Finn ran his hand through his dark hair with frustration, shooting a glare at Vic. “It’s not that fucking simple,” the demon snapped. “It’s not like we have him just stashed in someone’s spare room. This is some serious, heavy magic, and we need to move fast. I guarantee that bitch is already on a warpath searching for you.”
“Ye should have thought of that before sending my talented little spawn to break her mam’s bond, now shouldn’t you?” Vic challenged Finn, folding his arms over his chest. “So, time is ticking, Finley.”
“No shit, Victor,” Finn snarled back, poking the scarred fox shifter in the chest. “I said I am working on it. Jackson moves the whole set up every month, so I am waiting to hear back from him now. It won’t be long; he never leaves it more than a day before responding.”
“Unless she has found him first,” Vic muttered, and I sighed. The two of them had been at each other’s throats since we had arrived back to Omega, and it was getting old. They clearly had history, but I got the feeling that the animosity between them was just their own ways of expressing concern for Lachlan—someone they both clearly cared for.
“Okay, you guys… do whatever.” I waved a hand at them. “I’m going to go and check on classes and see how things have progressed with the recruits.”
Leaving Vic and Finn to argue over things that really didn’t matter, I headed out toward the training center where I guessed the classes would be in session. Caleb had told me several of his top tier Mages had come in to help out with magic classes, so I was feeling good about how they might be getting on.
In addition to that, several of Granny Winter’s wolves had volunteered to return with us when they heard how many freshly minted supernaturals we were trying to handle on base.
There was one recruit in particular that I was most eager to visit, though, and butterflies fluttered in my gut as I pushed open the doors to the training wing and wandered down the empty halls.
When I reached the classroom that Caleb had told me to head to, I tapped lightly on the door before opening it a crack.
“Oh hey!” I exclaimed, recognizing the instructor. “I didn’t know you were helping us.”
“Hey girl,” Amethyst sang back, flipping her green dreadlocks over her shoulder. “Okay, everyone practices that four more times while I chat with our fearless leader.”
I grinned at the ancient Mage who barely looked a day over twenty-five, and she joined me in the hallway outside the classroom.
“I’m glad to see you still in one piece, Kit girl,” she commented, hugging me like an old friend. “The stirrings in the lower ranks is not sounding pretty, so you bet I stuck my hand up to help when our leaders called for it.”
I grimaced at the mention of what was to come. “Yeah, well, as soon as I kill my bio-mom, things should go back to normal.” I hesitated, wrinkling my nose. “Or as normal as possible with our existence slowly being leaked to the human world.”
“Ouch,” Amethyst cringed. “Matricide, huh? I do not envy you that job. Good thing she was never an actual mom to you, right? That would have been way worse.”
I snorted a laugh at her attempt at a silver lining and nodded. “Yeah, that would have been worse for sure. I honestly don’t even know if I can kill her, but I have to do something. She’s totally insane and hell-bent on enslaving the human race or some shit.”
“Uh yeah, those plans never end well for everyone else. Well, we have your back anyway. I take it you came to see Lorna, seeing as you didn’t know I was here?” She grinned at me and nodded back to the class she had been teaching.
“Seer chick?” I checked, seeing as Caleb couldn’t remember her name.
“Yup, that’s her. Lorna Green, age eighteen, recruited by Omega three months ago. Her blood results indicated mage, but as with most human tests, they have their limitations, so they can’t differentiate what flavor of mage.” She looked a little proud. “We’ve made some good progress these past few days; she just needed more specialized tutoring than your boys could provide.”
“That’s great to hear,” I told her with sincerity. “I’m glad you could help; I wouldn’t have the first clue with most of these species. There are creatures here I had never even heard of, let alone knew existed.”
She grinned her understanding and opened the door to the classroom. “Lorna, babe? Can you pop out here? Grab your sketch pad too, hun.”
“Sketch pad?” I raised my eyebrows to Amethyst, and she smiled.
“You’ll see,” she promised me, and we waited while a white-blond, waiflike girl packed up her things and made her way out to us. “Lorna, I’m sure you met Kit when she did the whole magical cure-all, but for the sake of introductions… Lorna, Kit, Kit, Lorna.”
“Nice to meet you, uh… ma’am?” The girl held out her hand for me to shake, and I cringed at the title as I took her hand.
“Just Kit,” I pleaded. “I’m barely a few years older than you. Uh, I was wondering if I could have a chat with you about your new powers. Would that be okay?”
She nodded, clutching her sketch pad and bag to her chest.
“I’ll leave you to it before someone blows up the building,” Amethyst told us. “Let’s catch up later, Kit? If you get a break before saving the world.”
“Sounds good,” I agreed. To Lorna, I indicated toward the door leading out to the lawn, and she followed me out to one of the park benches situated under a tree.
There was a slight, awkward silence while I pondered what in the hell I was supposed to say next, but Lorna filled the pause for me. Thank fuck.
“You want to know about the vision I’ve been having?” she guessed, placing her bag down on the grass and flipping open her sketch book.
As she flicked past pages, I saw numbers scribbled over and over in heavy charcoal, but it was a landscape image that she finally settled on, handing over the book for me to take a closer look.
“I guessed you would want to see this sooner or later,” Lorna admitted. “Amethyst has been amazing; she was the one who suggested I try drawing what I see. Can you believe it?” She giggled. “I could barely draw a stick man a few months ago, and now look.”
I gaped at the drawing and at her confession, not really sure what to say to that.
