“Trisha, is that you?” Dan’s voice, from the kitchen. “Is everything okay? I didn’t hear her leave, did you?” The last part was meant just for Nina, but I overheard.
I rounded the corner into the kitchen. They were both there, doing dishes together. Dan finished rinsing a plate from breakfast and sat it on the rack. I took a breath, then took the plunge. “Dan, this is going to sound crazy, but I need a ride to Chicago. Right now.”
Dan raised an eyebrow and grabbed a dish towel. “Chicago? What’s in Chicago?”
“Family,” I said, not really lying. They were the only other fae I knew, so other than Dan and Nina, they were the closest thing to family I had.
Dan paused and looked at Nina. “We thought you didn’t have any family. That you were left at the children’s home without any information as to who you belonged to.”
“I was. But that doesn’t mean I don’t remember anything. I just got in contact with some of them and I need to go.”
“What family do you have there? Does this have something to do with why you keep disappearing?” Dan went back to drying dishes. He was so calm. Infuriatingly calm.
“Ummm,” too specific, how did I get around this one? “A little distant, but still family. They are expecting me.”
“You didn’t answer my other question,” Dan said, reaching for another dish. “Is this why you’ve been disappearing?”
Well that was an easy answer. “Yes. They want me to come visit.”
“Then why didn’t they send you a ticket?” Nina asked.
“I didn’t know if you’d let me go.” And planes weren’t their normal mode of travel, but I didn’t need to mention that. “And, honestly, they don’t have a lot of cash to spare.”
“I’m not sure I’m going to like this family of yours, if they are getting you to do stupid things like skip school,” Dan said.
“But at least now we know why she was gone,” Nina whispered. Sometimes I loved being fae. Super hearing was definitely a perk. “It didn’t have anything to do with us.” Wait, they thought I was disappearing because I didn’t want to be around them? It was totally the opposite. Sigh. I should have figured that one out a week ago.
“I know, and I’m sorry, but I just need to do this. For closure. I’ll pay you back for the ticket.”
A look that I didn’t understand passed between Dan and Nina. Was that a good look, or a bad look? “Can you give us a couple minutes?” Dan asked.
That had to be a good sign. They hadn’t outright said no. “Sure.” I headed for the stairs. Time to work on Plan B in case they said no. Of course to work on Plan B, there had to be a Plan B. I sat on the bottom step and tried to listen to the conversation going on in the kitchen.
No luck, mostly mumbling. And they never left the water running that long, Nina had to being trying to cover up their voices. I leaned forward on the step, like that could help me hear better. No such luck. Their tones intensified, then lowered again. How long had this talk taken already? Plenty long enough. My knee jiggled and I pushed down on it with my hands, trying to channel the nervous energy. This had to work. I couldn’t even begin to come up with a Plan B.
Whatever going on down there was serious. This was taking forever. I knew it was kind of a big decision, at first glance. But not really, I would pay them back for the ticket.
“Trisha,” Dan called.
I shot up off the step and bolted for the kitchen. He didn’t say anything, just kept working on the dishes. Why wasn’t he saying anything?
“Here,” I said after a moment of silence.
“Okay,” Dan said. Really? Just like that? “I can’t go right now, I can’t get away from work today. You and Nina should have a great time once you get things settled. Maybe the two of you could spend an extra day going to a play or something.”
“What?” It just came out. Nina could not come. That could be bad on so many levels. “Nina’s coming?”
Dan finished drying his hands and threw his towel down on the counter. “We can’t let you run off to Chicago by yourself, especially if we don’t know this family of yours. You’ve never asked us for anything like this before, so I assume it’s important, that’s the only reason I’m going along with it in the first place. Nina is always talking about going to Chicago to visit her sister but things haven’t really worked out.” He smiled in her direction. “I guess that just changed.”
