"Yeah, the light"s starting to fade." I peeked out the front window. "We"d better get going."
Rhiannon started to pick up Bart"s carrier. "Come on. Let"s go home, little dude. I . . . I . . ." A catch in her voice made me turn. She set down the cat and slid into a nearby chair, rubbing her head. "Heather"s the only family I have. I can"t lose my mother-I can"t."
"Hush," I whispered, stroking her back. "We"ll find her. We"ll bring her home and everything will be okay." I wished to h.e.l.l I meant what I was saying, but my stomach twisted in knots. We had a long way to go before we ever found Heather. If If we found her. "I"m here, I"m your family." we found her. "I"m here, I"m your family."
"I"m not family yet, but I"m here, and I love you," Leo said, stricken. "We"ll all look out for each other."
She looked up at him. "And I love you, Leo . . ."
He smiled softly. "I know."
She stood and he enfolded her in his arms, kissing away her tears. I looked away, wanting to give them some privacy.
"Come on." Rhiannon wiped her eyes and picked up the cat carrier as I grabbed one of the suitcases. "We"d better go before it gets dark."
Leo hoisted his pack over one shoulder and picked up the other suitcase. Taking one last look around the silent apartment, he flipped the lights and locked the door. But even though he said nothing, as we clattered down the front steps, I could tell he was thinking about his sister.
The ride back to Veil House was quiet except for the occasional yowl from Bart. "He doesn"t like cars?" I asked.
"Not many cats do," Leo said, shaking his head. "But Bart"s not really complaining, he"s just asking how much longer he has to stay in the carrier."
"He an indoor-only?"
"Yeah, he"s afraid of the outdoors. I don"t trust the forest near your house. Do you let the cats out?"
"Not the indoor babies," Rhiannon said. "Four of them are feral and won"t put up with being caged. But the other three stay inside the house." As we pulled into the driveway, she looked at me. "Be sure to lock Favonis. We don"t want any nasty surprises waiting in case we have to take off during the middle of the night."
The Fae could probably unlock the car, I thought, but then again, with the steel and iron, maybe not. I hoped that side of legend and lore stood to the test.
Dusk had hit by the time we got back to Veil House. As we headed for the front porch, I kept a close eye on the forest. Nothing stirred, nothing showed itself, but I could feel them there, watching us.
"Check every room," I said, setting down Bart"s cat carrier. "Before anything else, let"s secure the house."
We spread out. Rhiannon and I checked the upstairs while Leo combed the main floor. Rhiannon did a head count of the indoor cats. All but two were sprawled in the living room, and the third-Beastbaby-was waiting by the food dish, yowling for his dinner. As we gathered in the living room, I shut the drapes.
"So, what now?" Leo said.
We looked at each other. Heather was missing. We were facing a group of Vampiric Fae who were far more deadly than their dark kin on either side. I was about to embark on starting a business I knew nothing about, didn"t know how to run, and wasn"t sure I could pull off.
Oh yes, and we were sitting ducks, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"We eat dinner and then we ward the house. You call Geoffrey and get us an appointment if you can. We read up on the Indigo Court and find out every sc.r.a.p of information that we can on them."
Rhiannon nodded. "And you and Peyton start planning your business. The more magic you work with, the better for us in the long run."
"I still think we"re going to need more help." Leo pulled Bart"s carrier over to the table and opened it. Bart slowly slunk out, glancing around. Leo sprawled on the sofa, crossing his legs in the lotus position. He whistled and Bart leisurely leapt up on his lap. Stroking the Maine c.o.o.n around the ears and chin, he said, "Who else can we trust?"
"Don"t look at me," I said. "I just hit town. I don"t know anybody. Except Peyton."
"I think she"s going to be very useful. Tomorrow during your workout with her, steer the conversation around to asking just what she"s strongest at." Rhiannon sat down at Heather"s desk and snapped her fingers. "I know! What about Kaylin?"
