She kissed him, and when, a moment later, her phone began vibrating on the side table, she stared at it for a long moment, and then sent Piper’s call to voicemail. There would be time to catch her up in the morning. Well, later in the morning, anyway.
For now, she snuggled close to Aiden, and went back to listening to his heart.
Somehow, though she wouldn’t dare admit it to him now, she had the sense that she may not have that many more chances to hear it.
Chapter 16
Piper stood outside the hospital the next morning, and dialed Bailey again. This time, though, she picked up.
“Hey, girl,” Bailey said. She sounded exhausted. “Sorry I didn’t pick up last night. We were... busy.”
“How... are things going?” Piper asked. In the back of her mind, a voice was pushing her to say something, to tell Bailey about Ryan, but just the thought of it made her so nervous her stomach lurched.
“Oh,” Bailey said with a sarcastically casual tone, “not bad. I mean, we’re being pursued by mysterious shadow beings who either want to test me or kill me? And, let’s not forget the ancient order of deadly wizards, who call themselves Centurions for scare value I’m guessing, that’s probably looking for us. And did I mention yet that just looking for this... thing is likely to kill me? That’s a thing. Plus, Gideon is probably... well, anyway I don’t think he is who he says he is. Do I sound stressed yet?”
Piper’s mouth worked around her shock. “What do you mean it... might kill you? Bails, what the hell is going on?”
Bailey sighed into the receiver. “I don’t know, Pipes. This whole trip is... more than I thought it would be. We’re about to leave to go to Budapest. And after that we still have to make it to Crete. Crete, Piper.”
“That’s... a lot of travel,” Piper agreed.
“Yeah. So how are things at home?”
Piper imagined Bailey in the middle of some... magical battle, losing her focus and... “Uh, things are fine. No weirdness yet.”
“Huh,” Bailey grunted. “Maybe it’s just me, then.”
“What does that mean?” Piper asked, alarmed. Had Bailey gotten some kind of vision? Did it work like that?
“I mean I leave town for a few days and everything goes quiet,” Bailey chuckled. “I almost wish something was happening back there.”
Piper grimaced, and bit her lip. “Well... just stay alert. Be glad you only have all of Europe to worry about.”
“Uh huh,” Bailey said, “thanks for that.”
“I, ah... have to go,” Piper said. “Just wanted to check in.”
“Thanks,” Bailey muttered. “I have to go, too; Gideon’s about to stuff us all back in his car for another twelve hours.”
“Be careful, Bailey.” Piper glanced back at the hospital doors. “And just... come home as soon as you can. We miss you.”
“Tell everyone I said hi. I miss you all, too.”
They hung up, and Piper frowned at the phone for a long time, struggling to decide if she should call Bailey back and tell her about Ryan.
Instead, though, she put her phone away and turned to go back inside. Up in Ryan’s room, Aria sat by the hospital bed, her eyes closed, her eyebrows pinched in concentration as she held Ryan’s hand with one of hers and some kind of healing icon in her other.
She didn’t open her eyes when Piper came in, and Piper stayed quiet to keep from disturbing whatever work Aria was doing. Presumably she was working to heal Ryan’s heart, but she’d been hesitant to try initially—both because Ryan was in a hospital, and because apparently healing was a complicated sort of magic.
Still, Piper had insisted. It was the least that they could do while Bailey was gone, and if she returned and found that Ryan was... gone...
Her heart ached as she watched Aria work. Ryan laid still and quiet, pale and frail with an IV running into one arm and a tube attached to his nose. It brought back memories of her uncle, Bennet’s father, who had died of cancer just three years before. It had been a long good bye, but at least he and the rest of the family had gotten to say it.
If Ryan died before Bailey got home, she’d never forgive herself for leaving in the first place.
Aria’s eyes opened gradually, and she blinked away whatever trance she’d slipped into. Her face was drawn, the lines around her eyes deeper than they normally were. “Did you call Bailey?”
