Taken (Ava Delaney #4)

by Claire Farrell

  “The alpha’s sister concerns me. Parading ourselves in front of the Guardians can’t work out well,” Folsom said, tossing a rib bone on his plate with some dissatisfaction.

  “She’s good people,” I insisted. “She’s not like them. And helping her will make Aiden warm to the next part of the plan. Esther’s ambitious, but she isn’t as tightly tied to the Council as her brother. She plays fair. But I should warn you all. This is dangerous, regardless. Whoever is in charge of the markets is on to me. They’re watching me. And I’m getting more and more concerned that someone in the Council or the Guardians is involved in this, too.”

  “So we’re all going to die,” a small man at the end of the table said. “When you were in the cells, did you see my brother? He looks like me; he has dark curly hair, and—”

  “I saw him,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  “What did they do to him?” He straightened as if preparing for the worst.

  “He ripped something out of his sleeve, swallowed it, and died before they could stop him.” I gulped at the memory, expecting anger, but he slapped the back of the person next to him.

  “That’s him all right. Wouldn’t let ‘em take him alive, he always said.” He brimmed with a pride I found difficult to understand.

  “But Cam is right,” Folsom said after a few minutes. “We still don’t know how to make a path from here to England. Or if it’s really possible.”

  “But we’re not going to England,” I reminded him. “We’re stepping out of one world and into another. It’s more like a gateway.”

  “And she came here,” Val said. “She found us without an invitation. She opened up her own doorway to get to us. Never forget that.”

  “I have a friend who might know,” I said. “Or at least have some idea of what we can do. Can I leave and try to find out?”

  Val’s shoulders tightened, but Leah said, “Of course. We can trust her.”

  They all appeared to listen closely to the teenage girl.

  I stood up from the table. “I’ll just talk to Helena, and then I’m off. I’ll be back tomorrow at the latest. There’s no way anyone can just sneak in here, is there?”

  “Only you,” Cam said grimly. I really didn’t like him.

  When I went into her room, Helena was weeping again.

  “We’re going to get them back to you,” I promised her. “They’ll be here before you know it.”

  “What are they like?” she asked.

  “They’re very close, and I like them a lot. Lucia doesn’t speak, but she sees things and shows them to Lorcan, then he says them aloud. They can shroud themselves, or a large area, easily.”

  “They kept their names,” she said in wonder.

  “That was probably Lucia. She doesn’t forget. She showed me you, but it was just a brief image, and I wasn’t sure…”

  “She remembers,” Helena said, smiling. “That’s enough for me. If I die before they come, will you tell them how much I loved them, and that I never stopped caring for them or searching for them?”

  “I’ll tell them. Of course I will. Helena, the way they’ve created a hiding place, is that fae magic?”

  She nodded. “It’s not creation. It’s technically stealing some space and using it to hide what’s already there. If they hide it well enough, nobody ever notices it’s gone. It’s something the fae have always done to protect themselves. It’s also how they take over territories, but that’s too long a story for today. Although, not all of them have the skill anymore. It’s become quite a rarity.”

  “So who made this place then?”

  “I don’t know for certain.”

  “But you can guess. Lorcan has a sword. Someone left it in their house while they slept. When he touched it, it lit up, and he could see writing along the blade.”

  “The sword!” She tried and failed to sit up in her excitement. “The family sword. He must be alive, Ava. He must be.”

  “Who must be?”

  “Their father. He must have survived, somehow. Maybe he was the one who created this place. Maybe that was his way of helping me. By giving me a place to hide.”

  She dissolved into tears, and nothing I could say seemed to help.

  Folsom pulled me out of the room. “She’s like this often of late. It won’t do to excite her too much.”

  “Is there anything we can do for her?”

  He shook his head. “She’s dying, Ava. There’s nothing that can be done for her now. She’s had a longer life than most, all things considered. It’s time for her to rest.”

  “Who made this place, Folsom? Who started all of this?”

  “A fae. We named the place after him. He was an idealist. He wanted to create a sanctuary to protect those unfairly treated by the rules of the Council. We had a few deals together, and he made this place for safekeeping, warned me to take in his family when they arrived. He planned on returning himself, but he never made it. I haven’t learned what happened to him. I knew him after he had left his people, you see. But I do know this, he was an important fae, too important to be allowed to breed with a human.”

  “Helena’s husband?”

  “Likely.”

  “So why haven’t you told her?”

  He sighed. “She knows, I think. But there’s no way of telling her things sometimes. No knowing how she’ll react. I don’t want to upset her unnecessarily by discussing painful memories. You see how she is now.”

  I rubbed my arms, feeling nervous. “What would happen if they discovered a way in here?”

  “We would all die. Try not to let us down, Ava.”

  He let me go with that plea. I wouldn’t forget it. I practically flew home and didn’t relax until I made it inside the cul-de-sac. I had so much to think about, so much to decide and figure out, but being home felt safer.

  To my relief, Emmett hugged me at the door.

  “I’ve missed you, little dude,” I said.

  “You’re hurt.” His face wrinkled, and I touched my still aching forehead tenderly.

  “I’m okay. Do you remember an old woman, Emmett? The woman who warned you to hide what you could do?”

