And Bryn clocked me over the head instead of believing I was taking her somewhere safe. So much for gaining her trust.
Hours of wilderness tracking exercises flood my memory as I scrutinize the forest floor. The direction of broken branches and bent grass tells me Bryn’s immediate trajectory continued the one we’d been on. She was running on adrenaline, no doubt, but she didn’t have a clear escape plan in mind after I was unconscious.
I’m not sure whether that fact makes me feel better or worse.
I should have told her everything the moment we were out of the compound. If she understood the danger she’s in, there’s no way she would’ve risked going it alone.
Although Mona was behind the assassination of Amos Cross, the elders don’t see shades of gray. Bryn made the potion, so Bryn is responsible for Amos’ death. There’s no telling how many bounty hunters are on the move even now, trying to cash in on the record reward for bringing Bryn in.
But bounty hunters aren’t the only danger. The Liberation Front isn’t the only organization that knows about Bryn’s power. Plenty of Mona’s rivals would pay top dollar to whoever could bring Bryn to them. Having a witch like her would make any organization a threat to be reckoned with overnight.
And I have no idea the results of the raid. It’s possible Mona was more prepared for an incursion than we anticipated. If she was able to subdue the police, she could have sent her guards out to reclaim Bryn. If that happens, the chance of anyone from the Liberation Front getting close to her again is pretty much nonexistent.
And Ryder won’t ever let me forget it. It’s taken me ten years to prove to him I have what it takes to be in the field, and if I fail now, he’ll have me back behind a desk doing research faster than he can say, “Told you so.”
But worse than that, I might never see Bryn again. And I don’t know if my heart could take it.
After a quarter of a mile, the trail goes cold. The flattened grasses in the area point to it being a spot where deer bed down during the day. When Bryn left, she must have followed one of the trails leading away from the area, but I can’t pick up any trace of her now.
Extinguishing my flames, I run both hands through my hair. Damn it. I can’t screw this up. The Front has put countless man-hours into taking Mona off the board and ensuring the supernaturals she deals in would be free from her.
But it’s more than that. In the months I’ve been at Mona’s operation, I’ve gotten to know Bryn. Unlike others who have passed through the Front after being in captivity, there’s a light in Bryn that hasn’t been snuffed out. Although I’ve done my best to keep a professional distance, it hasn’t been easy. Sneaking her the cookie tonight was a risk. If Aldridge or another guard had caught me, I would have been punished severely by Mona. But when I saw it, I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to give her something special, to see her eyes fill with joy for once.
In the hall earlier tonight, felt a connection to her. And I could have sworn she felt it too.
There’s something about Bryn the draws me in. If I lose her, the tragedy won’t be whatever consequences await me at the Front—it’ll be missing out on the chance to connect with her outside the walls of Mona’s prison.
But I’m out of my league. I need help.
Cursing, I pull the cell phone out of my back pocket and tap the contact I was hoping I wouldn’t have to call in. It gutted him he couldn’t be in my place for this mission, and he vowed to do everything he could to help me. I should be thankful, but having to reach out feels like a defeat.
Still, I relief swells in me when he answers.
“What’s wrong?” Calder’s voice is tight and almost accusatory, but I try not to take it personally.
“She got away from me,” I say, picking a direction and hoping it’s the right one.
“She got away?”
I cringe as I follow the thin trail. “I didn’t exactly have time to explain everything to her. And I can’t blame her for not giving me the benefit of the doubt after what she’s been through. I was tracking her northeast, but I lost her. I need your help.”
He curses under his breath. “I’m on my way. We can’t lose her, Taj.”
“We won’t,” I say, the words just as much a promise to myself as to him.
Chapter Six
Bryn
“Dammit, why can’t you just walk?” Aldridge grunts as he tries to pull my dragging legs over a fallen log. “I’m trying to be nice here, but mark my words—the harder you make me work, the more I’ll make you pay.”
He adjusts his grip, and I take the opportunity to press my knees into the damp earth, hoping a firmer connection point will help me summon help from the limbs and vines around me. But the link I felt when nature provided a direction to flee has either snapped or been buried, leaving me more alone than ever.
With a grunt, Aldridge swings me over his shoulder, his viselike grip pinning my legs to his chest.
“Let go of me!” I shout, punching every part of him I can reach. “I’m not going back there!”
“I’m not above knocking you unconscious, so you might want to enjoy the ride, girlie.” Aldridge slaps my ass, not missing a beat as he continues through the forest.
If I’m going to get out of this, I need to be smart. Instead of fighting, I let my body go slack and empty my mind, trying to connect with the magic all around me. But with every step Aldridge takes, it’s as if we’re moving steadily further from the source of my own power.
Something in the air changes, so subtle at first that I almost ignore it. But when a new cadence of footsteps adds to the noise of Aldridge’s graceless plodding, I twist against him, trying to figure out what’s coming. Before I can make out more than a dark shape jetting toward us, it swings at Aldridge. The guard grunts and stumbles forward, falling flat on his face and pinning my legs under his torso.
“Let me help you.”
My heart jumps into my throat at the voice and I flinch away from the hand hovering in the air inches from me. But when my gaze lands on the figure attached to the arm, relief swoops through me—along with a wave of guilt.