Piper flushed, and nodded. “I did, but I couldn’t tell her. Not right now. She’s got a lot to deal with.”
“She needs to know,” Aria said gently. “If you were in her position, you’d want to be told.”
“I don’t actually know that I would,” Piper said. “She said they’re being chased by, ah, Centurions or something? She made light of it but, I think whatever’s going on over there is serious.”
Aria straightened, frowning. “She used that word? Centurions?”
Piper nodded.
Obvious concern made Aria’s eyes look even darker. “Oh, dear. Perhaps you made the right choice, then.”
“Who are they?” Piper asked.
Aria shook her head. “A myth, I thought. Ancient history. There would be no reason for her to bring them up unless she was serious, we haven’t talked about the Centurions; there was no reason to.”
“So... it’s bad,” Piper clarified.
Aria nodded.
Piper looked to Ryan and swallowed. “How is he doing?”
Aria’s face fell. “I can sustain him for some time,” she said quietly. “But he isn’t afflicted with a magical illness or an injury. Magic can extend his time, but not indefinitely.”
Piper’s heart pounded, and she looked to the window of the hospital room, into early morning light. “What about the Caves?” She asked. “They keep the crones alive, don’t they.”
“Oh, Piper,” Aria said sadly, “it doesn’t work like that, my love. I wish that it did. The Crones... it’s because of their connection to the caves that they’re sustained.”
“Okay,” Piper said, “so... we could connect Ryan, couldn’t we? Like Riley and me? Bailey did it, surely you can—”
“Piper,” Aria said as she stood, and pulled Piper to her. She hugged her for a long moment. “We’ll do everything we can, alright? But even if tying Ryan to the Caves was a viable option... none of us know how to do that.”
“Bailey did it,” Piper breathed. She sniffles, and disengaged herself from Aria.
“Piper,” Aria said softly, “I know that she did. Bailey is... exceptional. We don’t know how she did what she did.”
“We have to try something,” Piper sobbed, the floodgates opening as she imagined Bailey losing another parent so soon after the first.
“We are,” Aria said, her own voice rough. “We’re doing what we can. I promise, I won’t leave him until she returns.”
Piper wiped her eyes. “What should I do?”
“Oh, Piper... you should go home to your children,” Aria said. “There’s not much more you can do here.”
“Once again,” Piper sighed, “I’m useless. Even with magic.”
Aria winced. “That’s not true, Piper.” Her face pinched with sympathy and worry, and she brushed one of Piper’s tears away. “You’ve been here all night. You need rest, and you need to take heart in your family. Go. I’ll stay with Ryan until Frances comes to take over.”
Piper nodded slowly, resigned, and touched Ryan’s forehead before she left the room.
She walked to the parking lot in a daze, and turned her attention to Bailey; she had changed a second time, she realized. Stronger than she was before. There was something to that. Maybe that’s what she was feeling—relative strength? If so, maybe Bailey would come back strong enough to save her father.
It was several miles to Ryan’s house and Piper’s car, so she stood on the sidewalk as she called Bennet to come and pick her up. While she waited for him to get there, however, she blinked as she saw, across the street, Seamus Jackson, sitting behind the wheel of his old Ford truck�
��watching her.
Almost the moment she noticed, he cranked the engine and pulled away, and Piper watched him go with a sinking feeling in her stomach.
Seamus glanced in the rear view mirror as he pulled away from the hospital. “She saw us,” he said to Finn.
Finn just waved a hand, “Doesn’t matter. What’s she gonna think? We could have been at the hospital for any number of reasons.”
“It’s investigation one-oh-one,” Seamus sighed, “if you get made, it’s all over.”
“Chill out,” Finn sighed. “We should have left last night anyway.”
“I needed sleep,” Seamus said.
“You’re rested now. So, what do you say?”
Seamus white knuckled the steering wheel. “I... don’t know.”
