“Whoever they are, they are definitely following us.” Reece was watching Maeve and also keeping watch behind them. Aisling glanced back as well. This was only a two-lane road, but the two vehicles in question sped up and dodged around other cars to keep in range of them. Not a good sign.
“They might have followed me to the station. I was focusing on what happened to you, and they might have been more hidden about it than they are now. Damn it. Sloppy work on my part.” She weaved around a slow-moving truck and dodged down a side road.
“Do you have a clue as to where this road goes?” Aisling didn’t like the look of it—very rural. If it ended in a dead end, they were in for a firefight if those people behind them were really after them. Actually, considering the condition of the road, they had to be after them. She couldn’t imagine too many people coming down this way, dead end or not.
“Nope, just wanted to see if they were following. Guess what? I was right.” Another road, this one little more than a wide dirt road with stone walls along the edges, came up on the left side of the road and Maeve tore over to it at the last moment.
The BMW stayed on the prior road, but the delivery truck was still behind them, and picking up speed.
Reece swore. “I don’t believe it. We thought they came out of their homeland before because of the iron death drug. That driver is Lazing, one I’ve seen before.” The Lazing were a notorious east Asian gang, far older than any other criminal element. They rarely left their turf, but had shown up a few months ago when Nix started messing around in L.A.
“Why would they be after Maeve? Or us for that matter? What, they stay in the east for a few hundred years and now have decided they like traveling the world harassing people?” Aisling dug through her pack. Caradoc had given her a few gizmos. Maybe one of them... “Ha!” She pulled out two. One was a bug detector, the other, however, might work.
“I have one of Caradoc’s mini mines. Not as impressive as the one we blew up old town with, but if we’re close enough, it should take out that truck. Or at least slow it down.” She wasn’t sure why in the hell the Lazing were showing up here, and she’d like to keep it that way. She turned to get in position to throw it out the window.
“How good is your aim?” Reece held out his hand. “I used to play baseball in college. Pitcher.” He wiggled his fingers for her to hand it over.
“Fine. This will release the spikes that attach it to the target, they go off three seconds after you press it, so do it as you’re releasing it.” She handed it to him, then turned to Maeve. “Slow down, then punch the gas when Reece throws it. I have no idea how strong the explosive is, but we don’t want to get caught in it.”
Maeve hunched over the wheel, Reece rolled down his window, and Aisling hung on. Reece threw the bomb, Maeve punched the car, and they tore off. The explosion wasn’t large and as the smoke cleared it was obvious the truck hadn’t blown up, but the hood had flown into the air and the engine was smoking badly.
“Good shot! Ever think of playing cricket?” Maeve didn’t slow down as the road curved. A familiar white BMW was coming right for them. At least they knew this wasn’t a dead end.
Maeve veered to the right and drove through a field. The white car veered as well. Neither could go fast as there were holes in the ground everywhere. But it wasn’t giving up.
“Okay, we’ll do this another way.” Reece rolled his window down again. “Can you turn on this side suddenly? Give me a chance for a shot?”
Maeve nodded and spun the steering wheel. Reece leaned out and fired but the car kept coming. He shot again, this time aiming lower and the car spun out as its tire blew. Aisling reached back and pulled Reece in before he fell out.
“They had a spell on the car—forgot to completely cover their tires though.” He rolled up the window and slid back into his seat.
Maeve drove slowly until they hit the dirt road. Then she pulled over. “I think we’re safe here and while I don’t think we should hang around long, I want you both to believe it’s me.” She turned to Aisling and lifted her chin. “Do your worst.”
Aisling laughed and took out the box. She held it up, it flashed Maeve in the eye, then Mott’s voice came. “Not possessed.”
Maeve sighed in relief. “I knew I felt like me, but you just never know, do you?”
“And now you get one of these.” Aisling held up one of the slivers. This spell was a bit trickier, but after two tries the sliver vanished into Maeve’s cheek.
She patted where it went in and looked in the rearview window. “Can’t even tell it’s there. I was going to take us right to see Harlie, but I think we need to stay low for a bit until we figure what the Lazing are after. I’ve got a flat in London where we can hide.” She got onto the main motorway and headed into London.
“Any clue as to why the Lazing are chasing us? They weren’t after us in L.A. before we left.” They’d vanished after a helicopter of theirs was blown out of the sky over the ocean. Aisling wasn’t sure if they were after Reece and her this time at all—they’d been following Maeve though.
“No idea,” Reece said. “All my sources said they’d been in L.A. because of Nix, his power play to control the gangs, and the iron death drug. Those aren’t here. It was thought they went back home.”
“But Nix has been spotted all over the U.K.. And if they know Maeve, they know she is probably hunting him.” Aisling watched her friend. “Either he still has something they want, or they just want to make sure he’s dead this time.”
“Then they would also probably know there seem to be a lot of Nix at the moment. As much as I would like to kill that bastard over and over, I can’t just find him like that.” Maeve snapped her fingers.
“But they might think you can, or that he’ll find you,” Reece said. “Or they might have been trying to grab you and hold you out as bait.”
