Casually Cursed (8 page)

“So might you,” he said.

I felt like a third wheel, which I never had with Zach before. It was so strange to see Edie and Zach talking like old friends, or like partners. Once upon a time Edie had been a ghost Zach didn’t even believe in, and his denial of her existence is what had been part of the cause of our marriage ending. That made it feel twice as peculiar for them to have become close friends.

“Let’s hope I won’t be needed,” Edie said. “I have to stay here. But I trust I’ll see you both again soon. Godspeed, Cowboy.”

Zach’s eyes narrowed, and he glanced around the dining room.

“The president of WAM didn’t give us a choice about who stays and who goes,” I said.

Zach glanced at me and nodded slowly. “We don’t have to buckle under as easy as all that. Could show him what we’re made of.”

Bryn shook his head and spoke in a low voice. “This place has enough accumulated magic to level the twenty surrounding city blocks, and there are Conclave wizards who can unleash worse. You don’t see the operatives, but they are inside and around the building. We wouldn’t even reach the front door.”

Zach didn’t bother to look at Bryn. “You never know how something will turn out. It ain’t the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Tammy Jo’s proof of that. Little slip of a girl who’s survived against werewolves, faeries, and powerfully trained Conclave operatives to boot.”

“Do what you want, Sutton,” Bryn said dismissively as he stood. “We won’t join you. There’s a more sensible option to try first.”

Zach looked at Bryn and they locked eyes, Bryn’s sapphire, Zach’s the color of denim. Neither blinked.

I rolled the sketch and kept it next to my body as I shot to my feet and pushed between them.

“Whatever we do, we’re going to do it together. Right now that means we’re leaving here. Come on, Zach,” I said, putting my free hand on his upper arm. He jerked away and stepped back.

My stomach gave a lurch, surprise and regret coursing through my veins. Zach didn’t want me touching him. I understood, but it was still a shock. I’d been touching him for years.

“Let’s go,” I said softly to Bryn. “Mercutio, we’re heading out. C’mon.”

Merc padded over and joined us as we left the dining room. I didn’t look over my shoulder to see whether Zach had accompanied us. But I did realize that I’d left something behind. I should’ve finished my cake, I thought as my stomach growled. Who knew when I would get a chance to eat chocolate cake again?

THE SILVER MERCEDES
van that had brought us from the airport stood outside the front entry of WAM headquarters, waiting to shuttle us, but I walked away from it and to the building next door. We had to decide where to go first, but before we did anything, I wanted to talk to Aunt Melanie. And while I spoke with her, I didn’t want any WAM operatives eavesdropping. I huddled near the corner of the building with my back to the street. Bryn stood behind me. Mercutio prowled the space between buildings. Zach waited several feet away, watching the street and likely estimating the potential number of operatives in the pair of sedans that were parked at the front and back of the van.

Aunt Mel’s cell rang and rang and then went to voice mail. I left a message and then called again.

She answered, “Tammy Jo, thank God. I was just about to call you. Crux escaped.”

I grimaced.
For the love of Hershey!

“I let Johnny and his boyfriend in, but my phone rang before I had the chance to warn them, and—”

“It doesn’t matter what happened. I need to ask you something real important.”

“Sure. I’m really sorry about Crux!”

“It’s okay. He couldn’t live in the kitchen forever. I was hoping we would have a bigger head start, but what can we do? Now, the thing I need to know is whether you know anything about a valuable piece of magical amber.”

“A what?”

“A magic artifact made of amber.”

“No. Why?”

“Are you sure? Because it’s real important.”

“Of course I’m sure. This is the second time I’ve been asked about this recently. When I got to England, a pair of high-ranking WAM members came to see me at the Savoy, asking about an amber relic. I told them the only amber jewelry I’ve seen in the past five years was at a shop in Houston. Pretty, but definitely not magical in nature. They asked permission to search my hotel room. I let them. They even patted me down.”

“What about Momma? I know she’s been visiting that . . . guy she loves in his hometown. Is it possible that she left there and was running around Scotland, treasure hunting?”

“No, I don’t think so. As far as I know, she’s been with him inside his homeland ever since she arrived there. She definitely didn’t leave when I visited. What’s going on? Why are you asking about amber artifacts? You won’t need one to get into the Nev—to get through the gates around the city you’re going to. You just need to find the main gate.”

“I know. Something’s happened is all.”

“Government business?” she asked.

“Exactly.”

“I don’t know what makes them think we know anything about whatever they’re looking for.”

“I guess someone told them you or Momma know something about this thing’s location. It’s pretty valuable, and I’ve got to find it for them or there will be problems.”

“You? Why? They have plenty of people to go on search-and-recovery missions. What do you know about finding artifacts?”

“Less than I know about trigonometry, so nothing at all to brag about. But that doesn’t seem to matter too much.” I sighed. “I’ll tell you the details later. We’ve gotta go. If you think of anything, call me.”

