Page 12 of Magic Betrayed (The Shifter of Sheridan Avenue #2)

TWELVE

“Blake could still be behind it.” My thoughts were racing as I contemplated the implications, but even as I said the words, I didn’t feel like they were true. Blake was nothing if not vocal in his hatred of all Idrians, so I doubted he’d bother to recruit them to his conspiracy.

Except… he had recruited one—Heather, Callum’s former assistant. But that didn’t necessarily mean my initial instincts were wrong. Heather had been used for her connection to Callum, and Blake likely wouldn’t collect any other Idrian allies without a similar reason. So maybe what we should be looking for was anything in Chesney’s past that might make her a valuable asset to Blake’s cause.

What did we know for sure about Chesney? Talia had been searching for information about her when she visited the Shadow Court in the fall, which made sense now that I knew Faris had once been Elayara’s prisoner as well. Callum had confirmed that the elementals suspected Chesney had been taken by the fae, but lacked enough proof to make an official accusation.

What if they were right? And what if… What if Chesney was one of those Idrians who’d lost their magic permanently as a part of Elayara’s experiments?

Most of the fae queen’s Idrian victims had regained their magic with time, like Faris. Those whose magic had been used to create artifacts always regenerated their power. But those whose magic had been transferred to a human subject? They never would.

If Chesney was among them, it would explain why we’d assumed it was humans who broke into my apartment.

And if she had indeed been robbed of her elemental magic, perhaps the loss had driven her to hide, even from her own family. Perhaps it had even made her desperate enough to turn to Blake for help.

“I don’t think Blake is behind the kidnapping,” Kira interjected. “Draven checked on that contract you told us about, and we’re pretty sure Blake is responsible. Somehow he has enough contacts on the shady side of Idrian law to get it seen and picked up by the right—or rather the wrong —people.”

“Maybe he had his own people out looking for her, too.” Kes was literally the linchpin of his plans, so he would be pulling out all the stops in order to find her.

But Kira shook her head. “Rath made contact with Shane, and he confirmed it—the bounty was raised just this morning.”

“So that means…”

Kira’s lips pinched with frustration as she nodded. “Yep. Blake already knows someone took her.”

Which meant there would be more crews out there—more mercenaries just like the ones we’d defeated last night. More professional bounty hunters hungry for a payday, none of whom probably cared a lick about collateral damage.

“You said you called Chesney’s family?”

Callum nodded. “Talia is on her way here.”

That might be a good thing. It might also be a recipe for disaster.

The elemental queen was a powerful woman whom I’d managed to offend within minutes of our first meeting. She’d come to Faris looking for information on her missing daughter, but that night—in her frustration—she’d threatened the safety of his employees and his customers.

I’d accidentally used my elemental magic to stop her, and she’d responded by threatening to destroy Callum’s reputation. We’d reached a tentative truce—in part due to my promise to help her find Chesney. But I doubted either of us had imagined her search would end like this.

“So, how do we proceed from here?” I knew we couldn’t turn to the FBI or the police. “Is there any kind of centralized resource for kidnapping cases among Idrians?”

“Not an official one,” Callum informed me. “We tend to handle these kinds of things on our own, whether between families or between courts. But considering how many years our family spent looking for Kira”—he shot his sister a wry look—“we have a lot of experience on our side.”

We had experience, and we had a lead. What we didn’t have was time.

Chesney hadn’t done this alone. And if Kes had indeed been kidnapped by a group of Idrians whose magic had been stolen, we were now in a race to see who could reach them first.

If Blake’s mercenaries got there first, the kidnappers would have no defense against them. Kes would disappear again, and we would be back to square one.

And even if we got there first…

There were no happy reasons for the Idrian victims to have taken Kes. No reasons I could think of that didn’t end in tragedy.

Given her cryptic texts, I could now guess what they wanted her to do. But even if they tortured her, she could never give their magic back. Her power didn’t work that way, and if they pushed her too far?

