by R. L. Naquin
“I’m going after her,” I said. For a brief second, I thought about snagging Kam while I was inside getting my keys. She’d want to ride along. A pang of sadness tinged with panic shot through me, threatening my composure. Pushing aside the mistake, I turned toward the house.
Riley touched my arm. “Wait. Honey, you can’t go after her.” His gray eyes were sad, whether for me or for our broken relationship, I wasn’t sure. “Even with the cult gone, you’re still a target. This might be a trap.”
I pulled my arm away. “I don’t care if it’s a trap. If Kam’s in trouble, she needs me.”
Darius grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me to face him. He stared at me with his bottomless eyes, and the vibration of his hollow voice shook my bones. “You’re being selfish and asinine. I’m the only one with any chance of tracking her in the dark, and I need you to stay with Clara and protect her. The last thing I want to do is leave her alone. And what happens if you both die? Aside from breaking the hearts of all the people who love you, it could literally bring about the end of the world.”
His fingers tightened and I wondered if they’d leave bruises. I probably deserved it if they did. He was right, of course.
My charging out after Kam would endanger everyone.
I shook his hands off, my jaw tight. “Fine. Then go find her. If she was right, somebody’s been using djinn magic to get the portals open.”
My voice caught on my words, and I hoped nobody had caught it. I was in charge, here. Better not to let everyone know how frightened I was for Kam’s safety. How terrible I felt that someone had come right up to my house and snatched her out from under our noses. How much I worried that they would use up her magic and then toss her away as if she were some sort of disposable lighter.
Or kill her.
If everyone knew how close I was to completely losing my shit, they’d stop treating me like me, and start treating me like—well—like Mom.
When he had gotten there, I didn’t know, but Maurice slipped his hand into mine. “She still doesn’t have a full charge.” He brushed a strand of hair from my face. “She’s useless to them dead, and they can’t use her till she’s charged. We’ll find her.”
I stared into his wide, yellow eyes, once so strange, and now so comforting. “Okay.” I took a deep breath to clear my head. “How long before she’s full?”
“At least two or three more days. Maybe more.” He scratched his chin.
“Guys?” Mom’s voice was quiet, but it carried well from the distance of the porch. “Are you sure her phone was on the outside of the fairy ring? It looks like it’s closer than that.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. She was right. The difference was a matter of inches, but the squashed patch of grass was on our side of the invisible barrier.
Riley hurried to the spot. He took an experimental step forward, then back, finally standing sideways, legs apart, as if straddling an invisible line. “It cuts right through where she fell.”
I frowned. “So—what? Something dragged her through? She stepped outside the barrier, got hit and fell backward? Which?”
Riley pulled his leg back inside. “No way to tell. But the barrier should have kept anything dangerous from grabbing her through it.”
Darius grunted. “Unless it was someone the fairy ring had cleared previously.”
“You mean it could be someone we know?” Mom’s voice shook.
Darius didn’t answer, which sent goose bumps up my arms. “I’m taking her phone with me, in case the kidnappers use the number to contact us.” His dusty moth wings whooshed outward and stretched. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”
I doubted the kidnappers would call. Nobody would be demanding a ransom for her safe return. I’d bet my house on it.
Mothy wings stroked the air, then Darius was gone.
I closed my eyes and inhaled, filling my lungs to capacity before letting the breath out. The calm I tried to manufacture in myself was thin, but it held. I turned toward the house. I had to take control of the situation or I’d be reduced to a fetal ball of needy woman-flesh waiting for someone to come rescue me. Rescue all of us.
In the end, that would always be my job.
“Riley, you and Maurice search the property.” I marched up the steps as I spoke. “Knowing how Darius works, he’s probably searching farther out, but if there’s anything here, I don’t want to miss it.”
Neither of them questioned me. They moved together along the fairy ring toward the woods, examining the surrounding grass as they went.
“What can I do?” Mom had one hand on the front door, ready to help in a more domestic sense.
“They’ll probably want something hot to drink when they come in. If you wouldn’t mind boiling some water, that would be great.”
Mom’s greatest gift was her talent to soothe and treat the sick or injured. Her greatest power was her ability to keep a soul inside a body and hold off death until help arrived. I’d always thought her being a necrofoil was a far superior power to my empathy. In an emergency, it was. But as far as everyday use went, if you’re saving people from death every single day, you’re probably living in a seedy neighborhood or a warzone.
Being an empath was a lot more useful in the long run.
Still, in our current situation, she was stuck boiling water, and I was reduced to barking inane orders to keep from losing my freaking mind. Hooray for the Aegises—the only things standing between humanity and the zombie apocalypse.
Sara stepped from the shadows of the porch overhang. “You okay?”
“I’m a rock.” The quiver in my voice wasn’t convincing.
“Do you want me to drive around? I might see something.”
“What I want is to go after her myself.” I kicked a rock and watched it spin across the driveway. “Even if I could leave, I’d just be looking in random side streets hoping to get lucky.”
Sara smiled and nudged me with her elbow. “There are easier ways to get lucky you know.”
I smirked. “What are you, twelve?”
“Not until my next birthday.”
