Aiden had just fallen asleep when the phone woke him up. He blinked at the number. Dylan’s house. “Hello?”
“Aiden, is Dylan there?” Dylan’s mom asked. “I promise he won’t get in trouble. We just want to know where he is.”
Aiden sat up. “He’s not here, I swear. I was sleeping. Is something wrong?”
“He snuck out of his room and we can’t find him. I followed his scent through the woods, but it just… stopped. There’s nothing, no sign of him.” Dylan’s mom was usually so calm, but she sounded worried now.
“Do you think he ran away?” Aiden asked. Dylan talked about it often enough. Please, no.
“I don’t know. His trail ended close to the barrier, but there was nothing on the other side.”
A terrible thought occurred to him and he swallowed. “Do you think maybe… someone took him?” The other people had disappeared in the woods close to Dylan’s house.
“I pray not, but we have to consider the possibility.” Hearing the fear in her voice made it worse. “Is there anywhere else he could be? His dad checked the pit already. What about your other friends at school? Tiago, and what was her name… Hanna?”
“I don’t think he’d go to them, but I’ll check.” Hanna still didn’t have her phone, but he could call Tiago and check with her tomorrow.
“I’m calling the police.”
“Okay.” He hung up and stared at the darkness, heart racing. Had someone taken Dylan? Would he disappear without a trace like the others? Was he already dead?
Tears burned in his eyes. Maybe Dylan was fine. Maybe he’d used magic to hide his scent and he’d run away. Aiden stared at his phone. He should call Tiago just to be sure. As he opened his contacts, he thought of something else. Mr. Johnson was a warden, and he actually cared about Dylan. Maybe he could convince the other wardens to look for him. Maybe they’d be able to find something if they went looking right now.
Aiden was a little surprised when Mr. Johnson answered on the third ring. “Hello?”
“Mr. Johnson.” His voice was shaking and he took a breath. “Dylan is missing. His parents can’t find him. What if he was kidnapped?”
Silence.
“Mr. Johnson?”
“Where are you?”
“In… in my room. Why?”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“What—”
Mr. Johnson hung up. Why was he coming here? Shouldn’t he be going to Dylan’s house? Aiden turned on the light and got dressed. As he reached to get clean socks, it got hard to breathe and he felt a little dizzy. He sat down on the bed and told himself to breathe. Freaking out wasn’t going to help Dylan.
When he’d mostly calmed down, he pulled on his socks and then went downstairs. The doorbell rang as he reached the living room. The sound of it made him jolt and had his heart racing again. Aiden sprinted to the door.
“How long has he been gone?” Mr. Johnson asked as he stepped inside.
“I… I don’t know. His parents said they were looking for him.”
The light above the stairs came on.
“Aiden? Who is it?” his dad asked.
“Mr. Johnson. Dylan is missing, and I’m afraid something might have happened to him.” If he hadn’t had an anxiety attack, he might have had time to wake up his parents and tell them what was going on.
Mr. Johnson grabbed Aiden’s arm. “We have to go now. We don’t have much time to find him.”
“My parents could help us look—”
“No. Just you.” Mr. Johnson gave him such an intense look it made Aiden nervous.
Dad and Mom came down the stairs with confused frowns.
“Dylan is missing?” Mom asked.
“Now, Aiden.”
“We’re going to look for him,” Aiden told his parents.
“Stay here in case he shows up,” Mr. Johnson said before tugging Aiden through the door.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Aiden asked as they hurried to his car. The door was open, lights on, and it was still running.
“I have an idea.” Mr. Johnson let go of his arm.
Aiden went around and got in, breath coming in fast little sips. “What idea? Did the kidnappers take Dylan? Is he going to die?” His throat went tight.
Mr. Johnson pulled out of the driveway and didn’t say anything until they’d gone almost half a block. “We need to get to Dylan’s house and assess the situation. It might be a false alarm.” The warden didn’t look convinced.
“And what if it’s not?” Breathe, breathe. Passing out would be bad.
“I have some ideas.” Mr. Johnson gripped the steering wheel and glared out the windshield.
Aiden rolled his window down and took deep gulps of fresh air, trying to slow his heart. “Do you think he’s dead?” He wished he could take the words back because they were too horrible to say out loud.
“I don’t know. I hope not.” The warden looked at him. “But like I said, this could be a false alarm. We should get some facts before we jump to conclusions.”
