“Ahh, but your tan will be most lovely if you remain naked.” His gaze ran over her.
“Listen, I have to get out of here. I don’t know where I am. Will you help me?”
“Perhaps. For a price.”
Maybe the sun was beating her brain in, because the next words out of her mouth sealed her fate. “Whatever you want, I’ll do it. Please, just help me.”
Malik raised his black eyebrow. “Be careful, young one. You of all people should know we djinn cannot be trusted.”
“And why me of all people?” How did he know who, or what she was?
“You are a mythical—a banshee.” He sniffed the air, then gazed at her again. “And merrow. An interesting bloodline you have there, child. Why would such a water-oriented mythical be lost in the desert?” A sinister grin spread over his face. “You should know better.”
An eerie feeling swept over Cara. “What choice do I have?”
“Therein lies the question. What choice would you have?” His smug look reminded her of a confident god or goddess who saw everyone’s cards at the poker table.
Unfortunately, Cara saw none.
Chapter Seventeen
Monday evening
“I’m sorry,” Duncan said as he escorted Cara’s mother Sally back to her husband, Frank. She climbed into her husband’s embrace and shook.
Frank stroked his wife’s back, his own tears pouring over his face. He turned his gaze to Duncan.
“I don’t understand. Norton kidnapped her, and the scream got stuck inside. And now she’s gone? What exactly did you mean by that?” Frank asked.
“She had lost her voice with a scream inside her, ready to explode. She finally was able to release it, and the result was a sandstorm of such magnitude I’d never seen before. It pulled her into it and disappeared.” He hated himself for bringing this news to the family.
“So she could be out there somewhere?” Frank asked.
“We have FID looking for her now.”
Sally stopped for a moment, and turned to look at Duncan, her brows drawn together. “What do you mean she lost her voice with a scream inside? That’s not possible.”
“I witnessed it.” Duncan took a step toward them. “If I knew more I would tell you.”
“You were there?” Frank asked. “If she was that close to…to…” He choked on the words. “You should have been out of harm’s way.”
“I would not leave her alone,” Duncan said.
Frank nodded as Sally cried harder.
In the door burst a young woman, similar in build to Cara, and he realized she was Cara’s sister, Janelle. Blonde like her dad, but otherwise had the same eyes and build as Cara.
“What? What’s going on, Mom?” Janelle took one look at Duncan, then at her parents, then back at Duncan.
“What did you do?” she screamed and charged Duncan.
He caught her, and Janelle pummeled his chest, screaming obscenities at him. If he ever needed any proof that her family was not that fond of him, this was it.
Duncan held her at bay, only so she didn’t harm herself as she swung at him.
“You big jerk! What did you do to her?” Janelle cried, a fist heading for his face, but missed, instead tagging his shoulder.
“He didn’t do anything,” Frank said, coming over and peeling Janelle off Duncan. Janelle turned to her dad and fell into him as she cried.
“Cara’s missing. She had a scream that almost killed her. When it came out, she disappeared in a sandstorm, and they can’t find her.” He glanced at Duncan. “That about cover it?”
Duncan nodded as the family huddled together, holding one another. He felt like the most horrible person ever to walk the world—having to tell a family that this happened.
He almost wished that Cara was dead. At least then, he’d have more definitive answers for them.
Okay, not really, but the not knowing—that was worse.
Way worse. Again, Duncan went over everything that he could, and still respected Cara’s privacy, to tell them the details of what happened.
Janelle listened, wiping away her tears. “You were there with her?”
“Yes.”
“But how did she get the scream out? It should have killed her,” Janelle said. “What did you do to her?”
“Fairy Tea,” he said.
Janelle tipped her head, eyebrow raised and arms crossed. “Fairy Tea?”
“Fairy. Tea.” He was not about to go into detail about what they were doing when she was drinking the tea. That he would keep to himself. The last thing her family needed to know about their daughter was that she was dying, and he was making love to her…
Would that make him sound like someone who loved their daughter, or would it make him into a monster in their eyes?
He wouldn’t put that thought into their heads, regardless.
“But she could still be out there,” Sally said as she wiped tears from her eyes.
“We will not stop looking for her. She must be out there somewhere,” Frank added.
Janelle nodded. “I can help look. I could go—”
“It’s the desert,” Duncan said. “You don’t have wings.”
“Well, I have to do something! She’s my sister!” She stepped toward him. Even with her tiny stature, she didn’t seem the slightest bit intimidated by Duncan.
“There is nothing you can do,” Duncan said.
“I’m sure there’s something,” she said and turned to her parents. “I’ll go to her house. See if she’s appeared there. Dad, you go to The Portal, just in case she comes through. Those Portals open everywhere for banshees. If she released her scream, she might be able to channel one to get her back here. Mom, you stay here. You can keep an eye on her favorite spot out there on the shore. Just in case she shows up there.”
Sally nodded. “I know just the place.”
“You cannot be sure where she will show up,” Duncan said.