“Which means they were after something more than just the iron death drug when they were in L.A. Revenge would be one thing, especially if they felt he double-crossed them.” Aisling wasn’t sure how things were tying together and she didn’t think she was going to be happy when she found out. “But the amount of people they had following us right now, not counting any others they had at the station, indicates more than just revenge.”
“Damn it.” Maeve rolled her eyes. “That could tie into the MI-6 issues. Some unknown sources were trying to find me, so MI-6 pulled me in. Then after asking questions about everything under the sun, they decided they didn’t want me and let me go. I’m still supposed to report back anything I find, of course.”.
“You think the Lazing were asking about you? A little direct for them. Not to mention I’d think MI-6 would be more concerned if the Lazing were involved than just asking some questions and then letting you go.” Pieces weren’t matching and from the look on Reece’s face in the mirror, he felt the same.
Maeve sighed. “I have a confession; I am officially MI-6 but I’m a member of a smaller group. The Closen. Yes, like Area 42, they are mostly thought of as a myth, if thought of at all. I see that Aisling looks totally lost and Reece is trying to figure out what he’s heard.” She grinned.
“I can tell you both, you won’t have heard much. Small, England only, not even in Scotland, Wales, or Ireland. We look at the weirder things than MI-6 wants to deal with. When I wanted to leave MI-6 ten years ago, they offered me a position in this group. When I first got back here, I did meet with MI-6. They questioned me, but they knew Closen would be working with me.”
“I’ve heard of them, but you’re right, not much. For now, we’re going to this flat to hide and wait? For what exactly?” Reece shook his head. “I get secret groups, trust me. But I don’t know how much time we have. There are a lot of things going on beyond the parts of the building I worked in falling around the world.”
Aisling wasn’t sure how to process this revelation of Maeve’s status. The larger shock had come a month ago, when she found out her partner was still MI-6. This could be dealt with later.
“That’s what Closen is looking into. They won’t leave London without coverage, but most of them are already in Noth. They’re trying to find the connection, although not everyone believes the veil is thinning.” Maeve turned down a narrow London road, one crowded with apartments.
“Nice place to hide.” Aisling looked up. There were a lot of apartments.
“Hiding in plain sight works well.” Maeve looked in her mirror at Reece. “I assume we’re still clear?”
“As far as I can tell, no one followed us.” He’d been sitting semi-sideways as well but it just looked like he was admiring London.
They pulled into the underground lot, then took the lift to Maeve’s floor. She had to unlock three locks before they got in. The place was small, not dingy, just more like a low-end hotel room. But it was better than driving around.
“You could have left your bags in the car; we won’t be here that long.” Maeve looked at their luggage.
“Yeah, the last car we were in is now under a few tons of rubble, would rather not take that chance.” Aisling lifted up her smaller pack. “And until such time that I can lock this up, it stays with me.” She frowned at the bag. “How far did you and Harlie get in translating the scroll when you were in L.A.?”
“Not far. It’s a calculation for changing something, like turning steel into gold, but we’re not sure what changes. But even with Harlie’s training, translating it is damn hard. Your people have a screwed-up language.” She went into the kitchen, put a kettle on, and came back with cups and saucers.
Aisling shook her head. “Not mine, that language was dead before my people crossed the veil. We have to learn the basics as kids out of some perverse sense of history. My point is, what if Nix isn’t the only one who knows something like it exists? If the Lazing knew he was after an ancient fey relic of some kind that you had, or in this case, a scroll written in ancient fey, they would be after you too, regardless of Nix.”
Maeve brought out the tea, poured for all of them, then started swearing. “Damn it, that makes sense, if it does what supposedly it does, make people rich, they’d be after it. But if they never caught Nix, how do they know I have something? You said it yourself, Nix didn’t know what he was looking for, just that he hadn’t found it. The scroll is blocked, right?”
Aisling patted her bag. “Still in the sealed charging box. Whatever it is or contains, nothing is getting past that box unless I open it.”
Aisling and Reece filled Maeve in on the incident in Luton. She’d gotten the basics from Bart, but there was only so much that was safe to say over the phone—even with secure lines.
Maeve scowled. “Closen hasn’t said anything about things coming up from underneath the ground. And that’s kinda their wheelhouse. And what about this aunt of Stella’s? If she knew about this ten years ago and was silenced for it? Damn it. What else aren’t we being told?”
“Her mother called.” Reece sipped his tea. “She wants Aisling not to trust Harlie.”
“Which is ironic, since I’m pretty sure she’s the one who spelled him. It would take a very strong magic user to take him out like that. That woman is a bitch, but she’s a scary powerful one.” Aisling leaned back and enjoyed her tea. It had been hours since she relaxed.
Maeve scowled. “That call doesn’t sound like her though. Why warn you off Harlie? Do you think she’s possessed?” The look in her eyes was a bit too enthusiastic.
Aisling laughed. “She’s what possesses others, nothing could get into that dark soul.” She paused as another thought hit. “But what if her warning me off had less to do with our case, and was more personal in nature? Harlie just broke the spell she’d had him place on me almost two hundred years ago. She might not have cast the spell, but she was connected to it. The odds of her not noticing what was done are slim.”
