Before Zarita had a chance to agree or decline, another part of the poem caught my attention again, this time for all the wrong reasons. “The sunbird warms the blood for seven years.”
The cup in my hands dropped to the table, spilling most of its contents, before continuing a downward trajectory. Despite the crash as it smashed to the floor and shattered, I couldn’t pay any attention to the mess. Tremors tool over my body as I did the math.
Seven years . . .
It had been a little under five and half years since we’d shared our first kiss. In around eighteen months, the sunbird would return to rest.
And Evie would be left defenseless.
If the Rain pursued her after that happened . . .
In the light of the new information, my plans to come to Europe and everything that had happened since seemed like folly. I should have been back in the States continuing to monitor for any signs that Evie was being hunted. I should have been working the Rain’s database.
As the words and timeline played over in my head again and again, I hoped that Dad and Eth hadn’t gone back on their promise. I had to trust that they wouldn’t because they were all I had left in the world, but I couldn’t guarantee it.
Worse, Ben or any one of the other Rain would have attacked her if they stumbled across her. The only thing that had kept me sane when I thought of her was the knowledge that she could defend herself if it was necessary. She’d be keeping herself hidden, but what if something happened after the sunbird slept? What if something happened and she was thrust into their spotlight again? She’d be unprotected and they could easily kill her.
They would kill her.
My stomach twisted as the horror rushed through me.
If she isn’t already dead.
Zarita rushed over with paper towels for me to clean up the spill. I stilled her hand as she tried to soak up the mess. She looked up at me with a questioning expression.
“Thank you, for everything, but I have to go,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“I have to go home. I have to get back to the States. I need to find Evie.”
To my surprise, Zarita smiled and at least five years lifted away from her appearance. “Go, my boy. Go and find your heart.”
“ETH, I need your help, man. I have to get home.” I’d left Zarita’s house moments after my discovery, only taking the time to gather up the notes I’d need. I took all of her originals, not knowing when I might be able to print out my own copies.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve,” he said. “Do you know how much shit you caused for us? The breakdown in international relationships you’ve started?”
I rolled my eyes. There wasn’t time for his sass. I needed to keep moving. The miles between Evie and me tore at my heart and made me itchy to be back on my way home. “Is this about Oxford?”
“Damn right it’s about Oxford! I don’t know what you did there, but man, that Charles dude has got it in for you.”
Despite his words, and the clear irritation in his voice, I knew Eth would have my back. “All I did was liberate some artifacts that may or may not have been part of his private collection. I’ll do what I can to sort it out when I get home.”
“You stole from the director?” Eth’s voice had shifted from pissed to amused in an instant. “Ballsy! But it’s not exactly something that gets sorted out in a hurry.”
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn’t like he was telling me anything I didn’t already know. “We’ve been in worse situations. I’ll figure it out.”
“I can’t believe you.”
“What?”
“It’s been months, you couldn’t even call to say you were alive, and now you call to say that you’ll just sort it out like it’s something that can be swept under a rug.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t call. I’ve been a little busy.”
“Doing what exactly?”
I sighed. “Translating.”
“So the artifacts . . .” he trailed off and waited for me to confirm his thoughts before he’d even voiced them.
“Were about Evie. Among other things.”
“Damn it, Clay, when are you going to grow up and accept the fact that she’s toxic?”
I bit my tongue to stop myself from being a smartass back. There was no point in getting into an argument over our differing opinions on that. It wasn’t as if he would change his mind—nor would I change his. Yet. “I didn’t call for a lecture. I called for a way out. I need to come back to the States, but I can’t exactly turn up at an airport and expect to fly out unimpeded.”
He sighed. “I’ll see what I can do. Where are you?”
“Right now, Cyprus.”
I could hear him thinking on the other line. “I’m going to book you a room in the same hotel as last time while I sort something out.”
“I don’t know—”
“Don’t argue with me, bro, or so help me God I’ll send the police after your sorry ass right now.”
“Okay, okay.” I laughed. “How long until you can get me home do you think?”
“I don’t know. Hopefully no more than a week.”
I nodded to myself. A week would be perfect—just long enough to do what I needed.
FOUR DAYS after he’d promised to help me get out of Europe, Eth called me at the hotel room he’d arranged for me in Cyprus. The extra time I’d been granted with Zarita had given me the time I needed to go over my notes with her again and plan for the transfer of data as things were transcribed.
I set up a number of documents and folders hidden in cyberspace that could be used by the both of us to transfer information to be added into the Rain databases.
“Okay, I have your itinerary here,” Eth said over the phone line. “You’ll fly from Cyprus to Gatwick, train it from Gatwick to Heathrow, and then you’ll be on your way home.” There was a hint of something that sounded almost like joy in his voice.
I felt a stab of guilt because there was one thing I hadn’t been entirely honest with Eth about—once I was back in the States, there was no way I was going back to the Rain. The only home I was interested in was one that would lead me back to Evie.
