Page 37 of Grand Romantic Delusions and the Madness of Mirth, Part Two

“Sully will soothe it,” I say calmly. Though honestly, my hand feels like it’s literally on fire. Fine beads of sweat have broken out along my hairline. I’m not quite certain I’ve ever experienced this level of physical pain … not in a long time, at least.

“Whatever mage is tied to the ward will know we’re here,” Coda says, clearly exasperated by the lack of stealth in our breaking-and-entering abilities. “If they’re in the area …”

“They’ll be heading this way,” Bolan mutters.

Still crowding in behind me, the rock star reaches around and shoves open the door.

It swings open to reveal a young girl with dark-blond, slightly curly hair and dark-blue eyes. Half-hiding behind a barrel chair, she’s wearing cat-print pajamas and only one sock. Her eyes are red, her nose swollen. From crying.

“Mirth …” she whispers, completely dismissing Bolan.

Kitty.

I’m across the room — a plush office of some sort — and crouching to sweep the nine-year-old into my arms before Bolan can hold me back. She presses her face into my neck and takes a shuddering breath.

“Take the phone to the computer, rock star,” Coda says, voice distant through the phone speakers and the panicked buzzing in my ears.

Bolan hesitates, throwing a manual lock on the door behind us before gently tugging the phone from my hand and hustling out of my line of sight.

I just let Kitty hold me.

She doesn’t cry again, though. She sniffs, then says quietly, “I knew you’d come.”

I hear it then. The shift in the essence surrounding us. That isn’t, wasn’t, simply some childish wish to be rescued by the most powerful person she knew.

Kitty knew I was coming for her.

Though there still isn’t any hint of purple in her eyes, she is awry. A seer of some sort.

“Where’s Tommy?” I ask, still holding Kitty tightly.

“They took him,” she sobs, then presses her face into my shoulder to stifle herself. “They … took us.”

“Who, Kitty?” I ask. “Did you recognize them?”

She steps back from my hold, pressing her lips together and avoiding my gaze now. She shakes her head.

Unable to lie to me out loud.

My heart pinches. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll find Tommy, and we’ll go somewhere safe.” I tune in to the murmur of conversation between Bolan and Coda. The tech is talking the wolf through hardwiring my phone to the desktop computer.

“Here, Mirth,” Kitty says, pointing toward the lower half of a built-in bookshelf. “Your friend on the phone needs some of the things in here. And they stole my phone …” Her voice wobbles. “That you gave me.”

I don’t correct her on the original ownership of the phone, having no doubt that Tommy handed it over to his sister at first demand. A dark wooden panel has been partially pried off the bottom section of the bookshelf, revealing an inset safe.

A fireplace poker lies on the ground next to it, though a quick glance at the fireplace in the seating area confirms that the tool is just decorative.

It’s been retrofitted, of course. No open fires in central London.

A criminal enterprise that kidnaps children isn’t going to get exposed by willfully violating building codes.

“I’m in!” Coda cries gleefully through my phone speakers. “Finally, fuck.”

“We’re going,” Bolan says. “We’ve got Kitty. That’s enough to get the police involved.”

“But Tommy!” Kitty cries, clutching at my arm. “We have to go get him first.”

Bolan steps around the huge wooden desk, trying to soften his expression. “We haven’t met —”

“I don’t wanna know you, wolf,” Kitty spits, surprisingly vicious.

Bolan snaps his mouth shut, then looks to me. More than a little chastised.

“That’s got to sting, rock star,” Coda muses, punctuated by a plethora of keyboard tapping. It’s possible the tech has more than ten fingers. “When was the last time someone didn’t want to know you. Plus … I just need a second …”

“And Kitty says we need to get into the safe,” I add.

Bolan huffs.

Kitty folds her arms across her chest and glowers at him. “You’re supposed to help me. And we’re supposed to help the others.”

Bolan frowns, narrowing his eyes at her. Then his nostrils flare, and his gaze snaps to me.

I nod just once. Yes, Kitty is awry. Not even partially manifested yet, but what threads of power she does have access to sleepily stir around her.

I want to ask her all the questions churning in my head, but I also get the sense that she’s been pushed way beyond her limits. I don’t want to force her to face more, not just yet.

“I’m here to help,” Bolan says.

“Good,” Coda says. “Because I need you to go get the pretty but stupid lords who’ve gotten themselves detained.”

“What?!” I cry.

“It’s fine,” Coda says dismissively. “If they were okay with dropping a few bodies, it wouldn’t even be an issue.”

“We’re being circumspect,” Bolan says indignantly, more pissed at the not-so-subtle charge of incompetence than the suggestion that we should have murdered our way into the building.

