Heart of Stone (Alice Worth Book 4)

by Lisa Edmonds

  Relieved that Natalie was all right, I followed her.

  The living room had once been filled with cat-themed décor that had belonged to her late grandmother. Natalie had reduced the number of kitschy kitty knickknacks by at least half and hung some art prints on the walls that were more her style. I remembered Natalie had an art history degree and worked at the museum. She was slowly but surely turning the home she’d inherited from her grandmother into her own space.

  I sensed Malcolm in the living room, but he’d gone invisible and silent because of Natalie’s guest, who rose from her chair as we came into the room. She was about my age, I guessed, and African American, wearing jeans and a T-shirt from a local half-marathon. Her eyes were red from crying. A mug of tea—Natalie’s comfort beverage of choice—sat untouched on a table at her right.

  “Alice, this is Jana Peters,” Natalie said. “Her son Aden is missing.”

  My stomach lurched. “Have you called the police?”

  “I can’t.” Jana dropped back into the chair and looked at Natalie, clearly at a loss.

  “Can I get you something to drink before we sit down?” Natalie asked me. “Tea or water?”

  I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

  We settled on the couch across from Jana. I took a small notebook and a pen out of my bag. “Why can’t you call the police about Aden?”

  Jana was obviously reluctant to explain. Natalie wouldn’t have called me over here unless she believed I’d be better equipped to handle the situation than someone else. I read Jana’s expression and thought I recognized the fear, anger, and helplessness in her eyes.

  “Do you and Aden have magic?” I asked gently.

  She said nothing.

  I raised my hand. Bright green earth magic danced on my fingertips, then vanished. “I do too.” I drew air magic to me and a breeze blew through the room, making papers flutter and the ceiling fan turn. “I’m good at keeping people’s secrets. I’m assuming Natalie told you that.”

  Jana nodded.

  “Are you and Aden unregistered?”

  “Yes,” she said, her eyes flashing defiantly.

  “They’re unregistered, just like me,” Natalie said. “That’s why she can’t call the police.”

  Federal law required all supes and mages to register with the Supernatural and Paranormal Entity Management Agency, or SPEMA. Most followed the law and registered, but many individuals and families, fearing how that information might be used to target them, managed to avoid detection or find other ways to keep their names and abilities out of SPEMA’s records. Natalie’s late grandmother, afraid her granddaughter would use her magic in public and out their entire family, had bound her magic when she was young and died before she revealed the truth. Others hid their abilities, gambling that they wouldn’t be discovered or outed.

  Unregistered adults faced federal prison time in one of a handful of high-security supe prisons. Depending on their abilities, minors either went into government facilities or a specialized and rather shady foster care system, and few were ever returned to their parents.

  And there were worse fates than that for those caught by law enforcement. Corrupt police had been known to sell unregistered supes or mages, especially children, to human traffickers or cabals. If either Jana or Aden were high-level mages, or had any rare abilities like blood magic, they might disappear.

  Jana and Aden and families like theirs were on dangerous ground on their best days, hoping and praying never to encounter police or accidentally reveal their abilities. This situation was a literal nightmare come true for their family.

  I had only a fraction of the resources law enforcement did for searching for a missing child, but I couldn’t in good conscience advise Jana to report her son missing, knowing there was a very good chance they would both end up in federal custody—or worse. An enormous weight settled on my shoulders.

  I sensed Malcolm’s light touch. The physical contact made it possible for him to share his thoughts with me.

  This is a bad situation to get involved in, he said in my head. I know it’s a missing kid, but we’re talking federal time for everybody involved if this goes off the rails.

  I know. Let’s see what’s going on and then I’ll decide what to do.

  You already know what you’re going to do. Malcolm sounded grim. Let’s just be as smart about it as we can. He let go of my shoulder and drifted away, back toward the far side of the room.

  I realized I’d gone silent while Malcolm and I conversed. Both women watched me quizzically. Natalie glanced past my shoulder, as if wondering if Malcolm was standing beside me.

