by E. M. Moore
Jake was waiting there, his features etched in concern. “Did I hear you yelling at the General?”
“It’s possible.”
“Cas…”
I stopped in the hallway. “Don’t even lecture me about this. If you knew what I knew, you’d be pissed too. At least. I hope you don’t know this because if you did, and you never said anything to me…”
Fury stole Jake’s normally expressionless features. “Damen is my family, too.” He looked both ways and then pulled me into an empty room. In fact, the room was more like a housekeeping closet. Much smaller than General Etau’s office and it smelled faintly like bleach.
“Damn you, Cas. Don’t you know how fucking hard it’s been for me.”
I recoiled, shocked into silence by his outburst even though I wanted to say ‘Hard for you? Are you crazy?’
“You and Damen are my family. I have been busting my ass for these last days trying to figure out what to do about Damen, and then I get on the phone with you and you act all pissy. Goddamnit, I’m trying to help.”
“By keeping me in the dark? I’m not a little kid, Jake. I’m a fucking Guardian, too. I’ve been working, too. Did you ever think that maybe letting me in on what you were doing would’ve been helpful. Huh? This is not all on you.”
He grabbed my arms and pulled me close. Our faces were only inches apart. “Cas…”
His intense gaze seared mine. A million emotions and questions swirled in his but what I saw most was desperation.
The door swung open, swathing us in the bright light from the lined hallway fixtures.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Sanders blinked in at us. “I thought I heard shouting. What the hell are you guys doing in here? Or...” He stepped back and looked us over. “Should I leave?”
“No,” I said. “We're fine.”
I stepped out of Jake's hold and his hands fell to his sides. A wave of hurt crossed his face before quickly changing back to his normal stoic countenance. “I was just about to take Cas to our room so that we can share what we learned with her and she can share what she knows with us.”
“You've been helping, Sanders?”
He nodded.
“I appreciate it.” I looked between the two. “We need Troian here. He's been helping me.”
“Fine,” Jake said. “Take care of that Sanders?”
We didn't wait for an answer. Jake led me down a few more hallways until we got to a section of the building that looked more hospitable. There was more light and different colors that made the area feel homey-ish. In another situation, I would've said it looked like a college dorm, but compared to what we were just in, it was homey.
We stopped in the middle of the hallway while Jake unlocked a door. He led me into a small common room with four doors that led off from it. He explained that two were bedrooms, one was the bathroom, and another was a small kitchen. The room we were in was bare. Then, he opened up the furthest door to the right. It looked and smelled of Jake. His bedroom, right down to the color of his sheets on the bed, reminded me of his room from when we were kids.
A picture on the desk stood out. I walked forward and grabbed it. Smiling, I turned and held it out. “You have a picture of all of us?” I'd meant it to be a statement, but it came out more like a question. For not seeing us in years, it seemed like a weird thing to have out in the open.
“Why wouldn't I?”
I stared down at us in the picture. I was super young, seven maybe. The boys were probably just teenagers themselves. I ran my finger over Damen's face. We fought a lot back then. To be fair, I was annoying. That had all since past though. I'd grown out of that phase and realized there were bigger things at stake in Salem than just what my world had revolved around.
The hallway door banged open and I jumped. Hearing Troian's voice, I placed the picture back on Jake’s desk.
“What happened to you?” Troian asked.
I turned but Jake was already answering for me. “Etau asked her for a private meeting.”
Troian’s jaw ticked.
“Then I found them in a closet,” Sanders said.
Troian’s eyes flared and his face turned red.
Everyone stared at me so I felt compelled to say something. “Apparently Jake and Sanders have been looking into things here even though I've explained to Jake that the next time he keeps me in the dark, I'm going to kick his ass. It’s time for all of us to talk, then maybe we can figure out a way to get my brother back because I sure as hell am not relying on General Eat Me for that.”
Troian smirked, all the anger gone from his face now, and shook his head at the ground. “What did he say?”
I recounted the entirety of the conversation we had right down to the part where I'd asked him a tough question he refused to answer. Of course, the part they hated was the part about the portal being closed.
“If the portal in Stonehenge is closed, how the hell would Damen even be able to get back?” I asked, hoping they knew a way that I didn’t.
“I have a feeling he doesn't give a rat's ass about your brother, Shortie.”
“Color me surprised.”
Troian wore a path into the carpet, a finger tapping his lips as he thought. “So, you know what Cas and I have been doing, we have a necromancer who can help. You know about the conversation with Eat Me.” He paused to wink at me. “What do you know?”
Jake sat on the bed with a sigh. Sanders looked deflated, but it was him who ultimately spoke. “Unfortunately, not a lot. They’re being tight-lipped about what’s going down in Stonehenge. We heard a little from Sasha after her and her crew got back about the fighting and how the magical creatures are reacting to the...”
“Ley line crack?” I offered.