Nina walked over and gave me a half squeeze. “This will be so much fun, Trish. Summer would have been nicer but this is fine. My sister is stationed just north of Chicago, once we’re done with your family, I’ll finally get to introduce you to mine.” Her smile was so big it almost made my heart crumble.
That was so not going to happen. As soon as I hit Chicago, I was getting the Martans out of there. Nina had brought up my Aunt Wren many times, but I hadn’t met her yet. No doubt Nina was thinking this would be some kind of family bonding thing. Shoot.
“I have to go alone.”
“Not going to happen, Trisha. We are glad to show you how much we love you by doing this, but you aren’t doing it alone.”
My shoulders slumped and I rested my forehead in the palm of my hand. Now what? I absolutely had to go. I was just going to have to try to keep Nina in the dark when I got her there. And keep her from calling her sister. “Fine.”
“When would you like to leave?” Nina asked. “My weekends are pretty free.”
“Actually, I need to go now. Everyone is together this weekend. If I want to meet everyone I need to leave ASAP.” That was true. If I didn’t leave now there was a chance they would all be dead.
Dan and Nina gave each other the look again.
“It is Saturday,” Nina said. She looked at Dan with a hint of pleading.
Dan turned and leaned his hip against the counter, crossing his arms and staring me down. I did my best to keep my face all innocent. Not easy when I was as guilty as sin at the moment.
“Fine,” he finally said. “I’ll see about tickets, you two pack.” Grabbing his briefcase off the floor by the counter, Dan shooed me toward the stairs and pulled his laptop out.
There wasn’t much I needed to pack, just a couple changes of clothes. I grabbed my phone charger and just about threw it in the bag. Habit. Not like I had anything to plug it in to right now.
My bag zipped easily, not much in it. I’d always been a light traveler, something my days on the road with my mom had taught me. I dragged the bag off my purple comforter and headed for my bedroom door.
Nina was all ready to go. I could see her over the railing, pulling her suitcase out of her room. She looked so happy, like the two of us were going on a fun trip together. No doubt she thought I was having some parentage crisis or something, not that we were going to help a family move before they all got killed. And she thought she was going to get to see her sister.
A pang hit me, square in the gut. What was I getting her into? But I didn’t have a choice. It was this or betray Jaden and his family. I didn’t have time to argue with Dan and try to go by myself. Not like I was ever going to be able to change his mind anyway. In a way, I was doing this for our family. I couldn’t just turn Jaden in without helping his family, but I had to turn him in so I could stay here. And if he were to tell on me if the others captured him without my help, I had no doubt whose family Starren would be after next.
“Plane leaves in two hours and thirty six minutes. We better get a move on it,” Dan yelled up the stairs.
Nina said something to him quietly. I strained to hear.
“I know, but thank you. I feel like this could be the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for. A chance to show her how much we care.”
Breakthrough? She had no idea.
“Stay in public areas,” Dan answered.
“It’s not like her family is going to murder us, Dan. Do you think she’ll try to stay with them?” Try to stay with my fae family? Not likely. So opposite of the truth. I wa
s doing all this to stay with my human family. Family? That was a weird thought. I peeked over the railing at my foster parents for a second. Yeah, definitely family.
“They won’t be able to murder you for sure if you stick in public areas. Make them meet you.” He reached forward and rubbed her arms. I ducked back behind the stairs even more, afraid one of them would glance up and see me. “And I don’t think she’ll want to stay with them. Even with all the problems we’ve had, I get the feeling she likes it here.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t want to get their names from her and do a little digging before you let us go.”
“I thought about it. But I want her to be able to trust us with anything. I think this is a great step in the right direction. And you’ll have Wren to help you if you need her. We both know what she’s capable of. If you don’t like the family, you won’t have to be around them long.”
I almost snorted, catching myself just in time. She was going to be spending a lot of time with them, cooped up in a mini-van if everything went well.
“If she meets her family and they aren’t what she’s expecting, maybe it will put a stop to all this sneaking around. Best-case scenario they don’t even show up. It’s worth a try. If we don’t get it handled, she’s going to get taken away from us. Or worse, leave and not come back. Get it out of her system, get her home. We can all relax then.”
