Chapter 16
Reese tried to envision anyone with worse luck than hers.
Nobody came to mind.
She’d been sitting here for what felt like two or three hours, watching a two-foot-tall gargoyle named Feenix fly around the room. He chased a colorful plastic whirligig that flew whenever he tossed it in the air.
Someone had placed a spell on it.
This entire floor was his playroom and Storm had made it very clear that if anything happened to Feenix, no one could save Reese from him or Evalle.
That was right before he stuck her in this corner on a chair and warded an enclosure. She’d figured out Yáahl was correct about this being Saturday. By now it was probably noonish. If she had her powers, she’d give breaking that ward a try, but she didn’t.
The whirligig lost speed as it usually did after two minutes and fell down inside her corner.
Feenix came flying down and landed six feet away. He stared at his toy then at her, looking perplexed.
She smiled at him and he smiled back.
This had potential. “I’m Reese.”
“I know. Thorm told me. You Reethe.”
That lisp was too cute, but he had ignored her until now. She had to stay serious to figure out how to escape. “I would love to play with you.”
Feenix started clapping and chortling as he walked in a circle. “Play, play, play!”
Now we’re making progress. Reese said, “I’m stuck over here. I can’t play unless I get out of this corner.”
Feenix stopped clapping and frowned at her.
She was losing his attention and asked, “Do you know how to get me out of here?” Granted it was a long shot, but she couldn’t risk sitting here if he had a way to break the ward.
In the preternatural world, anything was possible.
Feenix waddled over to a bright yellow beanbag, one of three different-colored ones in the room. He picked up a stuffed alligator, hugged it to him and sat down, still frowning.
Oh, no. What if she’d upset Feenix? He was clearly Evalle’s pet from the way those two had hugged before Evalle left.
Reese had to fix this fast. Evalle had been her only ally and the one person who had kept Storm at bay. “Tell you what. Never mind about getting me out of here. Tell me what games you like to play.”
The little gargoyle let out a fat sigh and jumped up, waddling back over to her. He sat down and pointed at his toes. “One, two, three, four ... ”
That went on for the next fifteen minutes. She finally realized the majority of his vocabulary came down to a handful of words and numbers up to twelve. He was very proud of eleven and twelve.
When he stopped, his eyes focused on the whirligig. Well, hell. Just because she was miserable didn’t mean he had to be. She tossed it to him, but the thing didn’t fly.
It landed in front of him. His eyes lit up. He grabbed it and threw it in the air. Before he abandoned his alligator to take off after it, he turned and said, “Thank you, Reethe.”
What a sweet gargoyle.
She hadn’t gotten to hear her baby talk or watch him play. Her eyes burned at the loss and she shook it off. She stood up, pushing her hands against the invisible wall. Not budging.
“Who are you?”
She jumped at the question, then did a double take at the matched set of young men who walked in. With an extra look, she could tell a slight difference between them. One had a devil-may-care look in his eyes and the other’s gaze held a suspicious glint.
“I’m Reese. And you are?”
The devil-in-the-making said, “I’m Kardos, the fun guy. The sourpuss here is Kellman.”
Kellman gave his brother a put-upon glare.
Feenix had been at the end of the huge room. He shouted, “Kellman! Kardoth!”
Kellman could smile after all.
Feenix flew at him like a cannonball, but slowed down to land in Kellman’s open arms. The little guy was chortling like mad again.
That meant Reese was off the hot seat for upsetting him.
Feenix asked Kellman, “Play?”
“Not right now, buddy. Kardos and I have to go see Kit.”
“Kit? What ith kit?”
“That’s a lady we know. I’ll tell you about her later.”
Feenix leaned out to see Kardos. “Where you go?”
Kardos reached over and patted his head. “Camping. We’ll be back in five days.”
“Fun?”
“Yeah, we think it’ll be fun. We’ll be out in the woods doing ... stuff. I don’t really know. Kellman got us sucked into doing it.”
“Kardos, give it up. You wanted to go the minute you heard the sun was shining in the mountains.”
“True. I’m waterlogged.”
Sounding confused, Feenix asked, “What fun? NATHCAR?”
“No NASCAR. We won’t have a television.”
That perplexed Feenix. “Peetha?”
“No pizza. No way to cook it.”
“Take me. I cook.” Feenix pointed his mouth up and shot out a burst of flame.
Reese jumped.