“Yes, ley line crack. What we don’t understand is the whole secrecy of it. Sasha’s unit has been there from the beginning. They send other people from units there, but never an entirely new unit. It’s interesting to say the least.”
Jake stood. “They’ve got to be hiding something. I hate that I say that about Command, but why else would they close the portals and not send in any full units to help? They’re keeping those who know what’s really going on to a minimum.”
“I spoke with Sasha,” Troian said. “She doesn’t understand it either. She was also going to talk to the general about sending in the Stonehenge Necromancer.”
“I don't think it will do any good,” I told him. “He said it was too dangerous to send anyone but an Elite there. Here’s a question. Is there an Elite Necromancer? He told me there wasn’t.”
Sanders eyebrows furrowed. “Isn't there—?”
“Yes,” Jake said. “There is.”
He smiled at the both of us. “So we can get him to send the Elite Necromancer in.”
Troian shook his head. “It’s not going to be that easy. He knows there’s an Elite Necromancer. For some reason he doesn’t want the line fixed. That’s what it is.”
His words from earlier came back to me. He’d said he didn’t trust anyone who had that much power. It must do funny things to people.
It was quiet for a few moments as we all thought about the situation at hand. What could you do when you thought the person who was supposed to be running the show was also working against you? That was a big mountain to climb right there. The underlying reason was a mystery, too. Why wouldn’t he want to find Damen? Why wouldn’t he want to fix the ley line?
“Dude, I don't know about you guys, but all this thinking has me starved. Dinner?”
Troian chuckled, but Jake and I exchanged a glance. Maybe to them this was just another adventure or mission to go on, but this was something personal to Jake and me.
I wanted my brother back as soon as possible.
As we walked out, Troian pulled me aside. “I’m sorry about all this.” When I gave him a confused look, he kept going. “Coming here for me when you should’ve been out trying to track down your brother.”
“Are you kidding me? I think w
e’ve gained the most information we’ve had in the past ten days from just being here.” We walked behind Jake and Sanders who spoke in whispers. “Are you upset about your hearing?”
Troian shrugged. “It was probably the best outcome I could’ve hoped for. I haven’t made a very good impression on General Etau thus far. I’m probably lucky he didn’t send me back home.”
“Home?”
His forehead creased as he stared off into space. “Nothing. Don't worry about it.”
“Pizza or burgers?” Sanders called back. He smiled when he caught my eye. “Don't look so pissy, girl. We can plan and eat at the same time. It’s called multi-tasking. You’re with three Elite now. There’s nothing to worry about.”
I wished that were true.
CHAPTER NINE
Hanging around with a group of men meant I pretty much ate all the time. I was going to have to add even more training in just to stay physically fit enough to kick some evil magical creature ass.
I sat back in the chair and pushed away from my dining room table. The pancakes I’d just ate made me uncomfortable. Seeing me, Troian chuckled. I narrowed my eyes at him and chucked the fork next to my empty plate at his head. He expertly dodged it, moving enough to just remove himself from the line of fire. Stupid Elite Guardians. The fork bounced off the cupboards and fell to the floor.
“Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, Shortie?”
“I swear to God. Call me Shortie again and I’ll throw another utensil at you and I won’t miss.”
It had been a few days since we all knew what we had to do but didn’t know how to do it. My patience was wearing thin. Troian had continued to wink himself to my place every morning to make breakfast after I trained. Jake and Sanders would be over later as soon as their duties were finished. No doubt today would go down just how every other day had.
We knew we needed to get to Stonehenge, we just couldn’t figure out how. I was about ready to book myself an international flight out of Logan in Boston, but that was just too human. Besides, the human world had picked up the unrest near Stonehenge and had blocked all tourist travel in and out of that area. Well, they were calling it destruction of a historical monument. Must have been an in-the-know government body spinning the story any way they could so they wouldn’t have to come out with the truth about the magical world. It wasn’t that bad of a cover-up. I’d heard worse.
“You’re so testy in the morning. You’d think after training you would’ve gotten all that aggression out of you.”
I had trained pretty hard this morning. I was now officially on a leave of absence from work so I could concentrate on what needed to be done. I’d half suspected Mayor Hawthorn had only agreed to the leave of absence because I told him I needed to find my brother and the sooner I did that, the sooner he’d get his Ley Line Guardian back.
Troian placed his hand over mine. “Let go of the spoon, Cas.”
I looked down to find my fingers strangling the life out of a spoon handle. I sighed and dropped it back onto the table.
Apparently not worried for his own safety anymore, Troian sat back in his chair, his fingers laced behind his neck. “You know we’ll find him, right?”
Inside, I was beginning to doubt. It seemed like forever had passed and every ticking second, an even further gap lay between me and him. “I don’t know if you can understand this Troian.”
He shot me a look.
“No. Not that you’re incapable of understanding, but I don’t know if you can relate to it. He’s my brother. He’s missing. The longer this takes, the more I lose hope. I’m not even used to spending barely a day without seeing him. We live in this house together for crying out loud. We work together. This is our life.” I spread my hands out and motioned at the house, but it went further than just the house. It was Salem. This was what we did and he wasn’t here to do it.