“And she’s just trying to put a spin on it? Is she that worried about what you think of her?” Maeve asked.
“No, I don’t think she cares what anyone thinks of her, unless they have something she wants.” Aisling shook her head. “Unless that’s it. I have something she wants. Or know something she needs to know, or doesn’t want others to know. Damn that woman!”
Reece nodded. “She’s on Area 42’s radar, but only at the highest levels. I haven’t heard anything specific about her, but they are trying to watch her. She and the High Council have been on a list the higher ups have for over a year—which isn’t a popular observation as you can understand.”
Chapter Thirty- Nine
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Not that Aisling was truly surprised. Harlie had found some evidence that their mother and her cronies were connected to something with Area 42—he just hadn’t been able to nail down what it was.
“It wasn’t pertinent at the time,” Reece said. “And I only fairly recently found out she was your mother. Plus, I don’t have any actual intel. It was way over my pay grade.”
“I’m a target because of the scroll and possibly Nix. Aisling’s a target because her mother had her magic blocked for some reason and now knows that block is gone.” Maeve got up and paced. “It’s not just releasing the block. I think we all agree that Aisling’s mother wouldn’t care if you knew what she did to you. Therefore, it’s what she blocked that has her worried. Something your mother thinks Harlie could help you find out.”
Reece went pale. “That whole you being dead thing. You said that spirit, ghost, whatever it was that attacked me on the way to the train thought you were dead—that you were supposed to be dead. What if your mother did kill you at one point? Your father has healing magic, right?”
Aisling leaned forward. “You think she killed me? And my dad brought me back? How? Why? And if she was supposed to kill me for some reason for this weird voice from the other side of the veil, why did she let him bring me back?” She was still pushing off the voice thinking she was dead as a mistake. Even though her gut said otherwise. But none of it made sense.
Maeve narrowed her eyes. “What if whatever it was that made you scream at night as a kid, was too much for her to stand, and in trying to shut you up, she accidentally killed you? Your father brought you back, then she took you to Harlie to block your magic that was causing the night screams. It could have been an accident.” Maeve was trying, but the look on her face said she didn’t believe her own words.
Aisling wished there was some nectar around so she could get gloriously drunk. The idea felt too real. It was as if once the connection had been made, the truth of it became undeniable.
“No...I don’t know how, maybe Harlie’s removing the block removed something else as well.” She found herself shaking There was no way to deny it—her soul screamed the truth. “Somehow, I know she killed me—and it wasn’t an accident. It was before Nepal, maybe a few weeks before.” She closed her eyes as images and feelings flooded her mind. A dark room, her standing there awaiting her mother’s orders. Even at that young age she knew she had to obey. Voices. None of them made sense. Then they were clear, even though she still didn’t know what they meant.
“You’ve had your time. The agreement—” The voice that got cut off was low and guttural.
“Is not done yet.” Her mother’s voice was cool. But was that fear hiding under the words? Aisling’s five-year-old self hadn’t understood, but her current self did.
“We let you and the others do what you asked of us. Gave you the power to oppress your enemies. Now is time. The children must go. They were promised.” The voice was now uncannily like whatever had spoken to Aisling before. The one surprised she was alive. And she felt deep inside that the term “children” did not refer to Aisli
ng’s siblings.
“You can’t. These are our future.”
“They mean our destruction. You will kill her. The others have already done so.”
In the memory, her mother turned to her without pause, raised her hand, and Aisling died.
She woke up to a frantic Reece and Maeve hovering over her and calling her name.
“I’m fine. Damn it, she did kill me. The voice behind the attack on the precogs ordered it. Something about it being payment for prior favors.” She rubbed her arms. “That sucked on many levels.” She drank her entire cup of tea and held out her cup for more. “I didn’t see who brought me back, but it had to have been my father. Then they hid my being alive by masking my magic.”
“She did something nice by having Harlie block you?” Reece didn’t sound like he believed it any more than Aisling did.
“Doubtful. There’s something about me that my mother wants, something that voice wanted destroyed. Oh, and we need to see if there were a lot of fey deaths reported when I was about five. The children were all around my age.” That had been a feeling too. Whatever was behind the voice, it had demanded the deaths of an unknown number of fey children—who most likely had not been brought back.
“There were more? Do we know what parameters we’re looking for?” Reece asked.
“The voice said the others had already been killed. Maybe look at the High Council and all first families. If we don’t find any connections there, we can branch out.” Two more cups of tea and the chill was finally leaving her bones.
“Damn. I thought I had a rough upbringing. She really killed you?” Maeve went to the kitchen and brought out another pot of tea.
“I was dead. Hard to explain, but my memories ended suddenly. She stopped my heart. One moment I was a confused little girl in a dark room, the next I was gone. I don’t recall coming back, but clearly I did.”
Reece put his arm around her shoulders. “That had to have been terrifying for you to go back and go through it now. I am very glad your father brought you back.” He squeezed her shoulder.
An Uncommon Truth of Dying (Broken Veil Book 2) Page 29