I knew her. She would keep trying to help them until she had nothing left.

But how could I communicate the urgency to anyone else without revealing even more of Kes’s secrets? Callum, Kira, and the others might be willing to forgive me for concealing dangerous information, but if they found out Kes was ultimately to blame for Elayara’s reign of terror?

I couldn’t predict exactly how they would react, but it wouldn’t be good. And anyway, it wasn’t my secret to tell. I could never betray Kes that way unless there was literally no other choice, so I was going to have to find some other plausible reason for haste.

Thankfully, Callum’s train of thought was on the same track as mine.

“Chesney must have lost her magic to Elayara,” he mused. “So she and her friends probably want Kes for the same reasons Blake does. Which means if we don’t get there first, there’s going to be a battle, and…”

“Kes and the kids will be collateral damage.” I finished his sentence, not bothering to hide my horror at the thought.

“Then we hurry,” Callum said simply. “This is all we’re working on until they’re found.”

“Agreed.” Kira’s tone was brisk. “The Portal is closed anyway until Faris gets this nonsense with the humans sorted out, and until the fae contractor shows up to fix the glamour. So we can turn it into search headquarters, just like the last time.”

The last time?

She offered me a grim smile. “When Elayara kidnapped Faris and Draven, that’s where we planned their rescue. And between all of us, we have a whole lot of connections and resources. It shouldn’t take us long to figure out where she’s been taken.”

* * *

For the next few hours, everything moved too fast for my battered brain to follow. I felt simultaneously drained and over-energized—the unfortunate results of running on too much adrenaline for too long. I didn’t even have the strength to protest Kira’s plan—just followed her meekly to The Portal, where she corralled a handful of Faris’s employees to begin a search. They combed the internet, made dozens of phone calls, and even hunted down traffic camera feeds hoping for a lead.

Meanwhile, I was wondering whether I knew more than I was allowing myself to remember…

I certainly hadn’t met all of Elayara’s victims. She’d had more than one facility, and most of us humans were kept in a different wing of her prison than the Idrians. Also, even though I knew I’d done nothing wrong, I’d always carried a heavy burden of guilt towards those whose magic was stolen forever. It was hard to look them in the eye while knowing that they’d had some vital part of themselves ripped away and given to me—or another human like me.

In some sense, I think I’d avoided seeing them, let alone getting to know them. It would have been harder if I’d known their names and their stories. Even if I’d seen Chesney, I might have blocked it from my memory.

So when Talia entered The Portal—accompanied by an almost tangible cloud of anxiety mingled with hope—I had to fight the impulse to flee. I knew she would make me revisit those shameful memories, and I had no desire to endure any piece of them again.

And yet, I’d promised. Promised Talia that I would help her. Promised myself that I would do whatever I could for the other survivors, and this might be the only way I could keep that promise now that Elayara was dead.

That is, if our conjectures about Chesney’s history and motivation proved true. But what else could explain her being in my apartment and leaving no trace of her presence?

All Idrians carried the residual scent of their inborn magic, and it could be identified by shapeshifters even in their human form. So even if she hadn’t used her magic, Callum would have known if a water elemental had been in my apartment.

It was the most telling difference between me, Logan, and Ari, and the Idrians around us. None of us smelled like magic until we actually used our stolen powers, and even then, it wasn’t as strong. Just like Heather hadn’t really smelled like a shifter, since she lacked the ability to shift.

But how could I say any of this to Chesney’s mother? How could I explain that her beloved child had probably been robbed of her magic, and had now resorted to kidnapping out of desperation? How could I help her grasp the reality that her daughter was alive and free, and yet had chosen not to come home?

I wanted so badly to run, but I forced myself to stay. To stand firm in front of the bar while Talia strode towards me, direct and unerring as a shark scenting blood. Around seven feet tall, with brown skin, dark hair, and icy blue eyes, she was imposing even without the threat of her water magic.

