We eat. I’m not even sure what the food is. I can’t even say what it tasted like. All I did was eat to say I ate and to make Aiden happy because honestly, I have no appetite. Whenever I close my eyes, all I see is Sophie on the bed in the infirmary, her eyes fluttering. She would’ve woken if not for that scent. Would she have tried to attack me? The cuffs would’ve infuriated her and rightly so. That alone might’ve been enough to set her off.
“What do you think?” Aiden asks.
I blink a few times and stare at him blankly. We’re still sitting at the table because he hasn’t finished eating yet. Neither have I, actually, but I don’t know if I can handle another bite. Guilt and worry are eating me up, so I don’t have much room left to eat anything.
“It might not be easy for us to find Kyros. What if we try to induce a vision? Or a premonition? Either one could be very helpful.”
“I don’t know how to do that,” I mumble.
“Have you ever tried?”
“No,” I admit.
“Then maybe it’s possible. Pervinca might have an idea. We can check in with her around this time tomorrow to see how the progress is going with Sophie, and… You don’t like that idea.”
“Oh, it’s fine, but I plan on checking in well before tomorrow around this time.”
“Of course. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply—”
“You didn’t imply anything. It’s fine. You’re fine.”
“You aren’t.”
I eye him.
He flushes and rubs the back of his neck. “What I mean is that you’re fine. You’re so fine. But you also… you aren’t?”
“What are you going on about?”
Aiden sighs and laughs as he shakes his head, exhaling through his nose. “You’re fine,” he says, drawing out the word and giving me a look that lets me know that he’s referring to my looks.
I laugh, but it’s a quiet kind of laugh, not a full-bodied one. I just can’t be that happy right now.
“A stupid… Ah, but you also aren’t fine,” he says cautiously. “And I get that. I understand. I just want to help.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. If Pervinca has an idea for an herb or tea or anything to help me, I’m open to suggestions. It’s a good idea.”
“Good. I’m glad you think so.” He sits back, clearly pleased, and he finishes his meal a few minutes later.
I’m on my tablet. I’ve been throughout the meal. Aiden sent both himself and me the dossier on Kyros.
“It says here that he grew up in Nautia,” I muse aloud. “Do you think he might’ve gone back there?”
“Nautia. Isn’t that the name of an underwater city?”
“I think so, but there might be an island nearby with the same name. Makes sense, right? For a gorgon to live near water?”
“Sure, it’s possible. I just don’t know if he would return home.”
“You think that the experiment would prevent him from going there? Or send him elsewhere?” I glare at him and lay down the tablet. “It sure would’ve been helpful to let Pervinca answer our questions about what the experiment exactly is intended to do, huh? But you yanked me away.”
I cross my arms as he fumbles for words, not really articulating much of anything but sighs and grunts.
I hold up a hand. “Let me guess. You wanted to spare me because of Sophie.”
“Yes,” he admits.
As much as I appreciate him trying to protect me, it really doesn’t help us any. Then again, Pervinca had the chance to answer our questions for details, and she hadn’t taken the time to. She didn’t want to say.
“If Sophie fighting you, being aggressive… What else has she been doing that’s out of character?”
I flinch as I recall her killing the scarred woman, Stri Ironclaw, the half-kobold, half-elf. And the angel. All of it.
“She’s… She’s ruthless. Brutal. Willing to do anything and everything to get what she wants.” I bite my bottom lip. “But is she in control when she’s like that? Is she truly doing what she wants or what someone else wants?”
“I don’t know.”
“We need to find him. Even if he hasn’t gone home, maybe Kyros has been in contact with family or friends who live there that can give us a head’s up.”
“All right. In the morning, we’ll head to Nautia. That sound good?”
I nod. “I just wish it wasn’t so far away,” I murmur.
“We can use fairy dust.”
“Duh.” I wearily rub my forehead.
He laughs gently, not at me but not with me either because I am so not laughing. “It’s all right. Come on.”
Aiden pays, and we find a hotel. We have to push to get two beds, and the staff grumbles because it’s the last one they have available, but I don’t care. Tonight, I’m sleeping in bed. Too much has been happening for us to sleep outdoors. Outside, under the stars, would be lovely under normal circumstances, but I think here, in a town full of humans, we’ll be much safer.
Unless the danger is following us.
But still, here, we can both sleep with the door locked and deadbolted. Outside, we would have to take turns keeping watch.
I toss and turn for only an hour before I fall into a dreamless sleep. When I next open my eyes, it’s almost noon.
With a gasp, I shoot up and glower at Aiden. “Why did you let me sleep so long?” I demand.
“Because you looked so peaceful. Don’t worry. I called and talked to Pervinca already.”
“And?”
“She’s still working on Sophie.”
“Did she say if she’s making any progress?”
“She’s doing what she can,” he says softly.
“That’s not very reassuring,” I tell him dryly.
He holds up his hands. “I also asked her if she knew of anything to induce a vision or a premonition. She said she would look into it.”
I exhale loudly. “Of course she doesn’t know of anything off the top of her head.”