If she ran again . . . I’d deal with that when it happened.
“You’ll be landing in LAX. I’ll email you the details now.”
It wasn’t quite the way I expected the phone call to go. I thought it would take a lot of planning and much more nefarious routes out of Europe. “Uh, okay, but aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Like?”
“Like Charles Harrison? The pissed off Rain Coordinator in Oxford.”
“Charlie-boy? Nothing to worry about there. He’s a pussycat.”
Right, a pissed-off pussycat with access to an unknown number of oubliettes. I scoffed to show my doubt.
“When I spoke to him, I made him see reason.”
“And how much did that cost exactly?” I knew whatever price it was would be taken from my trust fund, and there was no way I had enough to replace the value of the priceless items.
“Let’s just say that his little houseboy, Kevin, was more than what he appeared to be.” The nudge-nudge-wink-wink was more than implied in Eth’s tone. Speaking in euphemisms was something he was extremely proficient in.
“So? It’s not like he’s the only one to use the help for a bit of fun. I don’t see how that affects me.”
“Well, he’s now working on the assumption that not only are you a few cows short of a herd, but that you were under the influence of fae magic when you committed your crime.”
“Why would he think that?” My stomach twisted with guilt that he’d found out Toni’s secret about her deals with the fae. I may have hated the creatures, but I didn’t want Toni to suffer from the wrath of her family. “And what’s that got to do with his houseboy?”
“Kevin is MIA, but not before leaving a note confessing all.”
“Are you saying he was fae?”
“Yep, and Charles was slippi
ng it to him as often as possible. Understandably, Charlie-boy doesn’t want that little nugget spreading among the ranks.”
“Are you sure? I mean he’s not just going to turn around and capture me the second I’m on English soil is he?”
“It was supposed to be a surprise, but Toni is going to meet you at Gatwick. She figured you’d trust her to escort you to safety.”
“You spoke with Toni?” Even though they were both Rain operatives, I wasn’t sure I was happy with them talking to each other. It was as though my two separate worlds had collided.
“Yeah. She seems . . . different.”
I smiled to myself. I wasn’t sure what she’d revealed about herself, but I was certain she wouldn’t have revealed her own alliance with the fae.
“She is different.” My smile was evident in my voice.
“Dude, you’ve totally got a thing for her!”
I was willing to let him believe that, just like everyone at the Dove had, if it made my passage back home a little easier. The most important thing, something worth any embarrassment or lie, was finding Evie again.
That was my next mission.
The most important one of my entire life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“CLAY!” MY NAME was shouted over the din in the airport, and I saw Toni in one corner of the terminal leaping up and down, flailing her arms wildly to get my attention. Her blonde hair had been dyed again, to a vibrant pink this time.
I offered her a small wave before making my way over to her. She shrieked and threw herself into my arms as soon as I was close enough.
“God damn, you are a sight for sore eyes!” She laughed, and the sound was almost infectious.
I found myself smiling in response to the rapturous welcome, something I hadn’t ever experienced before. Even my last reunion with Evie had been a cautious affair, neither of us willing to play our hand until we knew where the other stood. “I think this is one of those situations where nothing fits but ditto.”
“So?”
In the excitement, I’d forgotten Toni hadn’t been getting the same progress updates that I’d had. “We got some good stuff.”
“You got some good stuff,” she corrected. “I knew you could do it.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you though.”
She glanced around us, as though she expected someone to leap out from the shadows and yell “gotcha” at any moment.
“Just don’t go telling too many people that,” she murmured.
I grimaced, remembering that I was effectively on enemy soil. There might have been a cease-fire in place, but who knew how long it would last if it became apparent that I was aware of what I’d done—or that Toni had helped me.
“I’m sorry if you got into any trouble,” I said.
She grinned at me, and mischief flashed in her eyes. “I played my part well. If this whole slaying monsters thing ever fails me, I could probably get a part in the movies.”
The image ran through my mind, and I chuckled. “I could definitely see that.”
Her fingers wrapped around my arm, and she led me toward the train to Heathrow. As we walked, she filled me in on everything that had happened at the Dove since I’d left.
“Everyone misses you, although they can’t admit it to each other of course. There’s just a Clay-shaped hole in the Dove now.”
I sighed and brushed my palm through the shaggy hair at the base of my skull. “I wish you could tell them the truth so that they didn’t have to feel like they’d been betrayed.” I didn’t care what they thought about me, but I’d felt the bitter sting of betrayal and I hated inflicting that on someone else.
“I trust everyone there with my life, but unfortunately, my life and our secrets are two different things. It would be too easy for Granddad to find out that it was all a set-up if they all knew.”
“I know. I just know what it’s like to be betrayed.” Thoughts of Lou pursuing Evie into our apartment in Detroit assaulted me for the first time in ages.
“Once the information starts to get out there, I’m sure they’ll see the truth for themselves.”