“I hope you’re right,” Nina murmured.
“I usually am.”
I took that as my cue and jerked on my bag, letting it clump down the stairs after me. Dan was hugging Nina when I made it to the lower level. They were so grossly cute.
“All ready?” Dan asked. I nodded. “Good. Load up. I’ll drop you off on the way to work.”
I headed for the garage, threw my bag in the trunk and waited for Nina to do the same. She wiggled hers in next to mine and stepped back, giving me room to shut the trunk. “Thanks, Nina.”
She reached around and gave me a half hug. “Of course, Trish. I hope you’ll explain a little better what’s up while we’re on the way.”
Yeah, I’d figure something out. I could be mostly honest, just not with the why someone was after Jaden thing. I pulled free just as Dan walked out. He locked the house behind him. We all piled into our respective seats and we were off.
Traffic was pretty good for a Friday morning. We moved along quickly, soon signs for Dulles International Airport were flashing by.
“Here, Honey,” Dan said, passing Nina a couple papers. “I printed off your tickets.”
I stuck my head up between the two front seats, straining against my seatbelt. “How long is the flight?”
Nina flipped the paper over in her hand and squinted at it for a second. “Two hours and seventeen minutes.”
“Two hours?” What time was it now? I leaned to see around Dan’s shoulder. Eight forty five. “When does the flight leave?”
“Ten fifteen,” Dan answered.
Ten fifteen, plus two and a half hours, twelve forty five? What if Jaime was done with dialysis and we weren’t there yet? I took a breath. An hour time difference. That would help. We would be to their house by one or so. It was going to be okay, it’d be fine.
“Trisha, are you okay?” Nina asked.
“Yep,” I said. She didn’t look convinced but let it go.
Dan threaded through traffic and miraculously found a spot to coast to a stop near the entrance to our airline. He put the car in park and hopped out to help Nina with her bag.
By the time I got around the car, Dan had both our bags sitting on the curb. He gave Nina a hug and a quick peck, then turned and pulled me into a hug. I didn’t wiggle like usual. “You get this business handled, then just have fun with Nina, okay? You’re going to love your Aunt Wren.”
I hugged him back and pulled away. He wouldn’t be so happy if he knew the truth, that I was putting his wife in danger. Maybe if I told him, he’d be able to figure something out, maybe he could keep the fae from taking me. Maybe he would ship me off to some government facility for aliens.
“Wow, I wish I was going with you, ladies. Have a great trip.”
No. Not worth the risk. What if they found out what I was and decided I was a freak? Or accepted me anyway and then the Council found a way to get to me? Either way was so not cool. I could handle this myself. “Thanks,” I said.
“You know we will.” Nina’s grin was huge. “Don’t mess the house up too much while we’re gone.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Nina stood on tiptoe and gave Dan a quick kiss on the cheek, grabbed her bag and headed for the sliding doors.
Dan and I looked at each other and shrugged, then I took off after her, afraid to lose her in all the airport craziness.
Nina was already most of the way to the check in line before I caught up. Her smile was big, like we were going on vacation, not to a crazy get away attempt. Well, as far as she knew, we were. She was probably thinking we would spend an hour with my bio family, then head off to enjoy the amazing shopping with her sister. Guilt chewed at me. Hopefully she liked road trips. Someday I was going to have to pay them back for the return tickets that wouldn’t be used.
At the counter, Nina provided the paper tickets Dan had printed for us, her license and my school id. The attendant behind the counter didn’t look too excited about her job.
“Would you like to check your bags?” the attendant asked.
“No, we’re in a bit of a hurry, we don’t want to have to wait for them in Chicago,” Nina said. “We’ll just do carry on.”
“Please place them in the luggage rack and make sure they’ll fit,” the attendant monotoned. “Next.”
