An Uncommon Truth of Dying (Broken Veil Book 2)

by Marie Andreas

  “Then who, or what, did this to him?” Aisling still felt no pull from her healing magic toward him and wasn’t going to push at this point. “And why now?”

  Bart glanced back in the rearview mirror. “It could have been a delayed spell. One that hit now just by chance? If we can’t get him to recover quickly, we will have to leave him here.” The tone of his voice said he knew how well that was going to fly.

  “Harlie is essential to our investigation of Noth, we need him. Plus, no offense, but I don’t trust these people with my brother.” Caradoc shook his head. “Fake Area 42 agents kidnap my sister, and now something has taken Harlie down right when we need him most? Not leaving anyone I care about with Area 42. No offense.” He added the last bit, but Bart hadn’t looked like he disagreed.

  Stella was still facing them from the front seat. “Would you mind if I found him a place to stay with friends of mine? I wasn’t lying when I said I had people to visit here. I arrived in London a few hours before you did. My friends can protect Harlie from everyone.” Her eyes had darkened a bit, and there was no doubt to her words. Whoever her friends were, they had power and she trusted them.

  That was good enough for Aisling. She gave her a smile of thanks. “I’d feel better if he was with people you know and trust. Also, no offense, Bart, but your agency isn’t trustworthy. Greely might look the other way if someone wanted to hurt or take Harlie.”

  “I hate to say it, but I agree. He’s not the same elf I knew years ago.” Bart had been driving toward the safe house, but slowed down as they approached a crowd of vehicles and people.

  A pair of fire trucks were outside the safe house, mostly doing clean up. Whatever had happened, it was out now. As they drove closer, it was clear that half of the house was gone. Very neatly done, the garage and the front portion of the house were nothing but burnt timbers.

  Aisling had seen fires and explosions before—but never one that could take out half of a building and leave the rest, and adjoining houses, untouched.

  “Stay here.” Bart pulled the van over a distance away from the burnt house and walked up to the firemen.

  Stella twisted around to get a better look. “I take it that was where you were staying? Why didn’t we hear sirens I wonder?”

  “Yes, and no idea. Bigger issue is, how did someone do that.” Caradoc had one of his gizmos out and looked ready to run out of the van regardless of what Bart said. Finally, he sat back into his seat with a sigh. “They had to have used a spell to pull that off, I’m not picking up any tech readings.” He put the gizmo back in his bag and looked across the street. “And Bart didn’t like what he was told.”

  Bart came stomping back. “Good thing we still had our bags in the van, the front went up in seconds they said.” He scowled toward the burnt house for a few minutes. “Plan B. We’re heading out. I don’t want to be around here at this point.” He didn’t wait for any responses, just started the engine and took off. “I have a friend who lives in Luton, he can get us a place to stay in his apartment building for a bit, until I’m certain no one is looking for us. One of you call Larkin and Jones and let them know to head out and go to the address I sent them. Guess I’m not flying back to L.A. anytime soon.”

  “There were bad guys?” Stella asked.

  “Yes, but not sure who. The plane I borrowed blew up ten minutes ago. Had I left when I was supposed to, I would have been over the Atlantic when it exploded. The bomb was deep inside the right engine. The damage to this safe house was supposedly an electrical short in the kitchen. One that happened to take out half the house in an explosion. And leave everything else untouched. We would have been there had it not been for the recent underground invasion.”

  “That’s not a house fire,” Aisling said. Whoever caused the house explosion had been sloppy, it was too precise to have been an accident. Unless, whoever it was, they weren’t concerned about anyone realizing it wasn’t an accident.

  “No, it’s not.” Bart got on the road out of the neighborhood and Aisling called Reece.

  It took him a bit of time to answer, but he finally grabbed it before it went to voicemail.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Lots of things. Are you with Greely?”

  “Not right now. Jones and I are looking for someone to drive us to the house. Greely vanished.”

  Aisling repeated that part to Bart and he kept a steady amount of swearing up as he merged into traffic.

