“We need to go. We’re heading to Jeremy’s marina so we’ll be ready to move out as soon as we know where we’re going. We’ll keep you updated through Sebastian.”
Dorn frowned. “We will meet you there. We can move through the water much faster than most of your watercraft.” Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heel and ran for the steps leading to the river, his companions close on his heels.
I set Zara down, stroking her head more for my own reassurance than her. “I guess this is it. Let’s go.”
Chapter 12
Locating the children
Dutch stayed behind, as did Gloria. Clyde would drive us to the marina and wait for us to return. When we arrived, Jeremy was already waiting, along with all five of the firm’s coven. Sam nodded in approval.
The pixies made a mad dash for the shadowed areas away from the marina lights, to better escape the notice of any passersby strolling the docks or the boardwalk at the resort. They would follow from a distance until we reached the boat. I saw several of our witches searching the shadows for them as we walked, but the pixies were silent and nearly invisible in the dark. They must have a way to dim their natural glow.
With the exception of Rayna and Willa, the coven looked nervous as we made our way down the docks to the boat.
Rayna is a water witch—this is her element. The air witch should fare well, too. The other three may feel somewhat separated from theirs. The earth witch will be the most affected. Danai and Tess will be fine.
Zara’s words made sense. Is there anything you can think of that would help?
Are there any live potted plants around? Something small enough to take with you?
Maybe there’s something in the restaurant that will work. Pulling Jeremy to the side as discreetly as possible, I made my request. The crow shifter looked slightly confused, but he turned and hurried back the way we’d come without question. By the time we reached the boat, he’d caught back up to us, a substantial potted pepper plant in his arms. There were several slender, red peppers showing between the dark, green leaves.
“Dis okay?” he asked, handing it to me. “Dem cooks likes to grow der own t’ings fer special dishes.”
It was heavier than I’d expected when I accepted it from him. I started to wrap my arms around it when Rand plucked it from my grasp as if it weighed nothing.
“I’m sure it will be fine, thanks. I’ll buy them a new one to replace this one if anything happens to it.”
He waved my offer away and motioned me toward the boat. Everyone else was already on board. Danai was doing something—was that a glamour?—to hide the pixies as they flew around the upper deck of the boat, before waving them toward the cabin below. The witches surrounded Cappy, bombarding him with questions. Sam looked on with amusement, but did nothing to rescue our captain.
While they were all distracted, I thought it would be a good time to follow up on what had happened with the necklace from Margo’s shop. Jeremy snickered and pulled out his phone. Rand and I watched as what must have been a large bird flew over several tall buildings, finally landing on one to wait. It was daylight in the video, so this must have been a few hours ago.
“Is that—” I started.
Jeremy nodded vigorously, his grin mischievous. “Dat building looks down on Margo’s. Jus’ watch.”
He enlarged the view, zoning in on the front of the shop. Margo walked out, clutching a pendant hanging from her neck. She cast a wary look around to see if anyone was watching and spun in a slow circle. She stopped, facing in the direction of the building the view came from. Jeremy enlarged the picture again and I could see the woman’s face scrunched in confusion. She spun around again, stopping once more in the same direction. Her eyes narrowed, she studied the sidewalk and the people walking by. Slowly her gaze traveled up the building. There was a moment of dizzying movement as the shifter with the necklace backed away from the ledge, out of sight from anyone below. Jeremy turned the phone off.
“He’s not in any danger, is he,” I whispered.
Rand turned his mouth to my ear and asked, “Why are you whispering?” His soft breath sent delicious shivers down my neck and back. I smacked his arm. He chuckled, not looking even slightly put off.
“She perfectly safe. Jeremy watches out fer his peoples. Two more shifters, dey be close by, jus’ in case. She lead dat Margo on a good chase, she did. Right up ‘til she get da call from dat man.” His laugh was humorless. “She no happy now.”