“Taj.”
It’s all I can say. I knocked him unconscious, but here he is, rescuing me from Aldridge. Either he really is a good guy, or he’s desperate for whatever payday he’ll receive for taking me to some new master. I’m not sure which one I believe.
But I know what I want to believe. I want to believe in the Shire. In cookies. In secret smiles meant only for me.
When I struggle under Aldridge’s dead weight, Taj drops the thick branch he used to knock the man out and stoops to a crouch to roll him off my legs. As I stand and collect myself, Taj moves to Aldridge’s feet, where he removes the laces from the man’s shoes and binds his wrists and ankles.
As he works, I take stock of myself. My ass is sore where I slammed into the ground, and I’m sure my wrists will be bruised from the way Aldridge pinned me, but I’m not in pain anywhere else. Still, I can’t help wondering how long it will take for me to forget the way my skin crawled when he touched me.
Taj finishes the final knot and stands, his brows bunched as his eyes sweep my body. “Did he… Are you all right?”
I tug at the hem of my shirt. “I’m fine. He was going to take me back. To Mona. You don’t think she got away, do you?”
Taj rubs the back of his head, wincing. “I’d like to say it’s impossible, but at this point, I know what you know.”
The answer isn’t reassuring, but what else was I expecting? When he wasn’t with me, Taj was either searching for me or unconscious. “I’m sorry I knocked you out.”
The corner of his mouth quirks, but he doesn’t quite smile. “I don’t blame you. You don’t know me. I get that. But I am looking out for your best interests. I’m not taking you to someone else like Mona. I work for an organization that helps people like you.”
“People like me?”
He nods, his gaze dropping to Aldridge for a beat. “I’ll tell you eve
rything, but first, let’s put some distance between us and this guy.”
I don’t argue. At least for the moment, Taj is my best bet to get away safely. There’s no telling if another one of Mona’s men is nearby, and I like my chances better with a partner than on my own.
As we strike out on a path away from Aldridge, something like pride swells in my chest when I realize it was the way nature had been urging me to go. At least I would have been on the right track if I hadn’t been derailed. Maybe I’m not as hopeless as I feared.
I wait until we’ve put a decent amount of distance between us and the unconscious man before speaking. “If you’re not planning to sell me to some monster, where are you taking me?”
Taj slows, holding up a low-hanging branch to allow me to pass onto the deer trail ahead of him. “I work for the Liberation Front. Our mission is to save supernaturals who are being held against their will, to give them a fresh start.”
“But what about Mona’s other pets?” The question is out of my mouth before I can stop it. “What makes me more important than them?”
His expression tightens, and a muscle in his jaw jumps as if he’s chewing on his words. “It’s not a matter of importance,” he says at length. “It’s a matter of danger.”
I snort. “I’m not exactly dangerous. I couldn’t even save myself from Aldridge.”
He shakes his head. “Not how dangerous you are. More how much danger you’re in.”
I stop short as his words sink in. “What kind of danger am I in?”
Taj turns, something akin to pity in his eyes. “Either more or less than you should be, depending on who you ask.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Why am I in danger? Because Mona’s going to come after me?”
“No, it’s not about what Mona might do—it’s what she’s already done.” He presses his lips together. “Do you have any idea what kinds of potions she’s had you making over the years?”
I shudder at the memory of my discovery earlier tonight. “What about them?”
“She’s used potions for years to silence people who oppose her. Usually people she can’t get close enough to use her song on. But recently, she used one of those potions on someone with a lot of power in the magical world. An elder.”
The weight of the word sends a shiver down my back, but the sensation is quickly overshadowed by a prickle of indignation. “If these elders are so powerful, why don’t they come stop Mona? Why send in the ordinary police force to do their dirty work?”
Taj makes a scathing noise in the back of his throat. “That’s what the elders do best—make other people do their dirty work. Besides, it’s better things went down this way. Here’s the hard truth: They don’t want Mona. They want you.”
His words hit me like a punch in the gut. “Why? I didn’t do anything to them.”
He sighs, sweeping his curls from his forehead. “On the contrary. You made the potion. Mona’s a siren. Without you, she couldn’t have made the potion to kill the elder. In their mind, you’re the problem, not her.”
Anger simmers in my veins. “But that’s not fair. Mona made me do it. If she wasn’t keeping me prisoner, I never would have made the potion. I wouldn’t even know how to begin brewing something like that!”
Taj presses his hand to the small of my back to move me ahead of him on the trail. “I know that. And that’s why I broke you out. There are supernaturals working with the nom authorities. All the other prisoners Mona kept will be safe. We’ve got people in the system that will make sure everyone’s taken care of. But you… Bounty hunters could have connections in the system, and there’s a chance someone would sell you out. That’s why I had to get you out before the police took over.”
I do my best to keep up with everything he’s saying. As far as the magical community is concerned, I’m a killer. Mona’s not responsible for the deaths wrought by my potions—I am.
I stop in my tracks. “Let me go.”
Taj narrowly missing plowing into me. “What?”
