” Rixton agreed, “but not all.”

  Miller’s nod acknowledged Rixton, but he didn’t offer more.

  The question I had wanted to ask first popped out next. “How is Maggie?”

  “Better. She’s not at one hundred percent yet, but she’s getting there. With Portia boosting her immune system, and her back to a familiar altitude, she ought to normalize within the next twenty-four hours.”

  Canton’s two hundred and thirty-three feet was a huge drop from the six thousand, one hundred and forty-eight feet in Virginia City. Hopefully reacclimating was less painful for them than the initial shock of such high elevation.

  Scanning the area, Rixton asked, “Where is Maggie?”

  Tension coiled in Miller’s shoulders, and his voice lowered a register. “Why are you interested in Maggie?”

  “She’s my friend.” Rixton eyed Miller with suspicion. “Who is she to you?”

  “Miller.” I slid my hand down his arm. “Tell Mags that Rixton is here. Let her make the call to see him or not.”

  Anger and hurt twisted Rixton’s expression when he swung his head toward me, but I exhaled. “She needed time after … everything. She’s made peace with her situation, and she’s accepted her old life is behind her. At least for now. You’re a blast from her past, and I’m not sure how she’ll handle it. She may not want to see you. She avoided me for a long time.”

  “I’ll respect whatever decision she makes,” Rixton said, and that must have been the right thing. Miller walked off to relay the message while my old partner looked on. “Are they a thing? What about Justin?”

  “Justin can’t know about Maggie. She has to let him go.” I worried my bottom lip with my teeth. “Miller is her friend, for now. They mesh well. But she’s also half charun at the moment. When her bargain with Portia expires, I don’t know what will happen between them, if anything, and they don’t either.”

  “Justin is a good guy.” Rixton massaged his wrist. “I hate for Maggie to lose him, to lose her old life.”

  “Me too.” I would never forgive myself for the decisions I had made, or the fact I would make them all over again under the same conditions.

  “You two are the reason she’s alive.” He repeated what the others had told me a hundred times, but hearing it one hundred and one didn’t alleviate the guilt. “That’s got to count for something.”

  “Rixton.”

  Maggie’s joyous shout carried from the porch where she emerged with Miller on her heels. “I can’t believe you’re here.” She flung herself into his arms, and we all ignored the momentary stiffness on his part. “I missed you. How’s Sherry? The baby? Everyone?”

  “Damn, it’s good to see you, Magpie.” Rixton’s voice strained. “I thought we’d lost you.”

  “I’m still here,” she said, and I couldn’t tell if she was reassuring her or him or both of them.

  “How are they treating you?” He released her after pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Luce cracking the whip on you?”

  “Maggie isn’t coterie.” Miller shoved past him, bumping Rixton with his shoulder. “Conquest doesn’t own her.”

  “And Luce wouldn’t whip me.” She aimed that last bit at Miller. “It’s a figure of speech. Luce is always thinking up things to keep me occupied. She’s driven, and she drives me to be my best. That’s all he meant.”

  Miller grumbled what might have been an apology just to earn a smile from Maggie.

  “Coterie dynamics are complicated,” I said in response to Rixton’s frown. “There’s a balance I have to maintain between who I was and who I am. I’m learning them, and they’re relearning me.”

  He made a thoughtful sound, one I knew from years of working with him. It meant he was intrigued, and that he would be keeping his eyes and ears open. Nothing eluded him when he was fully engaged in the pursuit of the answer to a puzzling question, and that’s
what my life had become to him.

  The pair wandered off together, aiming for the bench under the old oak tree, and I watched them go, happy Mags got one reunion at least.

  Sniffing the air, Cole wandered toward the woods with a crinkled brow while Miller walked with me to the kitchen so I could snag a bottle of the water I kept chilled for the realtor to hand out to prospective buyers.

  “It’s okay to be happy,” he said quietly. “I know how much Rixton means to you. Having him back in your life could be a good thing.”

  “He told his wife.” I gripped the fridge handle until the old plastic protested. “Sherry knows as much as he does.”

  “What happened to Harold and Nancy isn’t your fault.”

  “They were my family, and the cadre targeted them because of that, because I loved them.”

  “Death won’t cross that line. You have a solid truce.”

  “For now.”

  Death always came for you in the end.

  And that’s why we needed every willing body on the final battlefield, whatever form it took. We had to end this, and I couldn’t help picturing this war as a giant, bloody meat grinder. I kept feeding it, and it kept chewing them up, spitting out the pulp.

  We needed more. Fighters. Time. Strategy. Time. Hope. Time.

  But unless I had a fairy godmother I didn’t know about, the odds of any of those landing in my lap were slim.

  Through the window, I spotted Cole disappearing through the trees. “Where’s he going?”

  “I don’t know,” Miller said, a smile in his voice, “but it would be a shame if he went there alone.”

  Immediately suspicious, I narrowed my eyes at him. “What, exactly, were you and Mags up to while you were waiting on us to arrive?”

  “I can’t see Cole anymore.” Ignoring the question, he leaned around me. “I hope he’s okay out there. All alone. With danger closing in on all sides. Just a lone dragon in the wilderness. In the coming dark.”

  Despite the fact the backyard was hardly wilderness, a lone dragon could do a hellacious amount of damage, and it was barely twilight, a tremor of anxiety was getting the best of me. “What about Rixton?”