"Who"s he?" I pulled off my jacket and sat on the corner of the sofa arm.
"Kaylin Chen. He"s a goth-type computer geek. He"s also a martial arts sensei. He could probably snap your neck with one blow. Quiet. Intense. Independently wealthy. And he can sing and play kodo drums like there"s no tomorrow. He teaches martial arts at the conservatory." She glanced over at Leo. "I bet he"d get along with Cicely."
Leo snorted. "You might be right."
Feeling simultaneously left out and picked on, I folded my arms across my chest and tapped my toe. "Don"t count your chickens before they turn into KFC. Just why do you think he might be able to help us?"
"Because he"s a rebel, and his best friend was a member of the Society. He was killed in a car wreck, though I suspect now it was the Indigo Court." Leo"s face went dark. "Kaylin . . . is a special sort. He"s far more than he lets on to be. He went into hiding. Right now, n.o.body n.o.body knows where he"s at, but I bet I can get him over here. I"ll give him a call." knows where he"s at, but I bet I can get him over here. I"ll give him a call."
I stared at Leo as he fished out his cell phone. It began to dawn on me just how far things had gone. People were missing, people were dead dead, the cops couldn"t be trusted . . .
"Why haven"t the Feds sent in an investigation team?"
Rhiannon shook her head, a grim look on her face as she stood up. "My guess is that the news never hit the major papers. Heather thought . . . I I think information"s being squelched." think information"s being squelched."
"Conspiracy?"
"Think about it. The cops don"t give a d.a.m.n that people are dying and vanishing. Grieve himself told you that Myst controls the town. She must have some way of controlling the authorities. It"s probably easy for her to keep stories like this from ever making it out of this burg." She began searching through the desk.
"But surely people talk . . . What are you looking for?"
"Anything that might help us. Anything my mother might have written down or hidden that we can use." Pausing, she glanced over her shoulder. "We should go through the entire house. Can you check out the buffet over there?" She nodded to an antique buffet standing against the wall.
I slowly opened the drawer and began rifling through the papers inside, feeling uncomfortably like a voyeur. This was my aunt"s home and I was pawing through her stuff like a common thief. Not that I wasn"t familiar with copping a wallet here or there, but this was different.
But then I happened to look up and found myself staring through a slight part in the curtains. The trees were dark and shaded in the growing dusk, and something about the path leading to the forest gave me the creeps. Like a frost-covered open mouth, waiting to gobble up anybody who got too near.
I went back to my search.
"What"s this?" Rhiannon said, pulling out a small notebook. She held it up. "This looks like . . . hmm, see what you make of this, would you?" As she returned to the table, I shoved the drawer shut and joined her.
The notebook was a field study book-filled with page after page of diagrams, figures, and notations on the graph paper. I frowned. As I flipped back to the beginning, I glanced at the inscription on the inside cover: Heather"s name, and the words A Magical Study of New Forest A Magical Study of New Forest. And then something clicked as I studied the pages.
"It appears to be a diagram of the town." I pointed to a schematic that looked very much like what I imagined Vyne Street to look like from above. "Isn"t this our street? And there"s the house."
"You"re right." Rhiannon tapped her nails on the table. "But what"s that mark-and that?" She gestured to a dark circle over where the wood and ravine were indicated. In the center of a diagram of Veil House, a pentacle had been inscribed.
"Dark circle. Dark moon, maybe? The new moon?" I shrugged.
"At least the pentacle over the house makes sense, since it"s a magical symbol."
Leo interrupted, flipping his phone shut. "Kaylin will be over tomorrow morning. He doesn"t like to travel alone at night."
We showed him the book and he recognized it.
"Your mother was using this when I was practicing my wildcrafting. Heather told me that New Forest is built over a very powerful energy field and that"s why the plants here are so potent. She said the Society sources a lot of energy from the land around here and she keeps track of the ley lines."
"You"ve got to be kidding." Rhiannon looked up.
"No, I"m not." He shook his head. "New Forest is built over a powerful series of ley lines."