  I addressed Jana. “Tell me what you know and we’ll go from there. How old is Aden?”

  “He’s twelve.” She brought me her phone and showed me a picture of a smiling kid with short curly hair, wearing a Pokémon T-shirt.

  “He looks like a happy kid,” I said as she went back to her chair.

  “He is, most of the time, but you know twelve-year-olds. He’s happy one minute and shut in his room the next. He’s a good kid, though. Never skips school, never worries me, never hangs out with kids who might get him in trouble. This is the first time he’s…” Her voice cracked. She took a deep breath. “I just don’t know what to do.”

  “Had you and Aden had an argument recently, something he might be mad about? Would he have gone somewhere to get away, or to make a point?”

  She shook her head. “We hadn’t argued in several days. Everything was fine, as far as I know.”

  I’d been hoping the answer would be yes. He still might have run away, though—parents didn’t always know what their kids were thinking and twelve was a volatile age. “When did he disappear?”

  “About four hours ago, I think.” She picked up a piece of paper from the table and I went over to take it. It was a page torn from a spiral notebook. On it was a short note in a kid’s handwriting: Going to the library for some books. Back soon. He’d drawn a big smiley face with crossed eyes on the paper.

  “Does he go to the library by himself very often?”

  Jana nodded. “I let him walk to the little branch library near our house sometimes; it’s only four blocks. But the library didn’t open until noon today and he was gone before nine. I drove around for two hours between our house and there, but there’s no sign of him. I’ve been calling his phone and it goes straight to voice mail. I know something’s wrong. Even if his phone died, he would have found a way to call me, or he’d be home.”

  She took a shaky breath. “I went to the library before I came here. The librarians at the main desk know him by sight, since he’s in there all the time, and they assured me he hadn’t come in. I searched the library to be sure, but there was no sign of him. I don’t know where he went, but it wasn’t to the library.”

  “Have you called his friends to see if he’s over at someone’s house?”

  She made a face. “I called around, but I didn’t want anyone to know he’s missing because they’d want to know why I hadn’t called the police. I made up reasons for calling—questions about snacks and summer reading lists—and asked what their sons and Aden had been up to lately. No one said anything about him.”

  I’d worked missing persons cases before, but never one where the victim was a child, and never when I had to look for them without tipping people off that the person in question was missing. The entire process would be like walking a tightrope in gale-force winds over a tank full of sharks, and it was more than just my livelihood and possibly my freedom in danger. One misstep could doom Jana and Aden too. Even Malcolm’s safety was on the line.

  Possibilities ran through my head. Maybe someone along Aden’s route to the library had surveillance cameras. He might have started heading that way before he either changed course or was snatched. If Aden had a cell phone, there was a chance the phone could be traced, if I could find someone to do it.

  I turned my attention back to Jana. “This is going to be difficult and dangerous fo
r everyone involved, and time is ticking. I want you to think about this decision, about whether or not to call the police. They have an enormous amount of resources to look for a missing child, from Amber Alerts to local, state, and federal support from a lot of agencies. I’m one person, with limited resources, and I’ll have to tread carefully so I don’t tip people off that he’s missing. I know you want nothing to do with the authorities, but if someone took Aden, you need to consider that getting him back quickly and alive might be more important than the risk you’d be taking by bringing in the cops.”

  Jana exchanged a long look with Natalie. They’d clearly had this conversation before I arrived. “My son is a null,” she told me tonelessly.

  “He can null instantly, like I can,” Natalie added. “And he can blast someone with the energy he absorbs all at once, in one big bang.”

  Well, shit.

  Most nulls could drain other mages’ magic and break wards, but it took time. Natalie could drain a mage and break wards with a touch. That made her valuable, though her natural magic, fire and air, was mid-level at best and unremarkable. Even she couldn’t siphon energy, though. A twelve-year-old kid who could null with a touch or use that energy as a weapon would never make it to the police station or a SPEMA field office. He’d be worth his weight in gold to a cabal.