“You wish.”
She was trying so hard to keep my head clear by making juvenile jokes. That’s what we always did for each other. We helped each other cope.
Her face sobered. “When Iris was missing, didn’t you do your empath mojo to reach out and find him?”
My breath caught. “I did, yes!” I stepped off the gravel drive onto the grass. “I got attacked one of the times I did it, so get ready to catch me if I go down.”
“That’s what she said.” Sara’s face was stone cold.
Moving inward, I searched my protective walls, reaching for the window I used to control the amount of emotional energy I received from those around me. The filter was tight, since I was home, surrounded by my friends. I pulled away the filter and formed a focused beam of thought, projecting outward in a narrow cone. Sara felt worried and a little scared, but I pushed past her. The neighbors across the street were angry, possibly in the middle of a fight. Farther out, the emotions came in larger groups.
Sadness.
Celebration.
Sexual tension.
Pride.
Embarrassment.
Hunger.
Loneliness.
Love.
Boredom.
I blew over the residents of the small town of Bolinas, alert for anything extraordinarily fearful or angry, but found only the diverse emotions of everyday humanity. The experience was beautiful, sad and exhilarating—all at once.
But it didn’t help.
As I focused my beam east and south to the larger towns and cities in the distance, the emotions were less prominent and more diluted. Nothing stood out to say kidnapped djinn, and nothing tasted specifically like Kam. Nothing had that spicy, exotic tang that only belonged to her.
I pulled my focus into myself and tacked the filter back in place. “It’s no good. When I searched for Iris, there were hundr
eds of terrified Hidden with him. I didn’t just feel him—I felt the entire group.” I stared at my purple boots in defeat, a knot forming in my stomach. What little hope I’d had of tracking down Kam shattered. “She’s either left town or she’s unconscious. Maybe both.”
“I’m sorry. I thought it might work.” Sara wrapped her hand around my arm and tugged me toward the house. “Let’s get you some of Andrew’s tea before your migraine hits.”
She was right. The dull ache behind my eyes had already started from taking in all those emotions. If I didn’t get Andrew’s herbal remedy in me, the migraine would hit within a half hour.
We made it as far as the front door before the wind kicked up in a miniature tornado, then died down as quickly as it had started.
Wiggy stood on the porch with two women, all three looking breathless and pale.
“Alright, poppet?” Wiggy bent at the waist with his hands resting on his thighs while he panted and caught his breath.
I smiled. No matter how bad our situation, I couldn’t help it. Wiggy made things brighter with his presence.
Sara, always so calm and unshakable, stood with her jaw hanging slack. The two new women huddled together, blinking in the porch light, muscles tensed as if they were ready to bolt at a moment’s notice.
I gave the sylph time to pull himself together and stand upright. “Hey, Wiggy. You okay?”
He grinned and threw his arms around me in a bear hug. “Sorry about that. I’ve never transported more than one at a time. Two left me a bit winded.” He stepped back and drew the two women into our circle. He placed his hand on the shoulder of the dark-haired woman. “This is Julia. She’s from Italy.” Moving his hand to the blonde woman, he smiled at her. “And this is Annika, from Germany.”
They both gave me shy smiles.
“Welcome.” I offered them each my hand, hoping the puzzlement I felt didn’t show too much on my face. “I’m Zoey, and this is Sara.”
Sara gave a little wave, her eyebrow hovering as if it wanted to shoot upward, but she was fighting as hard as I was to keep a neutral expression.
“I’m sorry to intrude,” Wiggy said. “But this is probably the safest place for them. You’ve got more security than the other Aegises.”
I widened my eyes. “They’re Aegises?”
Annika’s voice had a guttural accent, but her English was perfect. “We’re all that’s left.”
I frowned. “There’s still one more in Africa, I thought.”
Annika and Julia exchanged a pained look.
Julia wrapped her arms around herself. “Gone. All gone.” She stopped and bent her head. “Now we are four.”
My stomach knotted. “Aswang?”
All three of them nodded. My guess was that while I’d had Breezy and Mac talking in my yard, another portal in Africa had opened. They’d suggested this very solution of bringing all the Aegises to my house for safety. At the time, it had seemed like a much better idea than it did now.
Four. The fate of the world rested on the shoulders of four people, and we were all located in the same place.
This was the worst plan I’d ever heard.
Chapter Sixteen
The Chairman of the European Coalition of Hidden Operations, located in Portugal—similar to Bernice’s boss, Marcus, chief of the North American Division of Hidden Relations here—had been the genius behind the idea to house all four remaining Aegises in the world in one place. The decision made sense, to some degree. I’d been under the impression that all the Aegises had a team of people helping to protect them—like I did—and that all the Aegises lived on property with specialized, Hidden-driven security—like I did.
On both counts I was mistaken.
My mom, had spent nearly twenty years in an isolated cabin in the woods, helping those who needed her until they were able to go back to wherever they came from. Darius was the only frequent visitor, and even he had to leave her for months at a time whenever the Board had freelance soul catching for him to do.
She was never in any danger—until she was kidnapped, of course—so security had never been an issue.
To my astonishment, Mom was the norm, not the exception.