Of course, now that we’ve confirmed these people kidnapped Tommy and Kitty —

“Answer your phone, rock star,” Coda says.

Bolan tugs his phone out of his pocket, sighing dramatically at the black-neon glowing screen.

“I need Mirth’s phone plugged in for now,” Coda says, caustically cajoling. “I’m grabbing as much data as I can before we meet more interference.”

“More interference?” Bolan growls.

“Mirth and the kid are safe here with me,” Coda says. “I control all the cameras and most of the security system now. You go collect your playmates. I’ll find the boy.”

Bolan wavers, clearly torn.

Arms still folded, glower firmly in place, Kitty taps her foot impatiently.

Bolan steps over to me, kissing me almost bruisingly, then nipping my bottom lip before growling, “Don’t fucking go anywhere.”

He stomps to the door, unlocking and flinging it open dramatically.

“Go right,” Coda says, through Bolan’s phone speaker now.

Bolan yanks the door closed, snarling, “Lock this,” before shutting it completely.

Kitty practically skips over to slip the lock into place.

“Possessive asshole,” Coda mutters through my phone speaker rather gleefully.

“He has a dirty mouth,” Kitty says, her tone chastising.

“Oh, I hope so.” Coda cackles. “For the princess’s sake.”

“Kitty is nine years old,” I say coolly. “Please act accordingly, Coda.”

A beat of silence stretches between me and the phone still tethered to the computer on the desk.

Then Coda says, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

Unfazed, or maybe just ignoring us, Kitty crosses back to the safe, hunkering down to look at the keypad. “I can’t get in.” She looks back at me over her shoulder, blinking her still-reddened eyes.

“That’s what you have me for,” Coda says. “Grab the phone.”

“I thought you still needed it plugged in,” I say.

“Nah, I’m downloading direct now.” Coda chuckles darkly. “This chapter ain’t ever dodging me again.”

Kitty jumps up, running over to the desk and grabbing the phone.

“Press the screen against the keypad,” Coda instructs her through the speakers. “And hold it there.”

Energy shifts around the phone.

“That tickles,” Kitty whispers.

“How did you know , Kitty?” I ask quietly, crouched next to the young girl. “About me coming for you? Did you see … pictures in your head? Or maybe it was a whisper in your mind, or just a sense of need?”

Kitty blinks at me for a moment, staring deeply into my eyes. My violet eyes. “Do you see too, Mirth?”

“I don’t. But I … get feelings sometimes. I knew you needed me.” I try to smile at her, but I can’t quite pull off the expression right now.

“I saw you …” Kitty’s eyes fill with tears.

“I saw … I saw you and Tommy and a cage, and … I shouldn’t have said anything.

Tommy told me never to tell anyone about the things I see, not even my dreams. Not even my …

” She whispers so quietly I almost miss the next words.

“My mom. I think … they weren’t supposed to take Tommy.

Just me. He tried to run with me. But I …

I can’t run as fast as he can … and … and …

they …” Her breath hitches. “They … they grabbed us both … and … and what if they took Mom too? Or … what if they hurt her? And that’s why … that’s why she didn’t help us?”

“We’re going to figure it all out,” I say. I could tell her that no one was home when the royal guard went looking for her, and that there were no signs that anyone was hurt in the apartment. But she doesn’t need extra or exact details now.

She needs her brother. To know Tommy is safe and to feel safe herself.

I know. Because I always needed Armin in the same way.

“You can open it now,” Coda says in as gentle a tone as I’ve heard so far from the tech awry. “Take everything, please.”

I open the safe, revealing more paper money, in multiple currencies, than I’ve ever seen in one place.

Plus thin one-ounce gold and silver bars and stacks of actual paper bonds.

What looks like three portable hard drives are tucked between the money and the gold bars.

A narrow shelf at the top of the safe holds a half-dozen phones.

“There we go,” Coda mutters gleefully. “Grab the hard drives first. The baby girl needs to carry the drives, Mirth.”

Because of my energy. It doesn’t usually affect tech, but the portable drives might also be essence protected.

“Got it!” Kitty runs back toward the couch and retrieves a brand-new-looking pink backpack. She unceremoniously dumps its contents — books, crayons, and a doll — and brings it to me. “My phone?”

The bag sports a designer label. The toys and treats … are bribes? To keep Kitty mollified? Anger flashes through me, hot and pervasive. I almost lose hold of my essence. I almost wipe every living person in the building from existence. By melting each of their brains.

Taking Kitty wasn’t a simple snatching of a convenient target. This was planned. The presence of the pink bag tells me so.

“Mirth?” Kitty asks almost meekly. “My phone?”