Janelle put her hands on her hips. “You should know this, fairy, like all magic, banshee power draws from what we know—our home and our connections. If she can find a way back, she’s going to come to what she knows first.”
“If…” Duncan said, more to himself than them.
“No ifs,” Janelle said. “She is coming back. She will be found.”
Duncan didn’t believe her. Just because Janelle didn’t see it… “You can’t be sure.”
“Actually, I can be,” Janelle said as she pressed her hand on her chest. “No scream.”
Duncan blinked.
Tears welled in her eyes as she spoke. “I don’t have a scream. And if I don’t have a scream, then there’s no death coming. So she’s out there. Alive. And she’s not dying. So I’m going to do everything I can to find her.”
For the briefest second, Duncan felt Janelle’s determination and her faith.
He hoped he still had some in him.
Chapter Eighteen
Tuesday morning
Exhaustion overwhelmed Duncan, but he still stood straight, arms over his chest as he waited for his boss, O’Leary, to speak to him.
He’d been combing the desert for hours after talking to Cara’s parents. Using magic, he’d projected the path of the sandstorm that scooped her up and followed it all across the desert. He flew low enough at some points to drag his fingers in the sand and looked for some sign of Cara.
He found where she’d landed, the energy of the scream still marked the ground, but there was no more trail.
Other FID, including Reese, had looked, but no one could come up with anything. The magic swirling around the desert was enough that even a human would notice, if anyone happened to be nearby. Fortunately, the regular hundred and ten plus degrees of the desert kept most humans out of the area for extended periods of time.
Duncan h
ad felt the resonating energy, both from Cara’s scream—even after a full day since its release—and from the magic the other FID had used to try and find her. He tracked the magic all over, flying so low over the dunes it took a good hour in a shower cleaning off all the sand, though he was pretty sure it still was lodged in places.
Duncan had hoped, with his telepathy, he’d be able to find Cara. Their connection had been so strong for most of her life, he’d thought he’d be able to get a glimmer of her somewhere. That his connection would be better.
Yet it had been fruitless.
He hadn’t wanted to quit; he would still be out there looking for Cara if O’Leary hadn’t demanded him to come in for a debriefing.
So now he stood in the office, waiting for his boss to acknowledge him.
Finally, O’Leary met his gaze. “Quite a clusterfuck you find yourself in, Molar.”
Duncan nodded.
“At least ye saved the Merrow Kingdom. The banshee, however…”
Duncan gritted his teeth. “Cara.” Why does everyone call her a banshee? She’s a person. Named Cara.
That I love…
The words hit him in his gut. Because he knew they were true the moment he thought them. He was in love with her. Without question.
Not that he hadn’t loved her before, but now that he’d made love to her? When they’d connected in a way that he’d never expected? Anything he was holding back burst forward, ramming him in the eye.
How shitty was fate that he’d finally realized he loved her, and now she was gone?
He’d never even gotten the chance to tell her.
O’Leary jarred him from his epiphany. “Aye, Cara. Still no sign of her?”
Duncan shook his head.
O’Leary sighed. “Well, she’s likely to turn up, laddy. Someone would be havin’ a scream if she were gone.” He shuffled papers on his desk, and ran his wand over them, making them float in the air and slip into a file cabinet. Then he glanced back at Duncan. “You be lookin’ like you need some rest, boy.”
Duncan nodded. “Been an exhausting couple of days.”
“Go take some time, and we’ll get you back on that Fairy Godmother case I pulled you off. Make sure that’s going well.”
Ava’s case… Duncan hadn’t thought about it since Cara vanished. Stars, he hoped Ava was behaving herself.
“Go. We’ll take care of that Fairy Godmother tomorrow.”
Duncan nodded and waved his wand, transporting himself back to his little home, where he could get some rest.
Maybe.
Tuesday evening
“We cannot allow Fairy Godmothers to behave like this,” Anteros said to O’Leary.
Duncan rubbed his head. He might actually kill Ava the next time he saw her. A few hours sleep had not prepared him for this mess. What had she been up to while he’d been gone?
Wait, he had a pretty good idea.
Ava’d been all googly eyed at her charge, Jason, since she’d gotten him. And now she’d sought help from Anteros? Anteros, with his thick build and dark hair was the antithesis of his brother Cupid, the god of love. Anteros, the god of unreturned love, was—most of the time—a friend to the Fairy Godmothers. If only to keep his meddling brother out of the picture.
But why would Ava go see him over this? That, Anteros would not explain, only that she’d confided in him a story that went against every Fairy Realm law.
What in the world did she think this would accomplish? Duncan rubbed his eyes, hoping some beam of understanding would hit him.
O’Leary must have had the same concerns. “And why would she come to you, Anteros?” O’Leary put his hands on his hips as he glared at the god.
Anteros waved his hand in the air. “Ava thinks her file is wrong.”
“Wait, what?” Duncan asked. The file—what all Fairy Godmothers got when they were given a new assignment—was magical, and tied to the charge. They were always right. “The file is connected to her charge. It changes because of his actions—”
Anteros raised his eyebrow. “Your fairy has been trying to change it.”