His face changed to a more serious, somber look. “I can understand, Cas. Trust me. We’re all trying. Maybe Jake and Sanders found something out today. You never know.”
“Weren’t you just saying yesterday that you thought they could barely find their way out of a brown paper bag?”
“That was yesterday. Anyone can improve from one day to the next.”
“You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Is it working?”
“No. You suck at this.”
He groaned in frustration. “You women are absolutely ridiculous.”
“Oh please. Trust me, it’s not us, Troian.”
His eyes fluttered closed and he breathed in deep. A weird look crossing his face.
“Is it your name?” I asked. “Do you get some sort of reaction when people say your name even when they’re not calling you?”
Troian blinked a few times. He rubbed the back of his neck and then leaned his forehands onto the table. “Names are important to fae. You know that.”
“Yeah, but I think I’ve seen you make that same look before when I’ve said your name.”
He shrugged. “It’s how people call us. A visceral reaction that can’t be helped.”
I eyed him. “How many people know your real name anyway?”
“Too many.”
“Oh come on. How many?”
“There are quite a few. Fae folk for instance.”
“Well yeah,” I scoffed. “Because they won’t call you.”
“And the Elite.”
“Again, they can’t use it against you. I mean how many people like me know your real name?”
“You mean how many people who could screw with me?”
I smiled. “Exactly.”
“A handful.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it? That’s too many. I know some fae who no outsiders know their name. It’s freeing.”
“But isn’t it also lonely? Even if you did tell people, they might not use it against you. Not everyone is like that.”
“I think it’s the other way around. Not everyone’s as good as you.”
My face heated. I didn’t know how to respond to that. Troian had begun to compliment me more and more. It was unnerving. I couldn’t tell if the fae had something up his sleeve or what. There was a slim chance—a very slim chance—that he was actually just being nice. That was what he told me anyway when I called him out on it.
I stood, grabbed my plate, and took it to the sink. Then, I went back and grabbed Troian’s. He looked up and smiled. “Are you finally going to clean up after I cooked?”
“Don’t you even—”
Troian’s face turned pale. Even paler than normal. I could almost see his teal blood running through his veins. His eyes bulged and he grabbed the kitchen table.
“Troian? Troian? Are you okay?”
His fingernails bit into the wood table and then poof, he was gone.
“What in the fuck?”
I kept staring at an empty chair. He was gone. There was nothing there but air.
If he just poofed himself out on me, I’m going to kill him.
But it didn’t look like it normally did when he had control over it.
I gasped. Oh my God. That was it. Someone had just called for him. That had to be it. Son of a bitch. That’s what it looked like. And he had to go even though we were in the middle of talking. He had absolutely no control over it. It was nature at its best. Or a case could be made for worst too. It wasn’t something that I wanted. To be called at any time and have to go somewhere no matter what.
No matter what.
No matter if portals were turned off and there was no other way to get into Stonehenge but to transport there?
The plate in my hand slipped from my grasp and cracked onto the floor.
I had a plan. Well, the beginning of one anyway.
I wrote a note for whoever found it that I was heading over to SPAWN library and then ran straight there. I took the side door and went through the secret passageway that led into
the SPAWN section. Here was where my librarian skills could come in handy. I’d been coming up with my own special collections and categorizing system for all the books in here. One day, I wanted to have it completely digitized. When that happened, it would be a snap to search through. Now, however, I’d have to content myself with the way I categorized the books.
Seeing the rows and rows of books, I mentally searched for the ones on magical creatures. I needed information on fae. Could they take someone with them when they blipped in and out? If they could, Troian could transport us to Stonehenge. It was perfect. So perfect I didn’t know how he hadn’t thought of it yet.
Maybe it was impossible.
I pulled out the first book on fae folklore and looked through the headings to find something that mentioned travel. There was nothing in that one so I moved on to the next. At the end of the day, the verdict was split fifty-fifty. Some said there was no way that fae could travel with others when the others were non-fae. The other half said it was possible, but shouldn’t be attempted due to a fae’s nature.
I wasn’t so worried about that with Troian. He seemed to genuinely want to help. And since he was still on probation, what else did he have going on? Not a whole hell of a lot.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I dug it out while still reading a page in the book. Fae travel is kept a heavily guarded secret. It is believed that they can span any distance. Land, water, it means nothing to them. In 1832, a witch-fae pair attempted the first travel with one non-fae entity. Though the experiment was a success, there is still more to be learned as the witch suffered injuries that the fae did not.
“Hello?” Jake said.
I’d been so caught up in reading I’d forgotten that I had also answered the phone. “Jake, you’re never going to believe this. I think I might have something.”
“You’re still at the library? I’ll come there.”
“No. I’ll be right there.” I grabbed the book and waved my ring past the entrance into the back doorway. “I’m coming.”