When she finally came to a stop, her nostrils flared as she looked down at me.

“Was she there?” she asked abruptly, her chest heaving with labored breaths, as if she’d run all the way from the Elemental Court. Her voice was cracked and terrible. Filled with unimaginable pain and devastation alongside the hope. “Was my daughter in that place with you?”

I felt rather than saw Callum stepping up behind me. Ready to intervene should Talia’s anger get the better of her a second time. But I was no longer afraid of the queen’s power. I was far more terrified of what I would have to relive in order to answer her questions—of the guilt that this conversation would stoke to life once more.

No matter what Callum said, no matter how many times I told myself that none of this was my doing, I could not escape the conviction that I should have done more. Been braver. Faster. Stronger. That even if Talia did not blame me, perhaps she should.

“I don’t know,” I admitted quietly.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” she demanded. “How could you not know?”

My arms crossed over my chest defensively, almost without conscious thought.

“I’m not going to pretend it was right,” I said, without much hope that she could ever understand. “But for so many of us humans in there, it felt safer not to get attached. Not to form relationships with the Idrians sharing our prison. We never knew when someone would disappear. And we knew Elayara used people against each other. So even if I’d met her…”

“You were trying not to remember,” Talia said bitterly.

“Yes,” I told her honestly. “Sometimes that felt like the only way to survive.” I hadn’t wanted to know whose power would take up residence in my body. I had been in too much pain already for me to willingly take on more by witnessing someone else’s helpless anguish.

It was entirely possible that we’d been in the same room, and I’d simply chosen not to see.

“Don’t forget,” Callum said from behind my left shoulder, “where the true blame lies, Talia. Raine did not do this. She had no choice in what was done to her.”

“But I cannot resurrect Elayara and kill her again,” Talia shouted, shocking the entire room into silence. “Everyone who hurt my child is dead, and I have no one to blame, except…”

Oh.

Guilt was such a tricky enemy. No matter how fiercely we blocked it with reason and reality, it managed to find a way in through the cracks. Through the places we cared the most, where our walls were the softest. Where love made us vulnerable.

And the only thing that could drive it out was anger. Talia was angry because she blamed… herself.

I doubted she would want my compassion. The elemental queen was proud, and would loathe the realization that someone had seen through her scorn to the heart underneath.

But I was going to offer it anyway, because if she was feeling anything like I had when I realized Ari and Logan were missing, I simply wasn’t heartless enough to ignore her pain.

“You didn’t do this either, Talia,” I said softly. “Whatever our mistakes have been, the pain we’re suffering is not our punishment. In fact…”

But before I could finish the sentence, the door opened, and every sound in the room died.

Talia stood between me and the door, but I heard an overloud thud as Seamus set down a bottle a little harder than normal. A sharp crack as a chair hit the floor. Then a tiny voice that made my heart stop and my eyes widen with sudden, terrifying hope.

“Rainey?”

I moved so fast I almost tripped over my own feet. My shoulder collided with the elemental queen—drawing a harsh exclamation of annoyance—but I didn’t care.

I was staring at the open doorway—at the familiar form of Shane standing just inside… with a grinning, dark-haired imp in his arms.

Ari.

Ari was safe. She was here .

Suddenly there were tears streaming down my cheeks, filling my eyes and blurring the view of my tiny, curly-haired sprite and the tall, dangerous-looking man who held her so gently.

“You found her,” I whispered, nearly choking on my relief.

Shane set Ari down, and she raced across the floor, ignoring all the staring eyes to throw herself into my arms.

“I missed you,” she proclaimed matter-of-factly, just before her tiny arms wrapped themselves around my neck and squeezed like a bony boa constrictor.

I heard cheers and clapping, and other sounds of joy, but they seemed muffled and distant. I was too busy holding Ari close. Too busy hiding my face in her shoulder so no one could see my tears.