Good. It served her right. But the information gleaned from this definitely helped, at least a little. She was using a piece of jewelry to track with. Did that one pendant track everything from the store, though? Or just certain things, like jewelry? How closely was she tied to the Paragons? The trackers they used were tech, not magickal. It seemed like Margo wouldn’t be safe working with them, if they really were witch hunters. Surely, she had to know that.
When I mentioned this to Rand and Jeremy, Rand shrugged. “When I was overseas, I saw people used like this all the time. The enemy would offer them huge rewards in some cases, or nothing more than a promise of safety in others, to get them to turn their own in. Or worse.” His face darkened with the memories. “Almost every time, the enemy did a complete clean-up when they were done. Everyone thought it wouldn’t happen to them, that they were smarter, special, whatever. Rarely was an informant left alive or used again. Chances are, these Paragons will do the same with Margo when they’re done.”
Shuddering when I realized what he’d meant by ‘clean-up,’ I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling cold.
“Come on, they’re waiting for us,” he said gently.
I looked up to see Sam and Tess watching us. Sam gave a pointed look at the plant Rand held, then lifted a brow. I pointed at Trina, who stood next to Rayna on the deck, still talking to a blushing Cappy. The others must have gone below deck to explore. Sam frowned, looking at the two witches.
I stepped on board, Rand and Jeremy right behind me. I twisted around and saw the loose overshirt Rand wore gape slightly, revealing the sidearm he wore in some kind of shoulder holster getup over his t-shirt. I was already feeling the weight of this trip coming down hard; that just added a few more pounds.
“Do I want to know?” Sam asked quietly. She eyed the plant, then the spot I had focused on Rand’s shirt.
Which was she referring to? I went with the plant. “Zara thought it would make Trina more comfortable. She didn’t say why.”
“Oh, I get it,” Tess said. “Danai and I covered this. Trina’s an elemental witch. Since her element is earth, she’ll be able to use the dirt in the pot, and even the plant itself to ground her magick. No pun intended.”
She was a step ahead of me, at least. “That makes sense.” I watched as Rand positioned the plant in a protected corner on the deck, next to a cushioned bench. Trina immediately made her way over to it and sat, her fingers trailing over the leaves. I could see the tension leaving her body.
“Will Selma and Ruthann be okay?” Sam, being, well, Sam, had already realized that Rayna and Willa would be fine.
Danai and Sebastian appeared from below deck, saving me from admitting I didn’t know the answer to that. “With the rest of us here, they will be fine. If it comes down to it, Roxanne’s magick will ground them.”
Speaking of magick, I reached for my knitting bag.
“Do I even want to ask why you thought you’d have time to knit, Rox?” Tess asked. “Is it a stress thing?”
“If only. Maybe we should do this below deck.” I didn’t expect that any curious onlookers would see what I was going to do as anything out of the ordinary, but I’d feel better away from the open deck. We filed down the stairs, motioning for Rayna and Willa to follow. It would be a bit of a tight fit for all of us in the kitchen and forecabin area. Jeremy and Cappy remained behind, to watch for the water fae.
As soon as everyone was situated, I began pulling Items out of my bag. The pixies, sitting along the top of one
of the cupboards watched in silence as I handed Tess, Danai, and the other five witches identical necklaces. The women began murmuring to one another as they looked them over.
“Ooh, Rox, you shouldn’t have,” Tess said, fluttering her lashes at me. She held hers up, examining the pendant. Each had a clear crystal, set in a simple silver circle. “What’s it do?”
“Well, if they do what they’re supposed to, they should act as a shield against both physical and magickal attacks.” I’d formed the idea after seeing how the pixies had been able to form a shield of sorts during the fight with the blood magick witches. I pulled another necklace out and handed it to Sam. She gave me a quizzical look.
“I thought these things wouldn’t work for me.” Despite her words, she took the necklace, running her thumb over the pale aquamarine stone in the center.
