Saturday afternoon
The beach ball bounced across the sand and landed at Duncan’s feet.
He stared at the bright colored ball, but didn’t move from his chair. Not even to kick it back to Ewan and Christy, who were in the middle of a game with several other fairies, most of whom was somehow related to either Ewan or Christy.
Duncan didn’t care. He didn’t want to be here.
Though whether it had more to do with him being dragged out of his self-imposed exile, or because where they’d met for this beach-barbecue was on Avalon, being here hurt. It wasn’t that far from where Duncan and Cara used to hang out.
Where he read her palm all those years ago.
There’d been no sign of Cara for over two weeks. He’d confronted his boss, and O’Leary confirmed nothing, instead putting Duncan on suspension until he got his head back together. So instead all Duncan did was search.
And try not to get killed in the process. Djinn don’t like nosy fairies.
He still hadn’t gotten himself back together.
Why he’d come to this family barbecue, he didn’t know. A part of him thought maybe he’d find a bit of joy in being around family but so far that hadn’t worked out well.
He’d checked in with Cara’s family when he arrived on Avalon, just to see if they’d heard anything. And they hadn’t. Though Janelle professed that Cara had to be all right somewhere, because she still hadn’t had any kind of cry manifest.
That was the only bright spot he could muster. Because otherwise, his nightmares showed Cara stuck in some djinn prison, and he couldn’t get to her. He’d searched everywhere, looking into every settlement he could find.
Yet he found nothing. Not even a touch of Cara’s mind. He’d dropped all his blocks while searching, hoping that something would come through—that he’d find her.
He hadn’t shut up the barriers, just in case. Not that it worked.
Even here, his own family’s thoughts were barraging him, but he didn’t have the strength or the effort within him to block any of them out.
Besides, they only echoed his own sadness.
“Look at him, so depressed…”
“Why did he come?”
“Sad, really…”
He got up from the chair, kicked the beach ball back toward everyone, and started to walk away.
“Duncan, wait,” he heard his sister-in-law call.
“No,” he said. He was going home. Back to his tomb in the Fairy Realm. At least there he could do something productive, and see if he could find Cara—some stone he hadn’t looked under.
A flash of blue and Christy materialized in front of him. “No, I’m not letting you go. You’ve been unreachable for the last two weeks. I understand why, but I can’t let you continue to be like this. You have to snap out of it.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it to me.”
He glared at her, then pointed behind him, in the general direction where Ewan was. “You have him for the rest of your life. I had her for a moment. And I’ll never have her again. She’s gone.”
“You don’t know that. She could be…be…shopping, for all you know.”
“For two weeks, she’s shopping? Really, Christy? That’s the best you got?” She didn’t get it. She probably never would. She was in love and happy.
Something Duncan didn’t think he’d ever feel again.
“You said yourself: if she was dead or going to die, her sister would have released a cry, right? And her sister hasn’t. So she must be okay, wherever she is.”
“It means she’s alive and not near death. Not that she’s safe.” His thoughts darted back to the morose side. “I’ve been through that desert a thousand times. Searched every cave, every dune, every magically protected spot I could find.” He jerked his shirt up, revealing half a dozen deep lacerations on his chest. “I’ve got more on my back.”
“Oh my stars, Duncan! What happened?” Christy covered her mouth, her eyes wide with worry.
“Not all djinn like fairies,” he said, which was true enough. He’d fought several different kinds as he searched for Cara. Including the palis djinn, where rumor had it, one of them had spoken of sucking the energy out of a human who pulsed with it. The vampire-like djinn did not take kindly to Duncan snooping around and they were incredibly nasty fighters.
“Duncan, you have to stop this,” Christy whispered. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“I won’t stop. I have to find her. I can’t live like this, not knowing…”
“Find who?” came a female voice.
Duncan spun around.
Cara.
Walking toward him and smiling. Her dark hair fluttered around her face, her bright eyes sparkled, and her lips were red, like she’d just eaten a bushel of strawberries. Her cheeks had a warm, sun-kissed glow, as did the rest of her, revealed by the thin maxi dress she wore.
“Cara,” he whispered, unable to move. Was this real? Was she really standing there?