“Are you okay, Bug?” My voice was shaking, but there was no way in the world I could have stopped it.

“I’m hungry,” she announced, and I laughed—a weak, wobbly sound that was fooling no one except Ari. Maybe not even her.

“Why don’t we try the kitchen?” I suggested. “I bet we could find you something.”

Irene might frown at us messing around in her domain, but I knew if she were here, she wouldn’t be able to resist a hungry child.

Kira appeared with her hand extended, her own eyes red and damp, her lips trembling as she met my gaze. “I can take her,” she offered.

I nodded. I didn’t want to let her go this soon, but her arrival changed everything, and I needed to talk to Shane without her sharp little ears listening in.

Ari let go of my neck and took Kira’s hand, skipping off beside her dragon friend without a backwards glance. I watched her go, feeling almost lightheaded with relief alongside the piercing ache of worry for Logan and Kes. And as she disappeared behind the swinging door into the kitchen, my gaze found its way to Talia, who was still standing by the bar, looking as if she’d just been knifed in the heart.

Her cheeks were wet, but her expression seemed hollow and utterly bleak.

My child had been found, but hers was still out there.

“We will find her,” I said quietly, my words meant only for Talia.

And this time, she simply nodded.

* * *

I wasn’t sure Shane would talk to me with so many listening ears, so we ducked into the card room and shut the door before I spoke.

“Thank you.” My relief was so great, I could have hugged him, but I doubted the grim-looking mercenary would appreciate it. “There are no words, Shane, but I’m going to offer them anyway. Thank you for finding her. For keeping her safe. For bringing her home.”

He grunted, looking decidedly uncomfortable with my effusion. At times, the half-goblin could be almost as emotionally expressive as Faris.

“How did you find her? Where?”

He looked oddly as if he didn’t want to tell me. “I was searching your apartment,” he finally admitted. “Looking for clues you might have missed. She popped in and started yelling for you. Luckily, she remembered me and was willing to come with me when I asked.”

Part of me had been hoping Ari would use her magic to escape, but practically, I knew better than to rely on it. There were any number of ways her captors could have kept her unconscious. Even threatened Kes until she took Ari’s magic. And after months of trying to impress on her that she should never teleport in front of strangers, it wasn’t all that difficult to imagine her deciding to listen at the worst possible moment.

“Did she tell you anything?”

Shane’s dark eyes sparked gold. “Promise me. Promise you will let me help.”

I wasn’t in any position to turn down assistance, particularly not from Shane. He had too many connections. Knew far more than me about those who’d escaped our prison. But I also wasn’t ready to trust him implicitly.

“Why do you care?” I asked bluntly. “I know there’s more to this than you’ve told me. I know there’s something off between you and Kira and Faris, and with all that’s at stake, we can’t afford any fighting behind the scenes. So I can’t make promises until you tell me the truth.”

His glower intensified.

“I know,” I acknowledged, “that you don’t owe me anything. I owe you everything . But that doesn’t mean I’m going to take risks with the safety of the people I love.”

For a moment, I was convinced he was going to punch me in the face—he looked that angry. But then his head tilted back, his eyes closed, and his fists unclenched.

“I was adopted as a boy,” he said, his voice little more than a hollow rasp. “By a pixie woman who lived here, in the Shadow Court. She was unfortunate enough to be friends with Kira’s guardian. It’s a complicated story of power and politics, but the end result was that she was forced by the fae to spy on the two of them, using my life as collateral.”

I’d originally met Shane over ten years ago in the depths of the fae prison, so I’d known he was once a prisoner like me. I just hadn’t known why.

“I escaped, but Kira was young and foolish, and her actions eventually led to my adoptive mother’s death. It happened only a few miles from here. I was with her that night, and she still died.”