  I could sense Malcolm’s unease through our link. He knew what the news about Aden’s abilities meant as well as anyone. Calling the police or alerting anyone about Aden’s disappearance was not an option.

  For better or worse—probably worse—it looked like I had a new client, and quite possibly the most dangerous and difficult case I had ever taken on.

  Well, good. I’d hate for my life to get boring.

  Jana and I talked while Natalie made a fresh pot of tea. She and Natalie had met while running in the nearby park and become friends. On a visit to Natalie’s house, Jana sensed her wards and the two women realized they shared a similar predicament: hiding their abilities from others.

  Jana was thrilled to find out Natalie was a null. Both she and Aden were low-level earth mages, which meant their abilities had been relatively easy for them to learn to control without needing instruction, but Aden’s ability meant he had to be extremely careful at all times. Even something as innocuous as a school trip to an art museum was fraught with danger. Museums tended to use wards to safeguard their treasures, and nulling one would set off every alarm in the building.

  We accepted mugs of tea from Natalie. I blew on mine to cool the liquid. “Who besides you and Natalie knows Aden can null?”

  Jana shook her head. “Absolutely no one.”

  “You’ve never confided in anyone?”

  “No,” she said emphatically. “There was too much risk to ever tell anyone. I’ve read articles and heard stories in the news. I know what can happen to unregistered mages who have special talents. I won’t let that happen to my son.”

  “What about Aden’s father? Is he in the picture?”

  Her expression hardened. “No.”

  “What’s the story there?” When she didn’t reply, I added, “The number-one suspect anytime a kid disappears is the estranged parent. We have to eliminate him first. I need his name, address, work info, whatever you’ve got.”

  She exhaled. “His name is Preston Allan Garrett. I can give you his cell number. I don’t have a current home address, but I can give you a work address.”

  “That’ll do for a start.”

  “He works at Nyx.”

  My eyebrows went up. “The vampire club?”

  “He didn’t work there when we were together, but that’s where he’s worked for the past couple of years.”

  “In what capacity?”

  “He’s a host, or at least that’s what they call them. Anywhere else, they’d call him a bouncer. He walks the main floor and takes care of human patrons who get out of hand. The vamps have their own bouncers, but they prefer humans to deal with human troublemakers.”

  “What did he do when you and he were dating?”

  She sighed. “It wasn’t really dating, what we were doing. He was a rich white boy and I worked at his daddy’s company in the sales department at the time. We met at a company party. They might have forgiven him for sleeping with a black girl, but then I got pregnant and wouldn’t get rid of the baby, so his daddy tossed him out. It took me no time at all to realize putting up with Preston was worse than having no man around. I kicked him out, had my baby, and finished my degree so I could have a good job and raise my son.”

  “So he’s never had much interest in Aden?”

  “He’s been worthless most of Aden’s life. Sometimes he would come by with a little present—something he bought for a couple dollars or stole—and ask me for money. I never had much money to spare and he just needed money for drugs anyway. He started hitting the gym a couple of years ago and got work as a bouncer at some strip club near the airport. One of his friends helped get him the job at Nyx. I guess he’s doing better, but I don’t trust him. He’s been calling a lot more lately, telling me he’s trying to live right and wanting to see Aden, but I told him to leave us alone. We didn’t need him before; we don’t need him now.”

  It sounded like Garrett would be my first stop. The recent increase in attentiveness after years of neglect had my spidey senses tingling. “Let me get that phone number from you.”

  She gave me the number. “He doesn’t know Aden has magic. He doesn’t know anything about him. They haven’t even talked in over a year. I don’t want that man getting his hooks into my son. Aden’s doing well in school. He wants to be a veterinarian. I don’t need Preston in here ruining his life.”

