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We had nearly reached our destination, an old two-story house on a quiet side street, when the wind picked up, walking icy fingers across my neck. "Gods," I muttered, "we really need to move south."
Oisin stopped in his tracks, his head tilted, and eyes gone distant.
"Oisin? Earth to fae...did you just short out? More memories coming back?"
He blinked and started walking, picking up his pace, then breaking into a run when he reached my side. "Move it, gryphon."
I followed him, completely confused. Then the wind picked up more, howling so loud it almost sounded...like ghostly voices. Fear hit my belly like a punch to the gut, as misty magic caressed my skin. Hisashi.
We slid around a corner, both of us nearly busting our asses on the ice, and dashed to the place where Hisashi was supposed to meet us to change shifts. It was a little park on a postage-stamp-sized lot. Just big enough for a swing set, a slide, and a couple of picnic tables. It was notably lacking in tall, hot albino boys though.
"What the fuck is going on?" I snapped as the wind died down to a normal winter breeze. The howling trailed off, leaving behind the normal sounds of kids playing in the snow a couple of houses over, and the occasional hum of a passing car.
Oisin rubbed his temples. "I don't know, but...that felt like a backlash of discharged magic. Like a spell gone wrong, but on a very large scale."
I rubbed his arm. "You okay?" He looked a little pale. Uh, paler than usual. His fair skin was almost as bone white as our fox's.
Green eyes met mine and his expression went smooth and flat. Shit. It must be bad, if I was getting the mask. "When the magic hit me just now, I saw it. Gods, I...pushed him away," he said quietly. Oh. Memories coming back. And the fae was going to feel like an asshole.
Good. He kind of was.
I left Oisin having his epiphany while I paced around the park, and studied the house, looking for any sign that something bad had happened. "I don't get it, “I said finally, coming back to stare down at Oisin, who was sitting at a snow-covered picnic table with a blank look on his face. "Where did he go?"
My cell phone chirped, and I pulled it out of the back pocket of my jeans. I was relieved to see a text from Hisashi. It had been sent a few minutes ago, the notification probably delayed by the magic surge. I frowned in confusion as I read the message.
I'm going back. Love you gryphon. Tell the little redhead I love him too. Even if he doesn't remember.
I should be relieved, right? He was just going home. Maybe he had to rush to the bathroom or something. Maybe he just didn't want to meet up with us and have to deal with Oisin being all cold and distant with him.
I looked up from my phone. I'm going back.
Why not say "I'm going home," or "I'm going to the apartment?"
Why tell me to tell Oisin he loved him?
Emerald eyes met mine and Oisin seemed to sense the panic that was building inside me. He held out his hand and I gave him my phone. "Hell," he whispered once he'd read the message.
I shook my head as my brain tried to fight what my gut already knew. "He...wouldn't. It doesn't make any sense."
Oisin stood and used my phone, holding it to his ear with his eyes glued to my face. It didn't even ring. Went right to voicemail.
He handed the phone back. "He lost control of his powers," he said in an even tone. But his green eyes had gone hard and dangerous. "That's what we felt. That magical surge was massive." He ran a handover his short hair and let out an exasperated sigh. "I feel like I'm missing something. Something important. Like...I should have done something."
I closed my eyes and swallowed. "You were helping him. Before. Using your magic to calm his so he wouldn't have to let his clan bind him to a shrine."
He stared at me. "Fuck."
I nodded. Fuck indeed. "He was afraid. When we went to get you back, he used his power in ways I didn't even know were fucking possible. He lost control of it a couple times. And when we got back...he said the power kept getting stronger. But I thought we had time. That you'd recover and we'd figure it out together."
The fae shook his head, then turned back the way we'd come, his usually fluid, graceful movements gone sharp and halting. "It's all just bits and pieces in my head," he said, flinging his arms up in agitation. "But you know where he went. He knows he needs an anchor."
I growled. "Yes."
"Then let's go back home and figure out how to stop him."
I glanced back at the house where White's girl was living. If I was right and Hisashi had just run home to his clan, he was in danger of being bound and used. But if I just walked away from a job assigned to me by the fucking demon, I risked White getting pissed and sending my mage back to the guild to be bought by someone else like a cow on the market.
"Gesa?" Oisin said impatiently. "Fuck the demon and his stupid job. We need to find Hisashi." I could sense the fear under his calm expression. He had remembered something more about his relationship with Hisashi. Which was great. But fuck me.
I pulled out my phone again and dialed Orion Black as we walked. "Good afternoon, Miss Lionheart," his smooth voice answered on the third ring.
"I need help," I said, hating that sentence with my whole being. "I need to find Hisashi." With everything that had happened the last week or so, no one had pushed the issue of getting our tracking runes removed. If the incubus could follow our energy into the otherworld with the damned things, then he could sure as shit find the fox out here in the real world.
I clenched my teeth. I didn't even know where the kitsune clan lived. No one did. They were secretive. I hadn't given a fuck until now, because Hisashi's home was here. Not there. Not ever again.
"Gesa." The soft voice on the other end of the phone snapped me out of it. "My friend, have you...misplaced your mate?"
I growled.
"I can find the fox for you," he said in a soothing tone. I ignored the little hint of a purr in his voice. If him having the hots for my fox helped us find Hisashi, then so be it. He could just lust away.
"Thank you," I said in a rush of relief. "But...."
"I need a break from contracts and paperwork, “he said smoothly. "Perhaps I could relieve your pride of guard duty for a time?"
"Thank fuck," I muttered.
He chuckled softly on the other end of the phone. "Ah...have you by chance read that contract I left for you?"
I sighed. "No, not yet. But it's on my to do list, I promise." Like, maybe sometime before my two-hundredth birthday. I was not looking forward to reading a bunch of legalese.
Orion clucked at me. "I suggest you read it now. Before you and your pride go rushing off to who knows where for who knows how long."
I rolled my eyes. Like I had time for homework right now. "Sure. Whatever."
I ended the call and jogged along beside Oisin, all the way back to the apartment.
I think some part of me was still holding out hope that this was all a big misunderstanding and Hisashi would be in the bathroom when we got there.
He wasn't. And all of his stuff was right where he'd left it. He hadn't even come back here to pack. Whatever had happened to him, it must have been bad enough to cause him to panic. Now we had to go drag his ass back home before he did something stupid like tie himself to a shrine for the rest of his life.