“Ava’s not that powerful!” Duncan snapped, and all the details of her case coming back in a flash. “Son of a Krakon, she’s had help on almost all of her charges over her tenure. By your brother.”
Anteros didn’t even flinch at Duncan’s words.
“Why would she think her file’s wrong now? It’s not like she can change it—the magic’s too strong,” Duncan snapped.
“There is one way…” O’Leary said.
And Duncan might as well been hit over the head with a cast-iron skillet. Because it hit him that hard what they meant.
Ava has been sleeping with her charge.
Duncan shook his head. “I may kill her.” And then something clicked in his head. “Wait, if she’s been intimate with her charge, why hasn’t the file changed?” The file was self-adjusting. It changed according to the choices the charge made. If the charge was more attracted to a different person in the listings, the list adjusted itself.
Duncan glanced at Anteros.
Anteros shrugged. “I know nothing.”
From the look on his face, Duncan was pretty sure that Anteros knew something.
“Regardless, she’s broken the laws. She has to be arrested, pending trial,” O’Leary said. “Fornication with a charge is against the rules.”
“Unless they’re in love,” Duncan said.
Both men glanced at him, but neither looked happy about his particular observation.
“It matters not, if they are not meant to be together. Which obviously, they aren’t,” O’Leary said, gesturing to the file that Anteros had brought with him.
“Ava loves him, I can guarantee you that,” Anteros added as he tapped his finger against his lip. “But I doubt the human feels the same way, or the file would change.” He stroked the bundle of colorful folders on the desk.
“If she loves him, shouldn’t she be allowed to be with him?” Duncan snapped. “Not be forced to watch from afar for all of his life?”
Anteros glared at Duncan. “For some, that is our lot in life. To watch from afar.”
Duncan’s gut kicked. Because he knew Anteros meant himself, but the words were a bit too close to home for him as well.
Though Duncan lost his love—literally.
It was almost the same thing.
Chapter Nineteen
“And to think, Christy thought we should date,” Ava snapped at Duncan. She jerked out of his hold as he walked her into her home in the Fairy Realm. He’d had to arrest her at the healer’s ward where a fellow Fairy Godmother had been recuperating.
It wasn’t his first choice to arrest her. After all, she was part of his sister-in-law Christy’s trio. Christy would be giving him an earful when she found out about this.
“Knock it off, Ava,” Duncan snapped. “I’m not the one sleeping with my charge.”
“What do you expect me to do?” the red-haired fairy asked him, her hands on her hips.
“Not sleep with him,” Duncan replied.
She stepped into his space. “I was doing my job! You saw me. I did all those things I was supposed to do to bring Jason to his designated HEA. Not my fault that Cupid screwed me—”
“That’s on you,” Duncan said. He’d learned that Cupid had not only manipulated a lot of Ava’s previous charges so she wouldn’t have any blemishes on her record, he also had been literally screwing Ava.
Ava growled.
Duncan raised his eyebrow. “Listen, you’re the one who went to Anteros about your file.”
“There’s something wrong with it, Duncan!”
“They’re not wrong,” he said. “Ever.” The files were not corruptible, at least not that he’d ever seen. And he’d even been a Fairy Godfather for a while.
Duncan snorted. He didn’t believe her. It wouldn’t be the first time a Fairy Godmother fell for a charge and tried to claim the file was wrong to get out of their lawbreaking.
“Not likely,” he told her.
“I saw it! Andres, from the Council, saw it! The magic has been manipulated by Cupid. Me, Andres, and Anteros spent an hour trying to break the magic spell, but we couldn’t. It was too powerful.”
Duncan spat a curse. Hadn’t Anteros just argued the opposite? That there was nothing wrong with the file? Damn him! What game was he playing at? “That damn god didn’t say a word about your file being messed up.”
“He didn’t? He’s supposed to be trying to break the spell! That jerk’s no better than Cupid,” Ava said as she punched the wall.
“I don’t know what he’s trying to accomplish, but you’re still going to have to go before The Council and plead your case.” Duncan didn’t like this. Something was afoot. Cupid and Anteros had an agenda—what it was, he didn’t know, but it was looking more and more like the two brothers were having quite a bit of fun manipulating fairies.
And the head of the gods and goddesses, Jupiter, was not a big fan of that sort of thing.
“I have no defense,” Ava said, her shoulders slumping. “I… My choices were mine. No potion made me break the rules. I just…”
Duncan put his hand on Ava’s shoulder. “We’ll figure this out. Let me see what I can come up with.”
“I don’t think there’s any way out of this tangled web.”
“This is a pretty good knot you’ve got going on.” He patted her shoulder. “But I’ll do my best to defend you.”
Tears ran down Ava’s cheeks, and she brushed them away. “Thank you.”
“It’s going to be okay. If Anteros knows the file is screwed up, we might be able to get some leniency.”
She snorted.
“Say a couple prayers. We’re going to need them.”
Saving Her Destiny Page 13