Many of the world’s Aegises had died before anyone ever got word to them that there was danger.
Others felt their gifts were enough to keep them safe. They didn’t last long.
The rest had scrambled to get to the nearest Hidden government compound for safety.
In Europe, only Annika and Julia had made it. That morning, a portal had opened inside the gates of the compound in Portugal, which meant that whatever was going on over there was likely an inside job. Government security was compromised until they could figure out who was opening the portals.
The only secure place was my house, where the security of fairies and invisible-bubble force fields was strictly done by people who loved me. People I’d helped, who wanted to help me in return. Private security by friends and family was far safer than security hired by bureaucrats and flunkies. Too many holes.
So, there we were. All four of the world’s eggs sitting in one basket.
Genius.
And with Kam kidnapped right in my front yard, I hardly felt qualified to keep two strangers safe when I couldn’t keep my own family from being abducted.
Both women seemed shaken, but settled in without a fuss. Maurice, ever the proud host, set them up in Kam’s room. I brushed aside any guilt I had over that, but my house was small, and technically, that was the guest room. Kam used it when she visited. Had she been there, she would have been quick to volunteer to sleep on the couch.
It wasn’t like I could ask these two women—Aegises or not—to camp out in a tent in my back yard. They’d come to me to feel safe. Tents didn’t feel especially safe, despite being inside a magic bubble within a fairy ring.
But I didn’t have time to hold their hands. Maurice would have to do that. I needed to concentrate on finding our girl.
As much as I wanted to take off to go look for her, Darius was right. With only four of us left, risking my own life—even if it was for someone I loved—would be selfish. But I’d helped a lot of people—both human and Hidden—over the last year, and I’d be damned if I was going to sit on my hands and not ask for help.
While Lionel didn’t technically owe me anything, it was his job as the foreman of the local O.G.R.E. squad to get his creepy face over here and help lead the charge. So, before I began my quest to activate a non-existent phone tree of supernatural desperation, I needed to call the Hidden version of the cops.
Seriously, Lionel had been all but useless so far, but at least he could get more bodies in on the hunt. If nothing else, we could use him and his team to amp up security.
Dude needed to start earning his damn paycheck.
I frowned and went into the house before calling. There was a lot to do. Having an assistant would help. After a short search, I found Gris sitting on my nightstand, reading a book on California tax laws. He’d already gone through every book in the house.
Gris liked to learn new things.
He’d also been a huge help when Riley and I had driven cross country to rescue Mom. Along the way, Gris had been the Board’s representative and did the negotiations and contracts to get the O.G.R.E. squads we’d met back to work.
Gris glanced up from his book. “I heard the commotion. Is everything all right?”
The concerned look on his tiny face was almost enough to make me burst into tears. Almost. I had shit to do before I could fall apart.
“Somebody was here and took Kam.” I tried to keep my voice calm, but it cracked when I said Kam’s name.
Gris leaped to his feet and paced across my nightstand shaking a tiny fist in the air. “Here? Right here under our noses?” He blew his cheeks out in a way that might appear comical if it weren’t for the context of the situation.
I’d never seen Gris angry.
“I need you to help me make some phone calls.” Seei
ng how upset Gris was made me take a deep breath and calm myself. I couldn’t accomplish anything without a clear head.
He stopped and took a breath of his own. “Of course. Have you called that skinwalker man yet?”
“I was hoping you’d do it. I have a lot of calls to make myself.”
“Of course.” He reached in his pocket and drew out a miniscule phone.
“That’s new.” I tipped my head at the half-inch bit of plastic.
“Mother thought it might help. Looks like she was correct.” He winced when he mentioned Bernice. “Shall I call her next?”
I sighed. “No. You get the cops over here. I’ll call Bernice and tell her what happened. She may not know about our latest houseguests, either. Then we’ll make a list and a game plan.”
We both got busy, and I called headquarters. I’d been right. Bernice had no idea they’d sent me two Aegises by airmail.
“But that places all of you together.” Her voice was frantic. “What if somebody decides to set your house on fire or drop a bomb on you?”
“Thanks, Bernice. I didn’t think about that.” I dropped on the foot of my bed and pushed my hair out of my face.
Leave it to her to point out worse ways to die than I’d already imagined.
“I’m just saying, supernatural threats are not the only way they can get to you. Don’t get comfortable thinking a bubble and fairy ring will keep out the mundane trouble that can be lobbed at you from outside your protection.”
She had a point. I told her about Kam going missing. “We’re not positive she was outside the ring when it happened, although she might have been.”
“Well, you’d better make sure.” She sounded pinched and angry, though I could clearly taste the thick ribbons of fear she was trying to hide from me. “Have you checked with the fairies?”
“They can tell me if the line was crossed?”
“Only if they were there when it happened. But they can reinforce the barrier.”
“Good idea.” The back of my head pulsed with a dull thudding—I still hadn’t made it to the kitchen for a cup of Andrew’s migraine tea.
Bernice’s voice lowered. “Zoey, be careful. If Kam was inside the fairy ring when she was taken, the only way for someone to cross it would be...” She trailed off and went quiet.