“Well, shit,” I eventually settled on. “You sure can draw now…”
The image on my lap was captivating. It was me, there was no doubt about that. I stood in the middle of a huge, open expanse, and the look on my face as my hand clutched Ruptura was nothing short of terrifying, even to me.
“Why is there no color in the landscape?” I asked her, inspecting it for some hint of where the hell it might be located. If this was a vision of what was to come, then knowing where instead of just when was doubly important.
Lorna shrugged. “There was no color in my vision. Just… whiteness. For as far as the eye could see.”
I frowned. “Like snow?”
Lorna shook her head. “No, I wondered that too, but it doesn’t feel right. The vision didn’t feel cold, if that makes sense? Sorry it’s not more useful, but I just know that this”—she tapped the drawing—“happens on the date I kept writing down.” She flipped the page over to show the date scrawled over and over in charcoal.
“Nothing to be sorry for, Lorna,” I assured her, placing my hand on her arm. “I really appreciate this. More than you know.”
“Are you sure?” She chewed her lip and avoided my eye contact as her fingers fiddled with a scrap of paper. “I’ve been working really hard and Amethyst says I’m making good progress, but I’m worried I won’t get anything useful in time.”
“I’m sure,” I promised. “This is better than we had before, right? I truly do appreciate it.”
She gave me a brighter smile, seeming to be placated by my words.
“Can I keep this?” I asked her, indicating the drawing of myself. “Maybe one of the guys can recognize the scenery or something.”
“I’m sorry it’s not more detailed,” Lorna apologized again, and I shook my head to stop her.
“It’s perfect. Even if it doesn’t help us, it’s an awesome picture that I can hang on my wall.” I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring way. “If you do come up with anything else, you’ll let me know?”
“Absolutely,” she agreed. “You know, you’re a lot nicer than that first night.”
I grimaced at the night she would have first met me, when I was still in the grip of my own dark emotions and magic. “Yeah, I was going through some stuff and did some things I’m not super proud of,” I admitted. The memory of Doctor Florsheim’s skinned corpse flashed across my mind, and my stomach lurched. “I have to get back and make sure everyone on my team is still alive. You’d better head back into Amethyst’s class. She’s a pretty incredible Mage, you know?”
“She’s the best,” Lorna agreed, grabbing her bag from the grass. “I’ll get her to call you if we work anything else out.”
I sat on the bench a while longer after she had left, staring down at the drawing and trying to pull any clues from it. She was right that it probably wasn’t snow—the me in the picture didn’t wear warm clothes. But where else could it be?
Stepping off the Omega jet, I shivered at the unexpected cold. “I thought Bolivia was warm.” I murmured to myself, and Wesley shook his head.
“They still have seasons, sweetheart,” he informed me. “And we’re in the southern hemisphere, so it’s winter now.”
“You’d think I could have Googled that before we came here,” I commented with a self-deprecating eye roll. Admittedly, I had a shitload on my mind at the moment, so checking the weather in La Paz wasn’t super high on my radar.
“It’s just a refueling stop, then we’ll continue on to Uyuni to meet Jackson,” Finn told us, following me down the steps from the jet. “We’ve got about an hour or so if you want to visit the gift shop, but be quick about it.”
He stormed across the tarmac without waiting for a response, and I glared at his back.
“He’s been in a fantastic mood today,” I muttered.
Wesley sighed. “Yeah, I think maybe it’s just nerves about seeing his brother again. That’s my best guess anyway. Did you want to check out the terminal at all?”
“No,” I replied. “I just wanted some fresh air, but it’s colder than I expected out here. I’ll head back on board.”
“Cool, I just want to grab a fridge magnet from the gift shop, so I’ll be back in a few.” He seemed a little distracted as he said this, like he was confused by his own need to pick up cheesy souvenirs.
I cocked my head at him in curiosity. He didn’t elaborate, so I headed back up the steps and onto the plane.
The short transit stop flew by quickly, and we were soon landing at the small airport of Uyuni where Jackson had said someone would be meeting us. God forbid he just give us an address to get ourselves to; it all had to be cloak and dagger with him apparently.
Then again, he had successfully hidden a prince of Hell for almost twenty years, so I guess his methods had some merit.
Two heavy-duty trucks met us outside the jet, and we all piled in for the drive to… wherever the hell we were going. It didn’t take long, though, for me to gasp in shock at what I was seeing through the truck window.
“This is it,” I exclaimed. “This is where it all happens.”
River, sitting beside me, saw what I was talking about and murmured a curse under his breath. “Of course, how did this not occur to any of us? It wasn’t snow… it was salt. The battle with Bridget will happen here on the Bolivian salt flats.”
Turning to stare at him, my guts churned with a sickening mixture of nerves, anticipation, and relief. The unknown had kept me on edge more than I had really admitted, but now… well, now we knew we were in the right place.
Now we just needed to win.
Sucking a deep breath, I clenched my fists a few times to rein in my chaotic feelings. “All right, well now we know. I will activate my runes and call our army here.”
“And Bridget?” River asked. “How do we know she’ll come?”
I gave him a slightly smug smile. “Don’t worry about her; she’ll be here. She won’t be able to resist.”
“Kitten,” he warned. “What does that mean?”
Tapping the side of my nose I gave him a sly look. “I have a feeling I’ve got her more figured out than she realizes. Trust me, she’ll be here. But we need our side here first, so let’s get to work.”
Sighing, River wrapped an arm around me. He tugged me in close to his body and held on like he was committing the shape of me to memory. “I always trust you, Kitten. But, shit, I worry.”