  “Can you get a car on your own? Not anything connected to any agency?” Aisling assumed that nothing was to be trusted at this point. Bart’s nod at her words confirmed it. “The house exploded and so did Bart’s plane. We’re heading out of London.”

  Reece pulled away and was speaking with someone. He came back. “Jones can get us one. Bart will need to cover our asses though.”

  Bart heard him and raised his voice. “Done. Get to Luton.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Are we keeping Harlie with us? My friends aren’t far from here.” If Stella was concerned by the change in plans, she didn’t show it. “They have a very secure home.”

  “I think we should keep him.” Aisling looked down at her brother. Part of her would rather keep him with them in hopes they could help him recover. But an unconscious and possibly spelled person wasn’t good to have with you if you were on the run.

  “My friends are healers. And strong witches. They will help him.” Stella sent a soothing smile toward Aisling.

  She returned the smile. “There’s a reason you run a comfort food diner, isn’t there?

  Caradoc? He’s your brother too. What do you say?”

  Caradoc had been peering down over the seat at Harlie, but finally looked up. “We have to keep him safe. Being with us and unable to defend himself right now isn’t safe.”

  Bart sighed. “Detour it is. If you would give me directions?”

  Stella called her friends to warn them they were on their way, laughed hysterically at something, then directed Bart down a series of increasingly smaller streets that looked less and less like London as they went. Londoners were fond of their small parks, even more so than the average fey obsession. But this was starting to look like an abandoned forest.

  A massive, ramshackle house appeared at the end of the road.

  “This is secure? Out of the way, I’ll agree, but not sure about secure.” Bart slowed down as he approached a small driveway. Huge house, tiny driveway. Almost like they didn’t want guests.

  “Oh, looks can be deceiving. We would have been stopped with force if need be, but persuasion would be the first option. These are natural, holistic, preppers.” Stella shrugged. “If you will. They believe the end of the world is coming and only returning to nature will save us. They’re good folks, though.”

  Bart frowned and raised an eyebrow but said nothing as he parked the van.

  After a few minutes of sitting, two people in hooded cloaks came out. The capes were bright, beautiful, and reminded Aisling of hippies.

  Hoods were thrown back, revealing a pair of tall elves, male and female, who watched the van carefully.

  Stella jumped out and ran to hug them. Their faces lit up as they engulfed her. She led them over to the van and motioned for them to come out. “This is Jili and Arthero.” She introduced Bart, Aisling, and Caradoc. “Their brother is the one who has been trance-spelled.”

  Both elves bowed in an old-world greeting then stepped forward to look inside the van.

  “We can help shield him.” Arthero smiled as he got a good look at Harlie’s face. “I did not realize this was Harthinatle. We are honored.”

  Jili stepped forward and moved to touch Harlie’s brow. “He will be safe with us. We will set shields once you have left.”

  “Full shields?” Stella frowned. “What do you sense?”

  “Just a precaution. Harthinatle is known for his strength of mind. That someone brought him to this state is worthy of precaution.” Jili smiled. “You made the right choi
ce bringing him to us. Do not fear, the shield will always be open to you four.”

  Aisling had a twinge of misgiving at Stella’s reaction. But shook it off once Stella relaxed. She trusted Stella implicitly, and Stella trusted these two. “You will have him contact us once he wakes up?”

  “Immediately.” Arthero tilted his head. “I believe you might need supplies.” He waved his hand and a loaded cart came trundling toward them. That it didn’t appear to have an engine moving it was impressive. “It is unclear how long you will be traveling, or if people are chasing you. But hopefully these will help.”

  Harlie was gently carried out and placed on a rolling cot. The boxes were quickly loaded into the far back seat and they moved some of the luggage up.

  Stella hugged her friends. “Stay safe. There are dangerous things in motion.”

  “You as well. I hope we are wrong.” Arthero and Jili spoke in unison and bowed. Then they retreated back into the house with Harlie’s rolling cot.

  They got back into the van.