Ley lines were energy grids that traveled through the earth. I could feel them when I was near a mountaintop or at high elevation, and sometimes around ponds or streams or lakes. But since my powers were sourced from the wind, I couldn"t always pinpoint where they were.
You haven"t tried to feel them in the air, Ulean whispered. Ulean whispered.
They can be felt through the slipstream?
Of course.
"You can feel them, can"t you?" I turned to Rhiannon. can feel them, can"t you?" I turned to Rhiannon.
"You work with fire-you must be able to really tune in to the area because of the Cascade volcanoes."
She pressed her lips together. "I haven"t tapped into the fire since . . ." Slumping into a chair, she pressed her hand to her forehead.
"Since what?" Leo looked at her, then turned to me. "What am I missing?"
I started to shake my head, but Rhiannon held up her hand. "I haven"t told him. But I was going to, when I thought the time was right. I guess that would be now. And it"s time I told you you the full story, too, Cicely." She stared at her hands. "Both of you might be in danger living here, and not just because of the Indigo Court." the full story, too, Cicely." She stared at her hands. "Both of you might be in danger living here, and not just because of the Indigo Court."
"Why? What are you talking about?" Leo knelt beside her.
Rhiannon shrugged. "You may not be so quick to reach for my hand when I tell you the truth."
"You were about thirteen, weren"t you?" I knew a little of the story, but very little.
"Yes, I"d just turned thirteen. Just started my period and the hormones were flying. Heather and I were shopping one day. We were in the parking lot of the Dale-wood Mall. I wanted a new pair of sneakers and she said no." Her voice caught and she trembled, her neck taut, her expression bleak. "I was angry and I automatically reached for the flame. Without thinking, I conjured fire. It sparked off the fuel in the gas tank of a nearby car and there was an explosion."
"s.h.i.t." Leo slowly dropped to the sofa. "Were you hurt?"
When Rhiannon spoke again, her voice was so low we could barely hear her. "No, I wish I was. But it gets worse. The flames . . . I will never forget the smell. There was a ten-year-old girl in the car and she couldn"t get out. n.o.body could get to her because the fire was raging so hot and then, the car exploded. She died. I killed her I killed her. She died because of me me."
Leo put his arm around her and she leaned against his shoulder.
I sat beside them and took her hand. I"d never known exactly what had happened but it didn"t surprise me. "You never meant to do it. It was an accident."
She shook her head, her eyes furious. "I didn"t mean to do it, but Cicely, I killed that little girl and over a decade later, I can still remember her screaming, pounding on the window, trying to get out. And the flames were so hot . . . so hot. And then the explosion . . . I watched her die, and I still see her every day. She haunts my dreams. I haven"t touched my flame since that day."
"You can"t run from the fire. If you keep running from it, the flames will build up inside you. They"ll devour you! Look at what happened to Krystal. She ran from her powers and ended up a strung-out bloodwh.o.r.e, and she died in a nameless alley because she was afraid afraid. Rhiannon, you need to be strong."
She let out a snort. "The Society said I was tainted-that I"ll never be able to control my powers. Marta threatened to kick Heather out if she ever taught me to use my abilities. I found that that out by accident, so one day I told her they"d vanished, to keep her from worrying. She never believed me." out by accident, so one day I told her they"d vanished, to keep her from worrying. She never believed me."
"What?" I gave her a long look. "The Society said what what to you?" to you?"
"Marta refused to sanction any further training for me because my hands were sullied with blood, and since Heather is a member of the Society, she had to obey."
I snorted. "f.u.c.k them, then. Where were they when you needed help? f.u.c.k them and their rules. Marta"s dead and Heather needs you. She"s out there, the Indigo Court has her, and we don"t know what the h.e.l.l they"re doing to her. And since the Society wouldn"t do its job, then Where were they when you needed help? f.u.c.k them and their rules. Marta"s dead and Heather needs you. She"s out there, the Indigo Court has her, and we don"t know what the h.e.l.l they"re doing to her. And since the Society wouldn"t do its job, then we"ll we"ll help you." help you."