Christy spun around. “Oh, that’s Cara,” she said, sighing. “She’s beautiful…”
He shook his head. “Is this…is she…” He couldn’t move as Cara came toward him; she looked so perfect, he wondered if he hallucinated.
“Is this real… Are you there?”
“Yes. I’m right here, Duncan,” she answered him.
“I can’t…” He took a step toward her, though more from Christy shoving him forward than anything.
A huge tsunami of emotion flooded him—all the anger, frustration, hurt, fear, worry, pain, and half-dozen others he couldn’t articulate. All of it brewing and spewing out of him when he spoke. “Son of a Krakon, where in the Stars have you been?” Duncan demanded, his hands on his hips.
Cara’s eyebrows went up, and her whole body pulled back, like he’d yelled.
Well, he probably had.
“What kind of a greeting is that?” Cara demanded.
“You’ve been gone for two weeks. No clue, no answer, and you just show up here, like everything’s fine? Have you even seen your parents?”
“Of course I have! How else would I know you were here, Duncan?” She put her hands on her hips, mimicking his pose.
“So you just showed up, thinking you can walk over here, like nothing happened?”
“I would have thought you wanted to see me!” Cara squared her shoulders, like she was about to walk away. “But I suppose this greeting answers all my questions.”
Christy stepped between them, grabbing both their arms, preventing Duncan from walking away—or Cara for that matter. “Wait. Stop it, before this becomes something it doesn’t need to be.” She glanced at Cara. “Listen, Cara, is it? Duncan’s been frantically looking for you for weeks, not to mention worried sick. Where have you been?”
“Seeing the world!” Cara snapped.
“Oh that’s just lovely, you’re out gallivanting all over the world, and I’m here, scared to death you’re in some djinn prison, fighting with every djinn I can find, until I can barely walk, and you’re just off, being a tourist?” Fury pulsed through his veins. So happy to see her, he wanted to hug her, but he also wanted to know why hadn’t he heard anything.
How could she just disappear like that?
Didn’t she care about him?
“How dare you! You didn’t even look for me! You left me for dead! I was on my own, and I had to figure out what to do by myself!”
“I searched everywhere, Cara!”
“Not very damn hard!” She stepped closer, but Christy remained in between them, stopping her from getting in his face. “A djinn took pity on me and saved me. It’s not like he hid me or anything! I asked every chance I could if anyone had come. And you never did!”
“The last I saw you, you were flying through the air in a sandstorm! I circled the desert for weeks looking for you. I never stopped. I tried every spell known to exist to find you and nothing worked. Nothing—” He froze. “You were with a djinn?”
Djinn magic was different, and as Duncan had learned over the last two weeks, they were very protective of their homes.
Stars, could she have been right under his nose the whole time?
He felt sick.
“Yes, as a matter of fact. I landed in the desert, some creepy djinn vampire thingy tried to eat me, feet first, which is super gross, and another djinn saved me. I was at his place for over a week recuperating from the cry. Then he took me to see the world.”
Duncan’s heart snapped. She went gallivanting around the world with a djinn. The thing he should have done with her.
She should be seeing the world with him.
Unless…
He studied her face. Was she in love with the djinn? Had she forgotten him already?
“What was his name?” Duncan asked.
“Malik,” she said.
He wracked his brain, the name pinging in the back of his mind… Then he remembered. He was the one djinn he could never find, evidently, because he was off showing Cara all the things she’d ever wanted to see.
Duncan immediately hated the guy. “And you couldn’t contact your family? Me? Let someone know you’re all right?”
She sighed. “I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was busy! Besides, you’re the one who left me there. Why should I take the time?”
“Of all the selfish, arrogant, stupid—I nearly killed myself looking for you!”
“Sure you did! I couldn’t have been all that hard to find! I was just in a goddamn cave—” Cara shouted over Duncan’s barrage.
“Do you know how many damn caves there are in the desert?”
“Stop it right there,” Christy said. She put her hand on Duncan’s chest, and surprisingly, her touch tempered his anger. A little bit. “You’re upset, it makes sense. Go. Get in the water. Get away, cool off for a bit.”
Duncan growled at Christy, but his sister-in-law wasn’t intimidated. “Go, Duncan, now!”
Duncan walked away, and ran into the water, hoping the cold sea would soothe his steamed soul.