“Only as a child. Your grandmother and I were friends for a very long time. I was sorry I couldn’t do more to unite her with your mother and aunt before she died. Your grandmother was a good woman, she didn’t deserve such heartache. To lose one child to your father and his clan was terrible, but to lose them both—well, your aunt did what she felt she must, I suppose. Perhaps if I had a younger sister who’d become the infatuation of the gods, I’d sacrifice my freedom to be with her too, who knows?” For a moment, Snow’s smile was tinged with sadness and her eyes were deep pools. Then, like a veil descending, she became cool and businesslike once more.
Snow flicked her gaze onto Nick. “Agent Sarkus, have you recovered your composure?” Nick stared at her, unmoving. “I appreciate the emotional repercussion of your daughter’s abduction—are you capable of participating in this investigation or do you wish to retire to your living quarters?”
I scanned the room and realized Lan wasn’t present. Nick tightened his grip on my hand. “I’m not leaving, General.”
Snow nodded her head firmly and turned to face the room. “Agent Blackwood, I find nothing in the human’s mind to indicate he had any knowledge of what you uncovered. You’re certain there was no error?”
Blackwood’s face was set into an even deeper frown than usual. “One hundred percent, ma’am.” He tipped his head toward the seated parents. “We were lucky enough to have three level one red witches with us so we caught the trail with relative ease. I saw Murphy load the child into the van myself.” A flicker of genuine emotion warmed his ice-blue gaze as he glanced at Nick. “I’m so sorry, Nickolai. If I’d been half a minute earlier…”
Nick’s face was deathly pale despite the warm gold sheen of his skin. He dragged his free hand through his hair and turned to Snow with a voice as heavy as thunder. “Murphy took my baby? They’re the ones abducting the kids?”
“It would seem so, Nikolai. I’m sorry.” Snow’s voice was quiet. Nikolai ripped his hand from mine with a roar and lifted an empty chair, smashing it against the wall in a hail of splintered plastic and twisted steel. I stared at the other faces in the room—parents, agents, Snow’s soldiers, Izzy, Teddy, Mac—desperately searching for an indication of who this Murphy might be. I racked my brain for any particular memory of the name but my mind drew a blank. Nick grabbed another chair and Snow raised one finger. “Agent Sarkus, you throw that and I’ll have you restrained until this mission is complete. Am I making myself clear?”
Nick took a shuddering breath and, with obvious effort, lowered the chair to the floor. Blackwood and his men moved closer to the front of the room. Nick’s fists dripped with blood as his fingernails sharpened into claws. He glared at Blackwood. “Is it payback, Alexander? Is that why Murphy took Maya—because I cut him in front of his men yesterday?”
Blackwood’s brow creased. “Don’t do this, Nick. Don’t go down that path. Murphy does what he’s told, and he wasn’t sent to Galway yesterday for Maya.”
I felt the weight of half the eyes in the room on my skin as Blackwood paused and with a bolt of sudden clarity I gasped. In my mind’s eye, I saw Markus in the parking lot, growling at his mission leader. Back off, Murph. My breath came in ragged gulps. Murph. Murphy. My father’s men. My father was abducting the children. My father had Maya.
Izzy eased Patrick’s head from her lap and sprinted across the room as tendrils of darkness began to swirl around the edges of my vision. “Destiny, this isn’t your fault. Nobody thinks this is your fault. You aren’t your father.” Her words were a balm on my aching heart and I clung onto the back of a chair, forcing myself to breathe deeply. “You’re the best chance we have of finding these kids, Destiny. You know your father, you know his home, and you know how he operates. We need you—”
“Agent O’Neill.” Snow’s reprimand sliced through Izzy’s words. “It’s not your place to determine who is fit to participate in a Guild mission.”
Izzy clenched her fists. “Destiny hasn’t had any contact with her father in the two years the Guild has been observing her—”
“Until yesterday. And today, a Guild child was taken,” Snow said.
“She’s on our side.” Izzy’s eyes were flaming coals. How could she be so certain I hadn’t betrayed them? I took a step back.
“I’ll be the one to determine that, Agent O’ Neill. Stand down.” Snow glowered at Izzy.