  His face shut down of all emotion. “Yes.”

  “I found her today. And I think I’m going to be able to shut down the market forever, so no child has to hide themselves again.”

  He didn’t look as happy as I expected him to, but I followed him into the living room to find Peter and Carl laughing together.

  “We have a lot to go through,” I said. “Carl, I need you to put your research hat on. I’ve had a screwed up night.” I relayed everything that had happened as quickly as possible.

  “There must be something natural that you do,” Carl said when I finished.

  “I was thinking that, but it seems dangerous.”

  He rubbed his chin. “But you did it at Folsom’s.”

  “Yeah, I did.” I shrugged. “I’m still not sure how. Besides, I knew they were there. This is a bit different. Let’s not forget that I don’t seem to have any real control over the things I do. What if I screw it up?”

  “What if this Val chick screws you over?” Peter asked.

  “I think she’s okay. She hates the blond angel boy about as much as I hate Gabe, so we’re on the same level. Plus, she’s strong, and she knows her way around. She could be a big asset.”

  “Until the Council try to arrest her for breaking into the cells and helping someone escape,” Peter said. “This is the Council we’re talking about. As soon as you start talking about opening hell gates, there’s gonna be an uproar.”

  “Well, I’ll have to be a bit more persuasive then. Carl, sorry there isn’t a lot of literature here, but do you think you could do some research anyway? Even a hint of what I should do would be great. I’m going to make some phone calls. I’ll be in my room.”

  “What about me?” Peter asked.

  I stared at him. “Take care of your son.”

  His eyes narrowed, but I ignored hi
s displeasure and headed up to my room. I sat on my bed and rang Gabe. “Are you fallen?” I asked him as soon as he picked up the phone.

  There was a pause. “Why do you ask that?”

  “I need help. Again. It’s about the market. And Esther. And some other stuff.”

  “Explain.” He sounded snappish.

  “I can get to Esther through a back door. But I kind of don’t know how to open it. Yet, I mean. And once I do that, I can do the same with the slave market, but I need backup.”

  “Well, I can’t go near Hell.”

  “Unless you’re fallen.” I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

  “Ava, I… damn you, girl.”

  “Is that a yes? Look. We need to shut down that market and figure out who’s running the place. We need to get Esther and the twins here to figure out which kind of what the fuckery is going on in England right now. And we need me to open up some hell gates so we can sneak in to all of these places.”

  “You need a starting point,” he said dully. “You can’t just open hell anywhere you like.”

  “But if you could, how would that happen?”

  He made a noise that might have been a laugh or frustration. “I’ll get back to you, okay? I’ll try to find out how we can work this.”

  “But don’t tell anyone what I’m doing.”

  “Fine. But Ava, how did you hear about the fallen?”

  “I met one today.” I hung up before he could ask me any more questions. I needed to use the people he was looking for to help bring Esther home. It was too close for comfort, but I had no choice. I had to make the most of everything on hand. War was coming. We had to clean our own kitchen before that happened.

  “You okay?” Peter asked from the doorway.

  “Yeah, just hoping Nancy will be okay at the hotel. It’s probably for the best though. I don’t think it would be good for Emmett to be around her.”

  He sat on the end of the bed. “She wouldn’t hurt him, Ava.”

  I shrugged. “I’d prefer if she wasn’t seen here.”

  “Shay was here before.”

  I stared at him blankly, unsure of what to say.

  He gazed at me steadily. “Why was he here?”

  “How should I know? I wasn’t here.” I frowned, and he looked away. Was Shay the source of the tension?

  “Your plan is stupid,” he said after a moment of awkward silence.

  I pulled my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around my legs for some kind of security. “Better than hiding in here forever and being burned alive by magical brands.”

  “I forgot, sorry.” He reached for me. “Everything’s gotten weird all of a sudden. It’s all changing too fast. I should be going with you.”

  I stared at his hand, afraid to take it. “You don’t have a choice this time.”

  “It’s always your way.”

  “No, it’s always the right way. My deal, my job. You got what you wanted. I haven’t. And some of us don’t have the time to act ridiculous when a Garda who worked on a missing child case is actually interested in said child.”

  He dropped his hand and crawled up to lie next to me, leaning his head on his arm. “You care about him, don’t you?”

  “Shay?”

  He laughed. “No, Emmett. But now that you mention it…” He brushed his hand across my stomach.

  “Of course I care about the kid,” I said, completely ignoring his remark about Shay.

  “Yvonne keeps calling me, asking to see him. The kid has more ladies fawning over him than I do.”

  I grinned. “Dita likes him.”

  “Is that why she keeps telling him how stupid he is?”

  I burst out laughing. “Exactly why.”

  He caressed my cheek, turning my head gently so I faced him. He leaned over to give me the softest kiss he had ever pressed against my lips. His gaze held mine, and he ran his thumb across my cheek affectionately. “I’m sorry I haven’t been acting the way you need me to.”

  My stomach curled up with pleasure, despite my constant anxiety. “I’m glad you’re here now.” I drew him in for a deeper kiss, relishing the feeling that he was with me, really with me, for the first time.