Leo kissed the top of Rhiannon"s head and gently guided her to her feet. She was shaky, but he braced her elbow.
I shook my head. "The Thirteen Moons Society is almost defunct. We can"t rely on anybody but ourselves. We"re in this by our lonesome. Ask Kaylin if he"s interested in joining us. If you trust him, go for it. And Leo-can you please give Geoffrey a call now that the sun"s down?"
"I still don"t think it"s a good idea, but I"ll set up a meeting." The look on his face told me he thought I was crazy.
"You do that." Weary-the day had seemed long beyond words-I sighed and pushed to my feet. "Meanwhile, I need to unpack."
"We"ll make dinner while you"re doing that. Then we"ll figure out how to ward the house."
As I headed upstairs, I whispered to Ulean, Back me up, friend. I think we"re all in trouble. Back me up, friend. I think we"re all in trouble.
Always and forever came the reply. came the reply.
Chapter 7.
Once in my room, I pulled out my wallet and counted how much cash I had left. Checking accounts had never been a part of my life. Five hundred and twenty-three dollars. Add to that the four thousand in Marta"s business checking and I still needed a job before long.
The wallet had been Krystal"s. I"d always suspected she"d lifted it off some john. Why I kept it, I didn"t know, but it was one of the few links I had to my mother. It had contained a single photo when I found it on her bruised and bloodied body. I slid the photo out of the wallet and flipped it over.
A crinkled picture of my mother and Heather, arms around each other. Krystal and Heather had been twenty years old, according to the date written on the back. They looked so young, and Heather was smiling, the wind blowing her hair in her face. Krystal was also smiling, but there was something in her gaze-a fear that had never left her.
"You just couldn"t get it right, could you? You always f.u.c.ked up." I hadn"t cried when I found her dead, and two years later, I still couldn"t cry. There was just a void-a hole filled with dark smoke.
I glanced at the picture again, then sighed. The past was gone. There was nothing I could do to change it now, and in truth, despite the problems of my childhood, I liked myself. And if I"d had it easier, who knows who I would have turned out to be?
After a moment, I propped the photo against the lamp on the desk and carefully laid out a soft black cloth, rolled and tied with a ribbon. Thanks to my nomadic childhood, I"d kept my magical tools to a minimum, too, making each item mult.i.task.
I untied the ribbon and spread out the cloth to reveal a stiletto athame-my ritual dagger. Double-bladed, the silver hilt was engraved with an owl motif, the blade highly polished. Next to it, wrapped in tissue paper to keep it safe, was an owl feather. The very possession of the feather could land me a hefty fine and/or time in jail since it was protected by wildlife laws, so I kept it out of sight. As I touched it, it hummed.
Whoa. The feather had never done that before. The feather had never done that before.
I waited, but it didn"t do anything else and, after a moment I shrugged and laid it down, then set out the few other a.s.sorted tools I had: a smudge stick, a quartz crystal that I"d attuned to myself, a ritual fan . . . that was the extent of my magical goody bag.
But with what I inherited from Marta, my stash of magical tools and components would drastically increase. The thought of being able to practice on a regular basis, with enough supplies to really delve into my wind magic, made me all shivery in a good way. Even though it came all bundled up with Heather"s disappearance and Grieve and the Indigo Court, I couldn"t help but smile.
First, though, we had to do something about Rhiannon. Stifling up all that magical energy couldn"t be good for her.
My cousin and I had been born on the same day-the summer solstice-twelve hours apart. Rhiannon was born at daybreak, a daughter of the sun, when the year was still waxing, I was born at dusk, a daughter of the moon, when the year had shifted over to waning. We grew up calling ourselves twins, even though we didn"t look anything alike. She took after her mother; I took after Krystal.
Amber and jet, Aunt Heather called us when we were little. Fire and ice. Fire and ice.