“Faris…” He shook his head. “He claims to protect the people of this city, but when my mother became a victim of the fae queen’s obsession with power, those with the ability to save or avenge her did nothing . Because my mother was poor and powerless and could do nothing to support his empire, everyone turned a blind eye.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said sincerely. Whether his accusations were true or not, I had no way of knowing, but his grief and his fury were unfeigned.

It explained his vendetta against the fae. Even his antipathy towards Kira and Faris.

But why Kes and the kids? He’d helped so many others to escape. What was it about them that drew him here, offering his help without hope of compensation? Unless…

Unless he saw himself in Ari and Logan. Saw his mother in Kes. Perhaps a part of him was trying desperately to avoid a repeat of that tragedy.

And perhaps, just like me and like Talia, he was trying to find a way to deal with guilt he’d never been able to shake.

Suddenly, his uncharacteristic compassion made all the sense in the world.

“You can help.”

His gaze shot to me, eyes glowing fierce and gold.

“But all of your past vendettas, all your grudges, are going to have to wait.”

“I am neither a fool nor a dog that must be constantly watched,” he growled at me. “While I prefer to work alone, that doesn’t mean I lack the ability to work with others.”

He might not be happy about it, but I felt like we understood each other.

“What did Ari tell you?”

His arms folded tightly across his chest. “A lot of babbling I didn’t understand, to be honest. But there were a couple of things that might help. It sounds as if all of them were unconscious at first, so she didn’t know how long they slept, or how far they were taken. But when she woke up, it was still dark. When did they disappear?”

“Around midnight. Maybe thirty-four to thirty-six hours ago?”

He nodded. “And she recounted her entire day yesterday, so they’re somewhere within probably a six to seven hour radius.”

It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

“Anything else?”

His expression said that the answer was yes, but he didn’t quite know how to tell me.

“Shane. It won’t help to hide the bad news.”

“I don’t actually know whether it’s good or bad,” he warned me. “I’m assuming from Talia’s presence that you already know Chesney is involved. But Ari recognized more than just her.”

A shudder oozed down my spine and left me feeling cold and clammy with dread. “Not Blake,” I whispered. “Just tell me it’s not Blake.”

“She didn’t mention Blake,” Shane hastened to assure me.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t involved, but I was going to hope that meant Kira was right and he hadn’t found them yet.

“But she did tell me a few other names—Bianca, Noah, Jacob, and Reese.”

Familiar names… I dove into my memory and found only hazy images.

“Were they…”

“Idrians,” Shane confirmed. “Ari used to teleport around the facility and make friends with anyone who didn’t immediately reject her, so I suspect she knew almost everyone.”

Poor Ari. She was a natural born extrovert, so being forced into hiding had been incredibly difficult for her.

“All of them are elementals who lost their magic to Elayara’s experiments.”

Then I’d been right. And all of them had abundant reasons—justifiable or not—to hate Kes.

The only question was, did they intend to use her or destroy her? I wasn’t sure I had enough evidence to guess.

The only clues were in Kes’s texts. She believed she was safe. She didn’t want me to follow them, because she was convinced it would be dangerous for me. But the kids were being used as hostages. So did she not want me to find them because I would be just another hostage? Or because whoever took her wanted me, too? Hated me? Hoped to use me or destroy me?

And then she’d said she had secrets. That there were things she needed to do.

It’s better this way.

Please forgive me.

At least five magic-less elementals had banded together to kidnap Kes, and Kes was trying to help them. But she couldn’t give them their power back, even if they also had access to the person who now possessed it…

Logan. That was why they’d taken him, too.

But it was still impossible. Elayara had also tried reversing the process, and it simply wouldn’t work. For good or ill, the magic forced into our human bodies stubbornly remained there, and Kes had been through unimaginable pain while trying to prove it.

But maybe they didn’t know. Maybe they hadn’t been a part of those later experiments. Maybe they didn’t believe Kes, or maybe she hadn’t told them yet, because if they learned the truth…

They would have no reason to keep Logan—or Kes—alive.