First step done, now security. Nina kept up a running commentary about things we could do in Chicago while we took off our jackets and shoes and threw them on the belt. She paused her speech to answer a text. “Wren says she’s pretty free this week! She’s going to meet us in Chicago tomorrow morning, and then we can catch an evening flight home. This is going to be awesome.”
“Uh huh,” I managed to get out. My palms started to sweat as we slowly moved forward. I nearly fainted from relief when they didn’t have the newest type of scanner like I’d seen in the movies. Just a metal detector. I’d never tried getting through one of the new ones before. I didn’t even know if it would be a problem. It never had been on field trips into the city. It just made me nervous. How different was fae physiology from humans? We lived longer and had magic, but other than that we were basically the same, right? So far no one had noticed anything at any doctor’s visits. They couldn’t see magic on a machine. Could they?
Apparently not. No one said anything as I went through.
We found our gate and sat to wait the twenty minutes until boarding time. A little surprising that Nina hadn’t been freaking out in security about the plane leaving without us. Normally she made us get everywhere way early.
“So, what are we doing? What time do you think we’ll be done today? Do you have a meeting set up? I’ve been trying to find places for us to visit. The zoo of course, what else would you like to see?” She tapped away on her phone for a second. “Wren wants to go to the aquarium with us, so we’ll wait for her on that.”
“I’m not sure how long it’s going to take. Better just not plan anything yet.” Nina’s face dropped and I wanted to slap myself for disappointing her again. But it was kinder to do it now than to wait until we were loading in the car to head to Indiana.
A strange feeling came over me, like something wasn’t right. Like someone was watching me. I looked around, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to either of us. Weird. We waited for the boarding call, her playing on her phone, probably texting Dan and Wren both, me keeping an eye on the crowd. Talk about teenager/adult role reversal.
Finally they called boarding for our flight. I waited impatiently for the announcer to get to our row.
“Zone Two, you may now board
. If you have Zone Two on your ticket, please board.”
Nina elbowed me. “That’s us, we’re in row seven.” As if I hadn’t been sitting here staring at my ticket for the last fifteen minutes. But I shouldn’t complain, she was taking this trip for me.
After letting the attendant scan our tickets, we filed down the long, cold, collapsible tunnel into the plane.
“Here we are.” Nina stopped at our row and threw her bag up, then reached back and took mine from me, smashing it in beside hers. She gestured for me to squeeze in to the seating section first. I moved in and plopped down in the window seat. I watched them load suitcases into the hold below, waiting to get this trip started. What time was it in Chicago now? Had Jaime started dialysis yet? “What time is it?” I asked Nina.
She looked down at her phone. “10:10. Looks like we will be leaving right on time.”
10:10. 9:10 in Chicago. Rebecca and Jaime were probably just started. This was going to work. It had to work.
A voice came over the speakers and the flight attendants went out in the aisles for some kind of safety demonstration. Everyone else on the plane seemed to ignore it, but I watched carefully. This was my first time flying, I needed to know this stuff.
About halfway through the speech I felt a prickle on my skin. Nothing bad, just nothing I’d really felt before. I looked around but nothing seemed out of place. Probably just the excitement of flying.
The stewardess finished her talk and moved out of the line of sight. A minute after a voice that introduced himself as the pilot came over the speaker. Clear skies ahead, hoping to land on time. Perfect.
I leaned against the glass, staring at the ground as we slowly backed away from the gate. Pressure built in my ears.
Nina patted me on the shoulder. “So exciting!”
Not exactly the word I would use, but we could go with that. We moved out onto the tarmac. Two other planes were ahead of us in line. My fingers curled around the arm of my seat involuntarily as the first one thundered by. How did something that big make it into the sky? The other plane ahead of us moved out onto the runway, then sped away. Our turn. We inched forward on the tarmac, sat for a second and then rolled out onto the runway. The plane started out slow, a great lumbering beast, but picked up speed fast. My stomach clenched.
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