“I think it might work so long as one of us is close enough to touch you. If we get into any trouble, just stay close.” I bit my lip short of telling her that I thought even one of the pixies in their spelled armour would be able to activate the protection spell held in Sam’s pendant. Or that it had a little something extra in its Making. “These haven’t been tested yet, so don’t take any chances until you know for sure they work.”
Tess was quiet, looking a bit confused. She looked around the room, then bit her lip. She wanted to say something, but not in front of everyone. I knew what it was.
“I didn’t need it. Mostly,” I added softly, my eyes cutting to Sam’s pendant. Tess’s gaze dropped to my wrist and I shrugged.
Sam was able to follow what was being said—and more importantly what wasn’t being said. Tess had helped me with the pixie’s armour before, using a potion that required both blood and magick. This time, I hadn’t needed the potion for pushing protection magick into the regular crystals. I’d just been able to direct the magick the way I’d wanted. With Sam’s, I’d duplicated the potion Tess had concocted, adding a few drops of my own blood, though Zara had frowned on the idea. When I was finished, I could both see and feel the magick contained in the pendants. It had been a little disconcerting at first, since I normally struggled to Make even the most simple Items. By the time I was done, I had questioned whether it was my magick or that of the bracelet that had made the difference.
It was both, that soft voice whispered in my mind. Together we are stronger.
One of these days, my head wasn’t going to have enough room for all the voices that weren’t mine. Again, I felt amusement emanating from my bracelet.
They are here, Sebastian announced.
“Ahoy,” Cappy called down a second later. “We have company.”
I pushed off the counter I’d been standing against. “Tess, do you want to go over the basics of meeting the water fae with the coven?”
“No problem.”
We left her to it and headed back to the main deck, the pixies racing past us up the stairs. Gods, I hoped nobody saw them. The marina was well lit, so anyone watching would probably notice a bunch of pixies flying around. Maybe they’d think they were really big flying insects. The mosquitoes down here were pretty large. The tiny fae didn’t seem concerned, though, so I tried not to worry about it, either.
Cappy and Jeremy were on the foredeck—or was it aft deck?—both keeping a careful lookout of the boats docked around us. I leaned over the railing, searching the water for the water fae. To my surprise, I recognized Arella’s red hair just inside the light cast from the marina’s dock lights. Instead of the loose tresses she’d worn this morning, she had dozens of tiny braids wound into a tight crown around her head, with only a few beaded strands hanging loose. Olen was only a few feet away from her, his hair divided into three thick braids. I nodded to acknowledge them.
“Are those tridents?” Rand asked in a low voice.
“Yes, I’d say that’s exactly what they are.” There were at least ten people, either water fae or possibly shifters, in the water that I could see, all carrying what looked like large three-pronged spears. “Cappy, should we move out, away from the docks?”
“We’ll have ta move out a good ways, lass. Sound really carries over the water.”
Sebastian? Will you let them know?
It is done.
Thanks.
The water fae disappeared. Arella was the last to go, her gaze catching mine before she dove beneath the surface. A few yards away, I saw the shadow of something large and dark change course and follow them, the water barely rippling above its huge form. What the heck was that?
Cappy moved with surprising speed into the cockpit and the engine came to life with a smooth, powerful roar. Jeremy loosed the ties and we slowly maneuvered away from the docks. Rand joined Jeremy and Cappy in the cockpit, but I couldn’t make out what they were discussing over the engine. Hopefully, it was the location for Harris and the children. Sam leaned on the rail next to me, looking relaxed, the wind blowing her hair in a long, blonde stream behind her. Mine kept blowing over my face and I had to pull it out of my mouth every few seconds. Annoyed, I ran my hand through it, holding it out of the way so I could see out over the water. Despite the fact that it was now well past dusk, the rising moon cast enough of a glow off the water to see by. Several hundred feet in front of us, a sleek body arced out of the water, sliding back into it with barely a splash. Several more followed suit.
“Thank you,” she said, her eyes trained on the bodies ahead of us.