  “I don’t know how to take care of him,” he admitted when he pulled back, his mood changing dramatically. “He prefers you to me.”

  “And who could blame him?” I teased, but he didn’t smile. “Oh, come on. It’s just because I was here first. It’s in his head that I was the first one he saw. I took care of him when he was scared and alone. That’s all.”

  He gave a shuddering sigh. “And who took care of him all of the times he was scared and alone in the market?”

  I leaned against him as if I could push his guilt away. “Helena took care of him in the dark. She told me she made him hide how much power he had.”

  “Which brings us back to the question, how does he have power in the first place?”

  “I told you my theory.” I shrugged. “You or his mother probably have some non-human ancestors. That story we heard in Kerry about the god water and special children and stuff, it makes some kind of sense. He’s not a normal human child.”

  “That would serve me right,” he said with a grin, pulling me closer.

  “We have work to do,” I said, but I let him wrap his arms around me. I snuggled against his warmth, the solid figure who would protect me, but he couldn’t come with me anymore. Neither could Carl. Esther was gone. I was alone, except for Val, who was probably as likely to murder me as help me.

  “Think we’ll ever know everything?” I asked. “I mean, all of the answers. Do you think we’ll ever have explanations for everything that happens?”

  “No. But we’ll keep doing whatever we have to do anyway, right?”

  I traced the cross on his wrist with my fingertip and felt him tremble. I had no idea what I was going to do, or even what I wanted to do. I had a list of things I had to do, but after that, then what? After getting the twins and Esther home, I was going after the slave markets. Maybe after that I would figure out what Eddie was doing, or perhaps I would make it my mission to topple the Council. Maybe one day all of the wrongs would be righted, and what would I be left with? Where would I go from there? Mrs. Yaga’s words had imprinted on me, and I realised there had to be some long-term plan. At some stage, I would have to choose to give up or go on, and if I gave up, I had to decide what would come next.

  “Where will you be in ten years?” I asked.

  “Last month, I would have said dead.”

  I giggled. “Morbid git.”

  “Now I say… hopefully, I’ll have a grownup son.”

  “Ever think about having more?”

  “No. The world we’re in isn’t for children.”

  I smiled. “Maybe one day it will be.”

  Carl called us, and we both headed downstairs reluctantly. We still had a lot of work to do.

  Chapter Nineteen

  We came up with pretty much nothing. Emmett had gone to bed by the time we gave up on books and the internet. Not for the first time, I desperately wished I was in contact with others like me, just so I could ask them questions, a million questions that nobody seemed willing to answer. Most of them began with the word why.

  “Maybe it’s something simple,” Carl said as we brainstormed futilely.

  “Like what?” Peter asked. “She stands in the middle of the street shouting, ‘Open sesame’?”

  “No need to snap at him,” I said, scribbling on a piece of paper. “I went through a gate of sorts today. Maybe I just need to use that place to create another space. I need to use my other sense somehow. Use it for what it was meant to do.”

  “But how can you guarantee you’ll get to Esther? What if you wander around forever trying to find the right path?” Peter sounded as frustrated as I felt.

  “I don’t know. There have never been any guarantees here. I asked Gabe for help. Maybe there’s something he can find out.”

  Peter st
ood suddenly, startling Carl and me. “Stop asking him for help. He’s going to own every hair on your head by the time you’re finished with him.”

  “What else am I supposed to do?” I practically shouted, only reining myself in at the thought of Emmett hearing me. “We can’t go to England. We have to take a shortcut. I’m the only one who can do it.”

  “There have to be others,” Carl said.

  “Of course there are, but I’m the only one here right now.” I lay my head on my hands, leaning on the table. Peter sat back down and rubbed my shoulders. “I can do it. I know I can. I just need to figure out how.”

  “How did you find Becca?” Carl asked after a strained silence.

  “I just… found her. I knew her, and if I pushed past the boundaries, it was like… some part of me was able to follow her and find her. One time, I kept pushing, and it was like a part of me moved around, and it was here, but not really here.”

  “Astral projection?” he asked. “Or just something you do? Either way, why can’t it work that way for Esther? You know her as well as Becca, right?”

  “Yeah, but Becca was connected to me somehow. I can’t explain it, but she was already on my radar. It was like I was supposed to find her, as though that was my job.”

  “So make finding Esther and the twins your job,” Carl said.

  Peter sat up straight. “What do you mean?”

  “She’s connected to the twins, too. Just look at those brands if you doubt it, but we both know how attached she gets to people. Why wouldn’t she be able to find them, too? And Helena should have some kind of connection with her own children, so maybe being close to her and her memories will help.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “The last time I pushed too hard, I got stuck.”

  Carl looked doubtful. “Stuck?”

  “Yeah.” I scratched my head, trying to think of a way to explain it. “The night Esther, Peter, and I looked for Becca, I pushed harder than ever before, and I was on some new level, a different plane. It’s hard to explain, but everything was different, and I was able to move for miles by just looking in a direction. I tried to get back once I found Becca’s path, but I was stuck. I couldn’t move, and a figure came to me and just… pushed me back out.” I mimicked by pressing my palm against my forehead.