Mac crossed the room and grabbed Izzy’s hand, whispering something in her ear, but Izzy didn’t take her eyes off Snow. “If you comb her memories, her brain will be mush for the next three days. We need her conscious. We need her help if this is her father’s doing.”
Snow thrust her chin upward and I silently begged Izzy to shut her fool mouth before Snow vaporized her, but the general’s rage was diverted by a huge, heaving intake of breath from the other side of the room. Patrick was waking. I ducked past the others and brushed his hair out of his eyes as he struggled to focus. He dragged himself into an upright position and Nick rushed to my side. Teddy and Blackwood sprinted across the room and Nick stared at them. “Did Snow read him?” Teddy nodded and Nick grabbed my hand. “Careful, Destiny, he mightn’t be himself. He shouldn’t be awake. The reading should have knocked him out for days.”
“But we already know Mr. Joyce is a very resilient young man, Nikolai. Not to be underestimated.” Snow watched Patrick intently as she spoke.
Patrick’s eyelids fluttered open and I met his sky-blue gaze. His pupils dilated as they focused on my face and goosebumps covered my skin. His lips were moving but no sound came out. “Water. Somebody get him a drink,” I said. One of the parents fumbled in her purse and pulled out a sports bottle, offering it to me. I held it against Patrick’s lips and he drank greedily, his body regaining more strength with every gulp.
After a couple of seconds, he nudged the bottle away with shaking hands and fixed his stare on Snow. His voice was thick and the words clumsy on his tongue but there was no mistaking his order. “Open the door.”
For a moment, the room was silent, before Mac and Snow’s soldiers descended. The doctor tried to examine Patrick while the men fired questions. But Patrick didn’t lift his eyes from Snow. She drew her brows together for a moment and then bolted from the room with Nick, Izzy, and me at her heels. Snow barked at Nick. “How many doors are there?”
“There’s one round back, leads to the alley where we take deliveries, and the door to the street—that’s it,” Nick said.
Snow paused for half a second. “Agent Sarkus take the back door, go with him, Agent O’Neill.” She glanced at me. “I’ll take the girl with me.”
Nick growled from deep in his chest but I shook my head. “Go, Nick. Please.” For a moment, I thought he was going to remove Snow’s hand from my sleeve forcibly but he relented when I gave him a pleading stare, and let Izzy drag him toward the rear entrance. Needles of anxiety stabbed my gut as I followed Snow through the deserted café. The tables were still littered with half-eaten slices of cake and unfinished cappuccinos. I stared through the glass doors as Snow twisted the lock. The street was alive with tourists and locals alike. I watched a mother bustle past with two small children trailing behind her and my heart twisted in my chest. Snow swung the door open and peered up and down the narrow cobbled street. Her lips were tight. “What does the strange boy want us to see?”
I got the impression Snow was questioning herself, not me, but I scanned the crowd, regardless. Everything was as it should be at noon on a sunny day. The pizzeria was beginning to gather customers craving an early lunchtime treat. The vintage clothing store was packed the brim with tourists trying on fur-lined coats despite the August heat. At the top the street, the flower seller was fixing the display in front of her shop and talking to a man with a sleeping child in his arms. A child too tall to be napping in her father’s arms. I clutched at Snow’s sleeve as the flower merchant turned her plump face in the direction of The Paper Heart and gestured toward us. Even at a distance, I could see the quick
silver shimmer in the fairy’s eye as she smiled at me. “Snow.” Fear and confusion made my voice waver. “Snow.”
Snow followed the line of my vision as the man began to run toward us. He weaved through the dawdling shoppers at increasing speed, covering the distance with such haste that I had no time to process what I was seeing until he hurtled between Snow and me—straight through the open door of the coffee shop. Snow slammed the door and turned the lock as I gaped at the man and the sleeping girl. The man stared at me with eyes as dark as night and my heart stopped. His voice was as rough as sandpaper. “I didn’t know about the kids until just now, Destiny. I swear, I would never…”
It was the second time in as many days that I came face-to-face with the ghost of my past. Relief and terror pumped through my veins in equal measure. What the hell was Markus Raventhorn doing in The Paper Heart? And why was he holding a sleeping Maya?