  “Was that a blessing? They hope they are wrong?” It had sounded like a blessing more than just conversation to Aisling.

  Stella watched her friends vanish in the rearview mirror. “Yes. They are preppers, but oddly optimistic ones. They prepare for the end of times, but fervently hope they are wrong.”

  “As long as they keep Harlie safe and maybe help him, I’m good.” Caradoc leaned back into his seat.

  Aisling recognized a frustrated pout coming on. “Too many things on the mystical side and not enough on the technological one?”

  “Yes. I feel like I should be able to do something, but almost nothing so far has been in my range of expertise. Although...” He unbuckled his seat belt and dug through the bag at his feet. “Just to make certain no one is tailing us. No idea who blew up your friend’s plane, or that house. But something or someone is trying to slow us down or stop us.” He fished around in his carry-on until he found what he wanted. A gizmo. Larger than some of his other ones.

  “And what does that do? Track bugs?” Aisling wasn’t as impressed with his toys as before; he’d been driving around with assorted bugs attached to his car and missed them all.

  “Even better. Mott helped me increase the sensitivity after his little inventions got past me. This not only picks them up, it lets me trace it back to the owner.” As he spoke, he pulled out a small scanner, connected it to his gizmo, and flicked a switch. Nothing.

  “I think we’re clean. This was waiting for us from Area 42 and had been—” Bart’s comment was cut off as the gizmo started beeping.

  “You were saying?” Caradoc grinned as his scanner pulled in information. Then his grin dropped. Then turned to a full scowl. “This isn’t good. The bounce back isn’t far behind us. We need to shake them long enough to get these bugs off.”

  “How much information are you pulling in?” Bart was on the motorway heading north. “Perhaps we can catch whoever it is?”

  “I might be able to narrow it down, but you’d need to get off at the next exit.” Caradoc started fussing with various knobs on the screen, looking behind them, then adjusting more. “Cheeky bastard, he’s two cars behind us. Not even hiding.”

  “He wouldn’t know you have the ability to reverse track him through his own bugs.” Aisling looked back but traffic was heavy enough that spotting the suspect’s vehicle wasn’t easy.

  “True, but if he knew me, he should have expected it.” Caradoc seemed more cheerful now. “I’m locked onto him, so even if he shuts off the bugs on his end, we can still track him.”

  Bart took the next exit. “We’ll go off here and try and grab him. At the least we can get the bugs off the van.”

  “Do you think they will put up a fight?” Stella sounded too excited about that option.

  “We can hope not.” Bart looked over to her. “You don’t get out much, do you?”

  “I am working on changing that.” She grinned and kept looking in the side mirror for the car tailing them. “It’s that dark gray one, right? They just switched lanes rather unsafely.”

  “That’s the one my scanner is picking out.” Caradoc smiled at Stella. “This is great, we caught a tail!”

  “I think avoiding having people after us would be the best approach.” Aisling looked between the two—too much excitement, not enough reality.

  “That’s the cop in you thinking.” Bart slowed down, looking for less busy side streets to go down. “These two have never been law enforcement. And it shows.” He put some weight on the last words, but neither Caradoc nor Stella seemed to care.

  The gray car was still following but drifted further behind as the traffic thinned out.

  “I know this has been fun, but I think I’m done.” Bart swung the van to the curb, leapt out of the van, and pulled a gun on the driver.

  The driver could have backed up, but they were awfully close to Bart and his gun.

  “Turn off your car and get out very slowly.”

  Aisling’s gun was in her bag in the back, but she, Caradoc, and Stella were all magic users. They got out of the van and moved to where they wouldn’t block each other or Bart if things got weird. Would have been nice if Bart had warned them of his plans.

  The person in the gray car was hard to see until they turned off the vehicle and got out.

  Aisling started swearing first, but was followed quickly by Caradoc and Stella.

  It was Nix. If he was upset or concerned about them seeing who he was or that he was at a disadvantage, he didn’t show it.