I meet his eyes, searching for a hint of the guard who snuck me a treat, who made me feel like a person and not a possession. “Don’t take me back to your liberators. I… I’ll be better off with the noms. What if someone in your group thinks the elders are right? What if they think I should pay for making those potions? I need to disappear.”
The corner of his mouth twitches, drawing my attention to his full lips. “That’s what my team will help you do. That’s kind of our thing.”
I shake my head. “No, I mean I need to disappear away from the magical community. Don’t take me back to your bosses. Let me go. I’ll… I’ll…”
He raises an eyebrow. “You’ll what? You’ve no money. No records. How long will it be before you find yourself in a situation like the one you just got out of—or worse?”
Although I’m not sure whether he means my time with Mona or the altercation with Aldridge, I don’t want to end up in either ever again. “Can you promise there’s no possibility that someone you work with will sell me out?”
“Yes,” he says without hesitating. For the second time tonight, he cups my cheek in his palm. “You’ll get through this. I promise. I’ll stay with you the entire time.”
I lean into his touch. I want to believe him. But he’s not the first person who has claimed to have my best interests at heart.
I search his face for any trace of deception, but it’s as open as ever. It should be reassuring, but this is the same man who infiltrated Mona’s organization and operated undetected for months. Even Mona didn’t realize he hid an ulterior motive.
“The Front wants to help you, Bryn,” he murmurs. “Just trust me.”
The words send a wave of ice through my veins. I close my eyes, exhaling through my nostrils as my mother’s face flashes in my mind. Just trust me, baby.
All the moments of kindness Taj has shown me mean something, but I’m not sure they add up to enough to take him at his word. “I don’t know if I can.” I turn on my heel, unsure where I intend to go, but hoping my magic won’t abandon me when I need it most. “Please, let me go.”
I’ve made it three steps when a new voice cuts through the night air.
“If you can’t trust him, maybe you’ll trust me.”
Chapter Seven
Bryn
I freeze in my tracks, convinced I’m hallucinating. Or dreaming. It’s been years since I’ve heard that voice, but every memory of the person it belongs to rushes back so fast it takes my breath away.
I turn slowly, afraid if I move too fast the illusion will shatter and I’ll be left more broken than I was the day he was first ripped from my life. But when he comes into view, long legs striding over the underbrush, my muscles turn to rubber and I have to steady myself against a nearby tree trunk to keep from falling down.
Calder looks just like I remember, yet nothing like I remember. The last time I saw him he was seventeen—impossibly tall and skeletally thin, his broad smile almost too big for his narrow face. And although I know he’s just as tall as he was then, his height doesn’t seem so absurd anymore. His shoulders are broader now and his muscles thick and lithe, his strength evident even under his dark jacket. His jaw is harder, more angular, but his eyes hold the same mischievous glint.
He squeezes Taj’s shoulder as he passes by, and by the time he reaches me, I’m afraid I’ll start hyperventilating.
“How… How is this possible?” I ask, my voice trembling.
Calder stretches out his arms and in an instant I’m cradled within them. With my ear pressed against his chest, his heartbeat filling my ear, a sense of home overwhelms me. Tears bite at the corners of my eyes and I struggle to blink them back.
“It’s a long story,” Calder says, his voice soothing a years-old ache inside me. “Mona sold me to a ring of car thieves. I tried to break out and get back to you, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get away. I was with them about a year before the police raided the operation. I got hauled off to
jail with the rest of them, but a few days later, someone from the Liberation Front figured out I’m telekinetic and got me out. I’ve been working with them ever since.”
He grips my shoulders, holding me back just far enough to stare into my eyes. “I wanted it to be me on the inside, not Taj. But there was too big a risk I’d be recognized. I can’t believe you’re finally out—that you’re finally safe.”
I release a shaky breath. “Not according to Taj. He says people are after me because of the potions—”
Calder shushes my concerns. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Taj clears his throat. “I, um… I’ll give you two a minute. I need to…” Not bothering to finish the excuse, Taj turns and disappears into the darkness.
I cup Calder’s cheeks, peering into his sapphire eyes. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“Feeling’s mutual,” he murmurs, dipping his head to my neck and inhaling. “You still smell like cinnamon.”
I choke out a laugh. “And you still look like trouble.”
“Always.” He sweeps the pad of his thumb across my cheek. “I told you we’d both make it out one day, didn’t I?”
Tears bite at the corners of my eyes. One of the things that first drew me to Calder was his seemingly endless supply of hope. He was the one who comforted the youngest “pets” when they would cry about missing their homes. He told imagined epic adventures to distract us all from our pitiable situation. And he put in the time needed to draw out the shy blonde teenager who withdrew from everyone after her roommate and best friend was sold off. Part of me wonders if I would have survived as long as I did if Calder hadn’t taught me how to spot the light in even the darkest places.
With Calder so close, my senses swim. The last several years evaporate and all I can think about is every stolen moment we ever shared. What began as a friendship blossomed into flirty glances and excuses to touch each other. Our first kiss was a disaster, with his forehead knocking into mine when he ducked down to reach my lips. We snuck away from the main group as often as we could—sometimes to kiss, but mostly to snuggle close to each other and imagine a life outside the walls of the compound.
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