“I hope so.”
She sighed. “Until then, I wouldn’t count on having too many friends here in the UK.”
Her statement caused me unexpected sadness. “Yeah, I thought that’d probably be the case.”
Our conversation had to stop while we waited for the train because of the crowd milling around. There were too many sets of ears to be certain that no one unexpected was listening in.
Only once we had our seats on the train and could speak again in a whispered hush did we talk about important matters again.
“So Charles and a fae, huh?”
Toni suppressed a shudder at the same time that she fought a grin. “I don’t want to think about it too much, but yeah. Kevin was a set-up, of course. He’d agreed to the assignment to keep his court in the loop about the goings on at Oxford.”
“So you knew?”
“I had no idea that he and Granddad were . . .” Her nose screwed up in disgust, and I could understand—it would be like me finding out my dad was seeing someone. “Well, you know.”
“He doesn’t know about the help you’ve been getting does he?” We both knew I was talking about Charles, and not his fae lover.
She shook her head. “No, we were able to implicate Kevin and his court without revealing anything about their location or the help they gave us at the Dove.”
“I’m glad.”
Her eyebrow arched in interest. “What’s this? Clay Jacobs actually being glad the fae stayed out of trouble.”
I snorted. “Hardly. I couldn’t give a crap about them. I’m just glad it didn’t sink you.”
She turned away, leaning back against the headrest of the seat. “I’m a big girl. I could handle it.”
“I know.”
“So what now for you?”
A swarm of bees twisted in my stomach. “I’m going to try to find her.” The statement solidified everything for me.
Her head snapped back toward me. A momentary look of shock crossed her face, but she stamped it down quickly. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “I have to. I found out some new information that she needs to know.”
“Such as?”
My mouth twisted in distaste. I wasn’t certain I wanted to share the information about the timeline on Evie’s head with anyone—not even a trusted ally.
“Fine, keep your secrets. You will share everything though, won’t you?”
“It’s my first priority.”
She offered me a skeptical glare.
I held up my hand. “Scout’s honor.”
After nodding, she turned away for a moment. “Clay?”she asked when she twisted back toward me.
“Yeah?”
“Were you ever in the scouts?”
I chuckled, because she’d called me out on my lie. I never had been.
I GOT nearly two more hours with Toni before we had to part ways. During that time, she handed me a small stack of papers, telling me it might make interesting reading on the plane.
When it came time to say goodbye, I was struck with a feeling of loss. It was likely the last time that I’d ever see her, even though she had been such a big part of my European adventure. It wasn’t hard to admit I would miss her. She’d been a great friend when I hadn’t expected to find one.
Despite her hard exterior, Toni had tears in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around my neck. “I know I told you to stay away, but if you can’t, make sure you look me up, won’t you?”
I nodded.
“Although you might want to use a codename if you do.”
“But if I use a codename you won’t know it’s me.”
She laughed, but it came out as a sob. “Well, we better pick one for you now then. Just in case.”
“What about Jacob?”
Her head shook against the crook of my neck before she pulled away. “Too obvious.”
&
nbsp; “It needs to be something we’ll both remember,” I said, trying to think of something that would last in my memory through our time apart.
“Something that defines you,” she agreed.
“Like what?”
“Well, what have I learned about you?” She began to tick off a long list of traits that she’d observed in even our short time together. I wondered if I was really that transparent. While I was trying to figure out whether or not I should be offended, a bright smile lit her face. “I’ve got it: Monty.”
“Monty?” I asked with confusion.
“Because of your appalling lack of knowledge of the Monty Python skits. Besides it’s a name, but not a common enough one that I could expect to get a lot of false calls.”
I smiled. “Monty it is then.”
She sighed, and her sorrow seeped from her as she did. “I suppose this is goodbye.”
My own mouth formed a frown. “I guess it is.”
“Thanks for being the annoying little brother I never had.”
I was going to respond in kind except I’d had a sister, and she had lost her life because of me. My face must have ticked at the thought because Toni instantly backtracked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean . . . I’m sorry.”
I tried for a smile, but worried I failed miserably. “It’s okay. I know what you mean. When it’s safe, I’ll call you.”
“I’d like that. And good luck with that girl of yours.”
“She’s not mine anymore.”
“She will be again. And if not, she’s an idiot, and you can tell her I said so.”
I laughed before giving her one more farewell hug and leaving her so I could pass through customs. It was hard to imagine that in a little under a day, I would be back on American soil and ready to start my pursuit of Evie anew. My heart skipped and stuttered at the thought. I didn’t want to get too full of hope in case it was shattered, but I couldn’t help imagining holding Evie in my arms again. A smile tipped the corners of my mouth as I settled in to wait for the plane.
It was only after I was on the plane that I looked at what Toni had given me. It was a copy of some old handwritten Rain files. Four case files, each one outlining the death of a phoenix.
Among the Debris (Son of Rain #2) Page 24