Aiden shrugs. “Let’s wash up and get some breakfast. Then, we’ll be off.”
“Can’t we just go?” I complain.
“No.”
I climb out of bed and put my hands on my hips. “Are you saying I smell?”
Aiden grins. “I didn’t not say that.”
“You’re terrible.”
“At least I don’t smell terrible,” he teases as I enter the bathroom.
Twenty minutes later, we’re showered, cleaned up, and on the way to a café on the corner.
“What do you want?” he asks.
“Surprise me. Oh, and I’ll pay.”
“It’s fine. I got it.”
“Aiden.” I make him wait and hand him a twenty. “That enough?”
“It should be.” He shakes his head, but he’s smiling.
“What?”
“You won’t let me take care of you.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to be pampered. It’s just…”
“You want to feel like you have some measure of control on your life so you want to spend money even though you don’t have to.”
I grin. “Something like that. Now, hurry up.”
“You’re hungry?” he asks, his eyes glittering in the sunlight.
“Not really. Just anxious to get going and find this guy already.”
“Ah.” He seems disappointed as he turns around and heads inside.
I pick out a circular table and sit under the shade of a gaudy orange umbrella. In my opinion, I would rather the sun shine down on me, but I’ll survive. At least I’m outdoors, breathing in the fresh air, although I have to say that the areas populated by the paranormal community is a bit fresher than where the humans are. Then again, we do have some factories, and some drive cars.
It doesn’t take long for Aiden to come out, and he lays out an assortment of pastries. One has chocolate, and I reach for it.
He laughs. “I knew you would want that one.”
I bite into it. Some kind of filling oozes out. It’s delicious, whatever it is. I’ve been spending a lot of time around the humans lately, far more than ever before. It used to be that Sophie and I hardly ever left Roseshield Grove. Who knows when we’ll be able to return?
“You might want to slow down and breathe in between bites,” Aiden comments.
“I’m sorry. Normally, I have manners.”
“Are you finally hungry? Are you enjoying it? Or do you just want to hurry up and get out of here?”
“Um, actually, yes, yes, and yes.”
He laughs. “What else do you want? I’ll eat the rest.”
“I’ll take…”
We divvy up the food, and I enjoy myself, which makes me feel guilty and sad. I’m on such a rollercoaster lately. I just want to know when things can go back to normal if that’s even possible at this point.
“Sophie Aldercross.”
I stiffen at the familiar voice and slink down in my seat. No. Please. No. Yes, I’m in my regular body, albeit glamored just enough that humans won’t recognize me as foreign to them, but any paranormal being who knows me will see through the slight glamor as to who I am.
Unless they don’t know that Sophie has a twin.
Like the guard marching toward me.
“Uh oh,” Aiden mumbles.
“Just play it cool,” I snap.
“Jessa, he thinks you’re—”
“I know.”
Illumine draws himself up to his full height as he towers over my seated form. “Sophie Aldercross.”
“Illumine.”
“It’s Eli,” he snaps.
Hmm. He goes by Eli around the humans? My guess is that he spells it I-L-L-I and not E-L-I.
“Illi,” I say smoothly. “It’s nice to see you.”
“You don’t belong here.”
“Where do I belong?” I ask, spreading out my hands. “Where do any of us belong? That’s the question.”
Aiden just shakes his head. He’s thinking we should’ve used fairy dust, but there are humans all around us, and if we would’ve run, Illumine would’ve chased, and that would’ve caused a scene. There wasn’t anything we could’ve done.
Besides, I’m interested to see how the phoenix treats me—err, treats Sophie.
“Sophie Aldercross,” he says firmly.
Why does he keep saying her full name? I don’t know if I like his sharp tone. I’ve never heard him talk to anyone like that before.
“Sophie Aldercross, you have a job to do.”
“A job to do?” I echo. What in the world is he talking about?
Unless…
Does it have anything to do with the experiment?
I gape at Aiden and then shift my gaze to the phoenix.
“Sophie Aldercross, go and locate your target.”
My target. As in someone I’m supposed to just find? Or find and eliminate?
Are they trying to turn humans and paranormal beings into spies? Assassins? Mindless minions?
“Who is the target?” I ask, trying to sound casual and hoping he can’t hear my frantically beating heart.
Illumine’s eyes turn fiery for a second. He’s losing his ability to hide among the humans. He’s shocked.
“You… You broke through,” he says, sounding amazed but in a horrified way. “You broke through. How? How did you do it?”
“I didn’t do anything,” I say through gritted teeth.
He grabs a chair and sits down, leaning over and grabbing my elbow. “You have to tell me how you did it.”
“I told you I didn’t—”
“You have to. Kyros is good. He’s fine, but you… At least, he’s good for now, but what about her?”
“Her?” I ask.
Illumine blinks several times. He’s looking right at my face, but I have the impression he’s not actually seeing me.
“You, Kyros, and Amy Chang. You three were the ones… If you broke through, they might…”
Amy Chang.
That’s not a paranormal name. Not at all.
That’s a human name.
A human has been experimented on.