  “Is there anyone else who could possibly know about Aden’s abilities? His friends, maybe?”

  She shook her head again. “No one, I promise you. He knows he can’t tell anyone.”

  “Kids have a really hard time keeping secrets.”

  Her eyes flashed. “You don’t know what it’s like, keeping a secret like that,” she snapped. “We’re talking life and death. He talks, he tells that secret, he disappears. He’s known that since he was little.”

  I did know what keeping a deadly secret felt like. It was a terrible burden that chewed you up from the inside. For five years I had kept my real identity a secret and sometimes the weight of it crushed me flat. Aden had been keeping his secret longer than that. Powers like nulling tended to manifest in children between the ages of seven and ten, so for the past several years he’d had that additional burden to bear. I thought about the picture Jana had shown me of a smiling kid and wondered what was going on behind that smile.

  I didn’t take Jana’s anger personally. She was holding up much better than I thought I would in her situation. I wasn’t sure if kids would ever be in my future, but I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to have one go missing.

  “Does he have a computer?” I asked.

  She reached into her bag and handed me a small laptop. “I brought it.”

  “Are there any passwords I need?”

  “He’s not allowed to set any passwords.”

  “What about social media?”

  “He’s not old enough to do any of that. I told him I would let him try it after his next birthday.”

  “Is there anything else you can think of that might help?”

  “I’ve wracked my brain and I can’t think of anything. If he’s not with one of his friends and he’s not at the library, I have no idea where he might be, or who might have him.” She took a deep breath that sounded like a sob.

  I had a place to start—Aden’s father—and then if that didn’t pan out, I’d see about the possibility of surveillance along Aden’s route between his house and the library. I’d gotten Jana’s home address, which was only a few minutes away, and the location of the library. Depending on what, if anything, I got from those videos, I’d decide where to go from there.

  Jana wiped her eyes and squared her shoulders. “I don�
��t have much money, but I can give you five hundred dollars now and maybe we can work out a payment plan for the rest.”

  Before I could reply, Natalie spoke up. “Don’t worry about that right now. I’ll make payment arrangements with Alice and you and I can work out a plan for paying me back.”

  “I don’t want charity,” Jana said sharply. “I pay my own bills.”

  “It’s not charity,” Natalie told her. “It’s a loan. You’re going to pay me back. What are friends for, if not to help each other when they can?”

  Jana gave her a small smile. “Thank you.”

  I handed her my card and put my bag on my shoulder. “I’m going to get out there and start searching. If you think of anything at all that might help, no matter how insignificant it seems, call me immediately. If Aden’s not with his dad and I don’t get anything right away from cameras between your house and the library, I’ll want to search Aden’s room. Will you be home?”

  She nodded. “Yes. I’ll head home in a few minutes. I want to be there if—when he comes home. Just knock on the door.”

  “Okay, will do. I’ll call you if I need more information, or when I have updates.”

  “Thank you.”

  Jana went to the kitchen to pour herself another cup of tea. Natalie stuck her feet into a pair of sandals. “I’m walking Alice out to her car,” she called.

  “Okay,” Jana replied from the kitchen.

  We went outside and stood in the shade near Natalie’s car. I sensed Malcolm with us.

  “What do you know that you didn’t want to say in front of Jana?” I asked.

  Natalie sighed. “I don’t want her to panic because I don’t know if this is in any way related to what’s happened to Aden, but just in case, I wanted you to know. You remember Kyra DeWitt, the mage you found to help me learn how to control and use my magic?”

  I nodded. “Yes. You seem to be learning quickly, judging by your house wards.”

  She smiled. “I do seem to have a natural talent for wards, Kyra says. I love using magic to make things. It’s like art to me, painting with colors and shapes only I can see.” Her smile faded. “Anyway, Jana brought Aden over last week to meet Kyra so she could talk to him about controlling his magic, especially his nulling ability. While they took a break, Kyra and I were in the kitchen talking about Darius Bell.”