The guys were laughing. Kellman said, “We should take you. We wouldn’t have to build a fire, but Evalle would be so sad if you went with us.”
“Oh.” Feenix put one fat little digit on his lip. “I thay here.”
“That’s what we thought.”
A buzzer sounded.
Kellman said, “Okay, Feenix. That’s our ride at the front door. See you when we get back.” He lifted Feenix into the air and the gargoyle flapped his bat-like wings.
Reese panicked. “Wait?”
Kellman asked, “Why?”
“I really need to get out of here. I said I’d wait for everyone to return, but I’ve got an appointment and I need to know how to leave the building.”
Kardos eyed the ten feet between them. “Can you walk to the door?”
No. “Uh, I got myself stuck in this corner somehow. I was up here visiting and bam, just got stuck.”
The brothers exchanged a loaded look. Kellman said, “If you’re stuck there, Storm put you there, which means no one here will lift a finger to free you even if we could and we can’t.”
“No, that’s not what happened—”
Kardos laughed out loud. “Don’t try lying around Storm. If you can’t convince me, you have no chance around him.”
With that they left with Kellman asking, “Did you leave Evalle and Storm the note?”
“Yes. It’s on our kitchen counter. Stop being so anal.”
There went the first people she’d seen who might have helped her find her medallion if she’d actually planned a strategy instead of sitting here silently griping.
Reese shook her head at that idea. Even if she’d been ready, it never would’ve happened. Not with this tight-knit group. She needed that medallion for any hope of escaping.
Slumping down on the chair, she was ready to scream, but Feenix was happy again so she just grumbled under her breath.
Twenty minutes later, she heard voices.
Footsteps came upstairs. Storm walked in, took stock of Feenix first, who had been playing at the far end of the room. The gargoyle called out, “Thorm!”
Storm said, “Hi Feenix. You okay?”
“Yeth.” Feenix returned to whatever had been entertaining him.
That one word must have confirmed that Reese had behaved, because Storm didn’t inquire further. He walked over, cleared the ward and said, “Let’s go downstairs.”
Her energy churned, but nothing like before. If she made a run for it, she doubted even Evalle could stop Storm from taking her down.
Miserable demon. She followed him back to the conference room where he handed her off to Quinn, saying, “She’s all yours, buddy. Evalle hasn’t slept in almost twenty-four hours. We’re going to eat, grab some rest, and I’ll be in touch tonight once I check the cemetery.”
“That works. Thank you.”
Storm walked out of the room. Evalle’s voice joined his. Reese listened as their voices drifted upstairs along with their footsteps.
When she brought her gaze to Quinn’s, he said, “None of us are convinced that you’re here by accident. Now is the time to come clean. I don’t need Storm here to determine whether you’re telling the truth. If you don’t convince me otherwise, I’m handing you over to VIPER to put in lockup while we figure out what to do about these killings.”
That put her heart in her throat.
She couldn’t negotiate from a point of weakness. That meant she needed something to trade him. She took a stab, saying, “Whether you believe me or not, I’m not aligned with those people you fought in Midtown and Piedmont Park. This seems to be a big issue between the Beladors and the Medb. If they’re looking for Kizira’s body and you know where it is, why don’t you tell them and solve the problem?”
Even better, tell her and solve all her problems.
“No one knows where it is. The body has been stolen.”
Did the news ever get better? She considered all that had transpired and asked, “Are you looking for the body?”
“Yes.”
“If I could help you find it, would that buy my freedom?”
His stern face lost its rigid edges. “What do you mean by help? Can you locate it?”
“Depends on if I can touch somewhere that the body has been. I have a gift of vision.” It wasn’t as simple as that and her remote viewing gift had flaws, but why complicate a negotiation with negativity?
If he was trying to hide his surge of interest, he failed. Everything about him had stayed calm, but his eyes filled with hope.
Not that she wanted to crush that hope or ruin her chance for freedom, but she had to qualify one thing. “Remember when everyone wanted to know how I killed the demon and I said my powers were tied to a medallion I lost? I can tap my gift if your people can find it, but they have to hurry because the medallion has a shelf life.” She wasn’t sure that was true, but time was absolutely of the freaking essence for her.
Quinn’s forehead smoothed when he relaxed. He reached in his pocket and withdrew a cord with her medallion dangling from it. “I’ll give you one chance to prove that you’re telling the truth.”