“You ain’t gonna chicken out on me now,” Finn said, “are you? Come on, man. You got leave, right? It’ll only take a couple of days.”
Seamus had never taken a day off, in fact. It could take weeks to find these so-called witch hunters that Finn insisted were out there and he would still have enough time left afterward to take an actual vacation.
Taking the time wasn’t the problem, though. The idea of actual witch hunters was frankly scary. He imagined Bailey, running like an animal as some group of vicious killers ran her down. It made him sick to his stomach to think about it.
“I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” he whispered.
“It’s gonna come down to us or them,” Finn pressed. “You know it’s true. Everyone knows it, but they’re all afraid to do anything about it.” His voice grew hard edged, and Seamus flinched at the next words. “And when that time comes, are you just gonna stand by and wish you’d done something—or are you gonna do something now, before it’s too late?”
Seamus didn’t answer him. Anything he started to say seemed hollow. Finn had a point. If he didn’t do something now, how would he feel later on? If it really did come down to a conflict between witches and everyone else? He didn’t even know how many were here. At least the bakery ladies. At least Bailey. There was Aiden and Avery, and the old Hope sisters. Maybe Piper was involved, but maybe it was too early to say for sure. So at the least there were eight or nine of them. At the most?
Hell, there were plenty of people in Coven Grove that kept to themselves. There could be a dozen, there could be a hundred, living on the fringes. No one would know. And no one even knew what they were really capable of. Could they control minds? Make people sick? Call up demons or something like that? His mind reeled with all the possibilities.
Coven Grove was becoming a powder keg. That he knew for sure. If a spark was struck at the wrong time—if all those people that reported eyewitness accounts of the impossible going on at the Caves decided to make a move on their own—then things would get bad fast.
So wasn’t it smart to have something in their back pocket? Just in case?
“You sure these witch hunters exist?” Seamus asked. “I don’t wanna waste time on a wild goose chase.”
“I’m sure,” Finn said. He flashed Seamus a toothy grin. “They been around for a long, long time. I can show you where they are.”
“And... how do you know?”
Finn shrugged. “Oh... I’ve been around. Seen things.”
“I can call in some leave,” Seamus said. “You probably should, too.”
“Oh,” Finn said, laughing softly, “I don’t think anybody’ll miss me. Turn the radio up, Jackson, and head east.”
“Just east?”
Finn nodded slowly. “East. You trust me, right?”
He’d known Finn just a short time, but Seamus had to admit that he did.
“Good,” Finn said. “Then drive east.”
So Seamus took a turn, and headed for the highway.
Things didn’t have to get bad. He wouldn’t fire the first shot. But the fact was, they had to be prepared. He consoled himself with that as he found the highway and turned the volume dial up and waited for Finn to tell him where to go next.
Chapter 17
Each long drive they took seemed, to Bailey, longer than the last, even though the drive from Brussels to Budapest was about twelve hours, just like the drive from Amesbury to Brussels had been. She at least managed to drift off and sleep through part of the drive this time, though she had troubled dreams when she did.
There were a variety of them. Sometimes she was lost in a maze, other times she was surrounded by roiling black smoke that screeched at her, metal flashing from quiet bursts of lightning. Sometimes Gideon stood over her, his eyes dark and violent.
When she woke to a gentle rocking as Aiden urged her out of her slumber, she didn’t feel like she’d actually rested. For that matter, sleeping that early morning hadn’t really renewed her either. It seemed that no matter how she tried, every hour made her feel more and more tired.
“Are we there?” She asked blearily.
“We’re close,” Aiden said. “Maybe ten minutes, but we’ll have to hike some distance. Aquincum doesn’t have a road directly through it, but there’s a museum nearby where we’ll park before we walk up.”
“Alright,” Bailey said. She shifted in her seat, straightening and doing her best to stretch her arms and legs. Her back cracked when she did, and she groaned softly with the mix of pain and relief it brought.