Chapter Fourteen
“Potentially, this could be a colossal shit show.” Izzy climbed into the back of the Range Rover beside me and buckled her seatbelt. She closed the door as I stared out the window at Nick, Patrick, and Markus getting into the truck beside ours. Snow jumped into the driver’s seat of their truck and one of her men slipped into the passenger seat beside her. I tried to catch a glimpse of the guys in the backseat as the truck zoomed past but the tinted windows rendered my efforts futile.
I tugged at the sleeves of the tight-fitting black jacket Snow had given me and chewed on the inside of my cheek. “Yeah. When my father finds out Markus disobeyed his orders, he’ll be furious. We’re headed straight for a war zone.” I curled my fingers around the sheathed blade strapped to my thigh. Markus claimed he’d knocked the rest of his team unconscious to escape with Maya, but he said their failure to show up at the next drop off point would have been noted within minutes of his escape. My father would have plenty of time to prepare for an attack in the two hours it would take us to travel from Galway to Dublin. “I hope the Guild is ready to back us up. There’s no way we can evacuate all those abducted kids in three cars.”
“Yeah, I’m not talking about the mission—Snow will handle the details, don’t worry. It’s the combination of men in the back of Snow’s truck that’s got me running scared. Things could get ugly.” Izzy widened her eyes and pretended to chew on her nails as Blackwood slid into the driver’s seat with Teddy beside him.
Teddy flipped his visor down and tutted at Izzy in the mirror. “Hey, don’t tease the girl.” He turned his gaze to me. “They’ll be okay. Nick’s got himself under control now that his baby’s safe. He’s ready to kick ass and find the other kids.”
“And who couldn’t like Markus Raventhorn? He’s a warm, fuzzy ball of charm.” Blackwood’s words dripped with sarcasm as he accelerated into the traffic. “And there’s no risk at all that we’re walking into a trap.”
I grimaced. Nick had been ready to beat Markus to a pulp when he told him he didn’t know what sleep spell had been used on Maya. If it hadn’t been for Patrick’s collaboration with Markus’ claim that the witch had known nothing about the child abductions until Maya was put in his truck by Murphy, I was pretty certain Nick would have gone full tiger and ripped Markus into shreds. Or tried to, at least. The way Markus had his fists clenched made me think he was just waiting for an opportunity to explode. And even if Markus was telling his version of the truth, we had no way of knowing he hadn’t been set up to lure us to my father’s lair—to lure me to my father’s lair. I buried my face in my palms.
Izzy nudged me with her elbow as Blackwood and Teddy settled into a hushed conversation about Snow’s plan to break into my father’s home. “How are you holding up?” I stared at her out of the corner of my eye and she gave me a sympathetic pat on the knee. “That good, huh?”
“Yep.” I dug my thumbs into my temples and glared at my boots. “I knew my father was a fucker. I mean, he’s a cold, self-serving, ruthless megalomaniac—but stealing kids from their beds?” I twisted my head to look at Izzy. “Why? Why would he even do that? He’s a power-hungry asshole, but he’s not an idiot. Those kids are from ten different races and my father wouldn’t risk angering ten gods unless he thought he was going to be able to beat them all into submission. But some of the missing kids barely have level three magic or shifting ability—it makes no sense that he’d want them. Is it some elaborate plan to force me to bend to his will? He’ll return the kids to their families if I agree to become his weapon of mass destruction?”
“The Guild wouldn’t let him get away with that, Destiny.” Izzy lowered her face so it was level with mine. “He’s a god; he’s not the almighty. Snow won’t let him force you to surrender—she’ll take the kids from him, whether he likes it or not. He doesn’t own you, okay? You are a strong independent woman. Sing it for me.”
I smiled into my hands. “You didn’t grow up in a clan, did you?”
“That obvious?” Izzy grinned and lay back into the seat. “No. I didn’t. I didn’t even know supernaturals existed until I was a grown adult.”
I let out a low whistle. “Late shifter?”
“No,” Izzy said. “I’m not a shifter.” I raised my eyebrows and my gazed flitted to the two men in the front seat. Patrick told me Teddy, Blackwood, and Mac were wolf shifters. Izzy spread her fingers. “Yeah, the guys are all shifters, but I’m a witch—a gold witch. I guess the mate thing crosses race sometimes.”