  “Keep your hands up, my lad.” Bart’s gun was steady. “If you’re who you appear to be, and who my friends seem sure that you are, I could shoot you right now and no one would be sorry. Except maybe you.”

  Caradoc stepped forward with a pair of cuffs. Aisling had no idea where they came from but most likely they were something he’d invented. They almost looked like standard L.A. cop handcuffs, but they were thicker and there was a blue electronic arc crackling around them.

  “If you have no objection?” He held them up in Bart’s direction but didn’t look away from Nix’s face.

  “By all means. I have no idea why he’s following us, but he has a deeper connection to all of you than to me.”

  Caradoc stepped forward, his cuffs in one hand, his other lifted for a spell, he was a foot away when Nix started laughing like a mad man and exploded.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Aisling ran forward to try and protect her brother, but he was too close to the blast. The explosion blew him backwards into Stella and the van. Then the gray car reversed and took off.

  Aisling tried to stop the vehicle but only succeeded in running alongside long enough to see the grinning driver. Nix. The shock of him being there when she’d just seen him blow up and needing to get back to Caradoc stopped her and the car speed away. She ran back to her brother.

  He was badly hurt; he most likely raised his right arm when the explosion happened as there were two bones sticking out. His left thigh had a piece of metal in it. Stella and Bart were holding him up, but he was slipping into shock.

  “Let me.” Aisling dropped down next to him as Bart stepped away. Caradoc clutched onto Stella with his uninjured arm.

  “I messed up. Tech fail.” He tried laughing but there were more injuries than the ones she’d seen, blood trickled out of his mouth. She’d prefer to get him somewhere safe to work on him, but she didn’t think they had the time.

  “I need you both to hold him still. Caradoc, I want you looking at me and thinking of every vile, nasty thing our mother has done.” She gave a small smile. “I will be.”

  He bit his lip as Bart held him down, but he nodded.

  Aisling slipped into a healing trance, one fueled by her own anger at her mother. And by the serious increase of magic now at her call. She vibrated with the power that flooded her system. Healing magic surged into her like a massive adrenaline rush as she focused on his arm first, a few internal injuries, and then his
leg and minor slices. But she couldn’t stop. He was healed, but the magic just kept coming.

  “Can’t. Stop.” She got out through gritted teeth as more healing magic flowed through her. The spell felt wild, if she didn’t stop it, the magic would start harming him since there was nothing to fix. Then it would turn back against her.

  Stella released Caradoc’s arm and threw herself at Aisling, knocking them both over. Aisling’s magic lashed out at Stella, then bounced off a shield she’d raised and hit a tree. Stella stayed sitting on her until Aisling took a deep breath and nodded.

  “I’m okay. Thank you. You could have gotten fried, you know.”

  Stella rolled to her feet and helped Aisling up. “Pish. I might not be as strong as you, but I’m wiser.” She narrowed her eyes and dropped her voice. “I don’t recall you having that kind of power before. Even when you focused on your mother.”

  “There have been some changes lately. I will explain later.” Telling someone, even someone like Stella, that her mother had arranged for Harlie to block her magic when she was five, and that the block was now gone, wasn’t something to be done on a London street.

  Bart pulled a stunned and blinking Caradoc to his feet.

  “He exploded? Where’s the car?” Caradoc wavered a bit, but he was intact and upright.

  “It took off after you went flying.” Aisling paused. “It was Nix at the wheel and he appeared unharmed. He even grinned.”

  Stella went to the bloody mess where Nix had stood. “This is made up of shattered bones, tissues, blood. Someone died here.”

  Bart nodded. “I was watching him. He was the explosion. Probably hoped to take more of us out but was willing to settle for Caradoc.”

  “That doesn’t look like enough of anything to have been a person.” Aisling walked closer, but not as near as the others. Whatever just happened with Caradoc’s healing had left her weak and dizzy.

  “I think they are using clones of some kind—ones that aren’t actually elves, or Nix. As much as I would love that bastard to be dead, that’s not him.” Caradoc stepped closer to her. “Thank you for putting me back together. I feel better than before I got hit.”