Aiden frowned at her. “Are you feeling well?”
She nodded, and mopped her face with her hands. “I’m fine.”
“You haven’t been resting,” Aiden said. “You’ve got circles under your eyes.”
She waved his concern off. “Just bad dreams is all. How long was I out?”
“Four hours, very nearly,” Aiden said. He didn’t seem convinced, and continued to give her that look of steady concern.
“Doesn’t feel like it,” she sighed.
“It’s just ahead,” Gideon announced.
Avery looked up from a book, and then looked back at Bailey from the front passenger seat. “Everything okay?”
Bailey rolled her eyes. “Bailey is fine, everyone; okay?”
Aiden finally smoothed his face, though Avery watched her a moment longer before he looked back at his book.
It didn’t precisely bother her that Avery and Gideon had seemed closer during the trip to Budapest, but it was unusual. Aiden explained to her that Gideon had likely taken the chance to test his grand-pupil, checking not only that Avery was getting a proper education, but that Aiden was upholding the proper traditions, passing on the correct knowledge, and making Avery into a well rounded practitioner.
Still, it was odd. Not that she could blame Avery for the change—he was hungry for knowledge, and having another experienced wizard around was probably exciting. And, he didn’t have the burden of Bailey’s suspicions, even if he did have his own vague unease about Gideon. Maybe they’d talked about it, and Gideon had somehow explained it away. Or lied some more. That seemed like it could have gone either way.
In just a few more minutes, Gideon parked them in front of an appropriately Roman styled white building. From the parking lot, the ruins beyond it were just visible, low broken walls that must have once been houses in the ancient settlement. What was waiting for them in this place? Another attack? Some other test, certainly, if they found the stone they were looking for.
Bailey couldn’t help but worry that this was the test she’d fail; that Medea’s prophecy would prove literal. She had to take several deep breaths and calm herself. Worrying about anything other than the task in front of her was just going to distract her now and she couldn’t afford it.
“Do we have the location of the stone again?” She asked.
Gideon flipped through his journal, ran his finger along the page several times, and then grimaced. “At the very least,” he said, “you do seem to have a knack for finding them. It’s noted that another instance of the hand symbol has been found here, but... not a specific note about the location.”
Bailey nodded, unconcerned. Twice now she’d be
en able to find the stone based on her magical senses; she didn’t doubt that she could do it again.
For one thing, as exhausted as she felt physically, magically she felt even more herself than she had before. It was as if each time she interacted with the Path, if that’s what it was she was interacting with, she gained some measure of her magic back.
It wasn’t lost on her that she also seemed to be more chronically tired as well; but in fairness it had been a stressful few days. Jumping to conclusions now would only make her and everyone else more stressed.
It was light out, which made this the first day time excursion. There were other cars around as well, so Aquincum wasn’t deserted at the moment. Bailey pointed this out. “Are we going to do this with people around?”
“Not necessarily,” Gideon said. “But we may as well try to identify the location of the next marker now. If we need to, we can come back at night.”
With that, they disembarked from Gideon's car and headed to the museum. Rather than charming anyone, Gideon simply paid their entry fees, and they were granted access to the museum and the ruins beyond.
Once they were beyond the museum proper—within which were several artifacts recovered from the ruins, including various collections of broken pottery and even a few paintings—and entering the ruins, Bailey reached for her magic and found it easily enough. Something about it had changed, though. It was... harder, perhaps, than it had been in Coven Grove. More primal, somehow. Maybe because the magic at home flowed from the intelligence of the Caves.
This magic had no inherent intelligence. It was a blind natural force that trembled dangerously at her touch. She was careful not to draw any more than was needed, and used that only to open her magical senses.
Despite the greater power she had access to—certainly more than she’d had in Brussels initially—she didn’t immediately sense any similar pull like she had there. Oh, there was magic here, to be sure. But it wasn’t focused in one place. Instead, it seemed diffused, as if it permeated everything.
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