“For what?”
She pulled the pendant out from where it was tucked into her hoodie. She’d gone for all out comfort this time around. “For this. For thinking of me.”
“Seriously? How could I not? Do you know how hard it is to find a good lawyer?” I bumped her shoulder. “You’re welcome. I know I’ve dragged you into a strange, dangerous world. I’m doing my best to protect you from it.”
“I came willingly. And I feel, I don’t know, energized maybe? Invigorated? This world might be strange and dangerous, but it’s also wondrous. Amazing, even.”
“When it’s not trying to kill us or capture us?”
She considered this. “Perhaps even when it is.”
“Even when it goes after your boyfriend?”
She sobered. “Yeah, that’s not cool. But, like I said, I chose this. You didn’t really have a choice in any of it.”
I kind of had, at least parts of it. She knew that, though, so I didn’t need to voice it. “It’s not too late to walk away, you know. I could send you and Leo to wherever you’d like in the world. You’d be set financially and you could just enjoy an easy life, away from this.” I didn’t look at her as I said this, though I knew what her answer would be. I still liked to remind her every so often that she had options.
“Where would the fun in that be?” Now I did look at her. She grinned, her eyes shining with excitement as she watched the water fae still propelling themselves from the water like a pod of sleek, colorful dolphins in front of us. “We’ll get Leo back. Maybe even show him this world and see what happens.” She lifted a shoulder. “Who knows?”
The engine throttled down and the boat slowed. I searched for the shoreline behind us and was surprised to see we were much further out than I realized. When I turned back, the water fae were making their way back toward us.
“Harris must have reached wherever he was going. His signal just slowed to a near stop.” Rand’s voice from behind made me jump.
Did that mean he’d reached wherever the children were being held?
He moved to lean on the rail next to me, opposite Sam. “Jeremy and Cappy are triangulating his position and trying to figure out what we’ll be walking into. The last feed from Jeremy’s spy shows distant lights we think might be coastline. The boat Harris was on disappeared abruptly and he or she can’t find it again, despite several fly-overs.”
“How would his boat just disappear?” Sam asked. She looked as worried as I felt.
“That’s what they’re trying to figure out. We still have the signal, though. Heads up
, little mermaid ahead.”
I pulled my gaze away at Rand’s murmured warning. Both Olen and Arella were less than a stone’s throw away from the side of the boat. The rest of their group remained further out.
“Roxanne Devraux,” the king called out. “Where are our children?”
“We’re still working on that. Do you want to come aboard?” I asked. I was stalling, hoping Jeremy and Cappy would have an answer to his question by the time they were up here.
The two looked at one another, communicating without words. Finally, Arella swam over to the ladder off the back and pulled herself from the water. Rand kept his back to her, out of courtesy, but she emerged fully clothed. And dry. She used her ornate, but deadly-looking, trident like a staff.
“Welcome, Arella. Jeremy and the captain are trying to find the tracking signal now.” I motioned to the two visible in the cockpit, probably poring over maps and other things I couldn’t see from here. “Can I get you anything?”
“No,” she said shortly. “Where are our children? You said you had information that would lead us to them.” Her words were stilted, but understandable.
“We do. Jeremy is tracking a man that we believe knows where they are held.”
She bared very pointed, very sharp-looking teeth. “Why was this man not captured and tortured until he revealed all?”
I couldn’t say I was shocked by her vehemence, but it was still all I could do not to take a step back. Using as calm a voice as I was able to manage, I said, “Because we don’t do that. We weren’t completely sure of his involvement until just a short time ago. Now we know he’s involved, as is Margo Guillot, and . . . possibly an old witch and fae hunting group called the Paragons. We told Dorn all of this earlier. We’ll find the children. Tonight.” Inside, I prayed this was true.
She gave a curt shake of her head, the beaded ends of her braids clattering, her eyes hard. “We need to find them now.”
“We will.” I pushed more confidence than I felt into my voice.
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