The drive seemed to take longer than usual, but eventually they pulled up to Dylan’s house. A police car sat in the driveway just ahead of them, and Dylan’s dad was talking to an officer. Dylan’s mom came out of the house as they walked up the front stairs.
“Warden Johnson, it’s good to see you.” She looked strained, and her calm tone sounded forced.
“It’s good to see you as well, though I wish the circumstances were better.”
“Yes.” She held the door open. “Would you care to come inside?”
“I would love to.”
Aiden wanted to scream, What are you doing? We need to find Dylan right now!
He followed Mr. Johnson into the house. Dylan’s mom closed the door behind them. She let out a sigh and clenched her fists. The gesture was so much like Dylan that Aiden’s heart squeezed. “I’m fighting so hard not to fly out there and look for him myself.” She smiled bitterly. “Not the kind of thing I should admit to a warden, I suppose.”
“Don’t worry, I understand,” Mr. Johnson said. “I’ll do everything in my power to find him, Mrs. Galloway. I swear it.”
She nodded, her worry shifting to determination. “His trail starts in the backyard and ends close to the barrier, just like all the others. Should I come with you?”
“No. Stay here and delay the police.” At her arched eyebrow, he said, “I’m not entirely sure we can trust them.”
Corrupt cops? As if this wasn’t already bad enough.
Dylan’s mom nodded. “I’ll make sure you have as much time as you need.”
“Come on, Aiden.” Mr. Johnson headed toward the back of the house.
“Why do you need me?” he asked as they passed through the next room.
“Moral support.”
When they got outside, Mr. Johnson walked to the middle of the yard and held a hand up, muttering a few words. A red smokelike substance appeared several feet away, hovered for a moment, then drifted toward the woods. “This way.”
“What kind of spell was that?” Aiden asked as he followed.
“It’s my little trick to compensate for not having a superhuman sense of smell. It’s showing me Dylan’s scent trail.”
Aiden had been in the backyard a few times since the incident but hadn’t gone beyond the cleared area into the trees. He focused on the flickering red smoke and tried not to think about where they were.
Mr. Johnson made a little sound.
“What?”
“I think I know where it’s leading.”
“Where?”
But the smoke suddenly disappeared, leaving them in the dark. A large, glowing white ball appeared, and Mr. Johnson knelt to examine the narrow trail. “Maybe he didn’t make it,” he said quietly.
Aiden’s pulse jumped into his throat. “What do you mean? You think he’s dead?”
Mr. Johnson stood. “Poor choice of words, sorry. The trail ends here. No scent and there are footprints going both ways, so I can’t tell which set is freshest. I’m no expert.” He shook his head. “Let’s check anyway.”
They continued down the trail and stepped out into an open area. It looked so different that Aiden didn’t recognize it at first. His chest tightened as he looked around. “Is this…?”
“Yes. Where Dylan performed the ritual.” Mr. Johnson swept a hand in front of him like he was trying to feel something invisible. A spiderweb, maybe. He pulled a little bottle out of his suit pocket, dumped a powder into his palm, and tossed it into the air. He squinted as it fell. “No trace, just like the others. Like it’s been scrubbed clean.”
Aiden started to feel dizzy. He wasn’t breathing right again. “I think I should go back.” If he fainted, he wasn’t going to be any help to anyone.
“I need you to stay here.”
“Okay.” Aiden swallowed. He pictured the area covered with snow, symbols burned into the ground, Dylan standing with the jar full of blood.
“Stay here,” the warden repeated. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Where are you going?”
“Outside the barrier.” He walked toward the other side of the clearing, the floating light following him. The glowing ball grew dim as it went deeper into the trees.
Aiden listened to his own panting breaths as he stood in the darkness. His scar itched. He kept replaying the moment Dylan threw fire at him; the pain, the confusion. Aiden grabbed the nearest tree and slid down until he was sitting.
It’s the past. Nothing is hurting you now. Stop freaking out.
Sweat broke out all over his body, and he stuck his head between his knees. A minute or so passed. Then he felt something. A warm, gentle sensation that seemed to come from the ground and from the tree at his back. Like a cup filling with water, the feeling spread through his body.
The forest. Nature calling to him, connecting with him. He’d learned this in his sessions with Phoebe. Aiden shifted and put his hands against the dirt, warmth filling him. He sighed.
Footsteps, coming fast. “Just like the others,” Mr. Johnson said.
Aiden’s head snapped up.
“They took Dylan.”