I blushed, thinking of the way my body responded to Nick’s naked form earlier that morning. I twisted a piece of hair around my finger. “Yeah, of course. My father insisted on a ‘keep it in the clan’ thing. Which is pretty gross, really, considering half the clan is related by blood.” I shuddered, remembering the rumors I’d heard about some of my father’s conquests. I’d burn the world to ashes before I let Saoirse set foot in his home. Izzy’s voice dragged me from my tumultuous musing.
“Your father has a lot of children?” Izzy’s attempt at a casual tone fell flat. My father’s reputation for procreating at an ungodly rate—pun intended—was infamous.
I folded my arms. “It’s not as cozy as it sounds, unfortunately; we’re not exactly the Waltons. My father sends most of his offspring away to be raised in secrecy. Sometimes, he reintroduces them to the clan when they’ve come of age. Others…well, people say only the level one children return. Even then, their mothers rarely do.”
“But he kept you and your mom in his home?” Izzy probed.
I sighed and rubbed my hand over my eyes. “Lucky us.”
“Sorry, I’m being too nosy. I’m bad at drawing lines—just ask the guys.” Izzy’s dimples flashed.
“Well, they seem to like it,” I said. I glanced at the two men and thought of Mac back at The Paper Heart, trying to help Lan break the charm keeping Maya asleep. “Did you discover you were a super when you met your mates?”
Izzy scrunched up her nose. “Something like that. My parents bound our powers when we were babies; me and my sisters. Well, not my sisters as it turns out. My cousins—it’s a long story.”
“Sounds like an emotional whirlwind,” I said. I wondered had Izzy been badass before she knew she was a super; my instincts told me she’d been born with fire in her belly. I pitied the person who told her she’s been lied to for her whole life. I bared my bottom teeth. “You guys must have been pretty mad.”
Izzy grinned. “Oh, yeah. I was furious. Fur-i-ous. But my sister Cheska was relieved, I think. She’s working with the Guild now too, she’s really found her place in the world. She always felt like there was something a bit wrong with her, you know? Like she didn’t fit in. Seems like her powers weren’t bound quite as successfully as my other sister’s and mine.”
“She must be a blue, right? An elemental?” I asked. Izzy nodded. “Yeah, it’s always harder to control elemental powers. People say the blues have fae bloody in their ancestry. What about your other sister, she a blue? Is she working with the Guild as well?”
“No.” Izzy expression turned to ice. “
Nicole has silver powers. And she’s not working with the Guild.” Izzy’s fingers were twisted into a tight knot as she stared out the car window in silence for a moment. When she turned back, her face was bright again. “So, Markus Raventhorn—old friend of yours?”
I groaned into my hands. “Yeah, something like that.” Izzy lifted her eyebrows and stared at me. “We grew up together. His parents are high up in the clan so he was around my father’s house a lot, and we were always in the same class at school. He was funny, and kind of wild, and smart.”
“Smart? Like, bookish smart? Because I didn’t get a scholarly vibe from that angry face,” Izzy said.
“Yeah, bookish smart—all kinds of smart. He has an amazing memory for all kinds of stupid details. One of those people who can tell you what day of the week you were born on if you tell him the date.” I smiled, remembering the games we used to play, trying to see how many silly details he could remember. My grin faded. “Then we got older and booze became more important than school and we kind of drifted apart. That’s pretty much it.”
“Were you guys at an item?” Izzy flashed her dimples at me. “He kind of watches you out of the corner of his eye like maybe you were.” I mumbled something noncommittal and Izzy sat up straighter in her seat. “Were you and Markus an item like maybe two and a half years ago plus nine months?”
My cheeks burned. “Remember that line you were talking about, Izzy?”
Izzy screwed her face up. “Crossed it. Sorry. I’m going to shut up right now.” She mimed zipping her mouth shut, locking them, and throwing away the key. I felt another twinge of déjà vu, a stab of inexplicable familiarity.
I examined her face. “Izzy, were you following me before all this? Were you spying on me like Nick was?”
“No.” Izzy shook her head. “No, I wasn’t even in the country until a couple of days ago. I was training with the Guild in Boston. Why?”
“I just thought you might have been lurking around The Paper Heart, there’s something so familiar about you,” I said.
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