“All right. Be careful, honey.”

“I will.”

“I love you,” she said.

“Love you back,” I replied, and made a kiss sound. “I’ll call again as soon as I can.”

I turned to Bryn, shaking my head as I ended the call. “Crux is loose, and she doesn’t know anything about the Scottish amber.” I gestured for Zach to join us. We filled him in and discussed what to do next.

Bryn suggested that we go to Scotland to look for the amber first, since we didn’t know how long we’d get stuck in the Never.

“We don’t even know where to start looking. And if Aunt Mel doesn’t know anything about it, then it must’ve been Momma. Doesn’t it make more sense to go to talk to Momma first?” I said.

Zach nodded his agreement.

“Plus, we have to meet up with Kismet in Ireland. I don’t want her hanging around waiting for us when Crux knows where she was headed and will probably try to track her down. He might force her to go back inside without us. Or worse, if he tries and she escapes, maybe she’ll just take off.”

Bryn’s frown deepened. “Andre’s at risk because he helped us. He accessed restricted information when we needed it. The Association says it will wait until we return to take action against him, but if we completely disappear, they might think we’ve gone underground. By all accounts, time moves differently in the Never. We might be inside for what seems a short time to us, while a lot more time is passing for the imprisoned people we care about.”

I sighed, chewing my lip. Bryn had a point. Edie had been a free-roaming ghost for years and years. And she’d always had a restless spirit. She wasn’t likely to stay locked up for long without trying to escape, or causing such a fuss that she got herself in more trouble.

“What if the reason the trained spies from the Association can’t find what they’re looking for is because Tammy Jo’s momma found it and took it with her when she went inside to see that guy?” Zach said.

Bryn and I exchanged looks, and Bryn nodded. “All right.” He glanced back at the building. “I hope they can hold on while we’re gone.”

We walked back to the van. The driver was a wiry man with sunken eyes, a crooked nose, and brackets around his mouth. They called those smile lines, but he didn’t look the type to have smiled too much in his life.

“Hey, there,” I said, putting out a hand. “I’m Tammy Jo Trask. From Texas. In America.”

The driver quirked a brow, but didn’t extend a hand.

“What’s your name?”

“You can call me
driver
.”

“No, I can’t. That’s, um, well, it seems a little rude, Mr. . . . ?”

The driver guy slid the back door open.

“Speaking of being a little rude,” I murmured.

He didn’t look like he cared about manners in the least. It’s a problem with the Conclave members, along with their tendency to shoot and bespell people.

“Thanks for the lift to headquarters from the airport. We can find our own ride from here on out,” I said, walking to the rear of the van. “Wanna open the back so we can get our suitcases?”

“I’m your driver. I’ll take you wherever you’d like to go.”

“We’re going back to the airport,” I said. “Did the WAM president tell you we’re on a mission?”

“Tamara,” Bryn warned.

“I’m not gonna say anything about the particulars,” I said.

“No,” the driver said.

“Well, we’ve got some business to take care of. And to begin with, we need to go back to the airport.”

The driver nodded. “Wherever you’d like to go,” he repeated.

None of us moved. I could tell by Zach’s stance and the feel of Bryn’s magic that they hesitated to get in, but it came back down to the same question we’d faced inside: Resist by starting a fight, or go along and hope for the best?

I climbed into the van.

Zach and Bryn joined me. I glanced at the divider that was made of smoke-colored glass. I’d never seen a van with one like it, and both the guys had been eyeing it suspiciously on the drive to headquarters.

“I don’t like that. Kinda feels like a prisoner transport van, huh?” I said.

“Nailed what I was thinkin’,” Zach agreed.

Bryn was silent.

The driver closed the doors and got in front, and then we were under way.

Looking over his shoulder, Zach said, “The black sedans are still keeping us company.”

After we’d driven for ten minutes, Bryn stared out the window, then frowned and shook his head.

“What?” I asked as we got on the expressway.

“This isn’t the way to Heathrow.”

I unbuckled my belt and jumped up, slamming my palms against the glass. “I knew it!” I banged my fists on the divider. The driver didn’t even turn around.
Jerk!

“Didn’t have the nerve to shake my hand when you were going to abduct us, huh?” I pointed my finger at him, trying to catch his eye. He stared straight ahead.

“That doesn’t make it any less rude,” I snapped, and then turned back to Bryn and Zach. “What do you think? Should we bust the glass?”

“We’d never reach the driver before he did something to prevent us from getting control of the car. And the Conclave members in the sedans would be on top of us.”

I scowled, but nodded. I really wanted to break that darn divider. Vandalism seemed the least I could do to annoy Driver. My fist stayed clenched for several minutes; then my temper finally cooled.

Bryn sensed the change in my mood. “Ready to talk?” he asked.

I gave a jerk of a nod. “Got a plan?”

“Working on it,” he said with a small smile. Zach swiveled his chair to face us, and he leaned forward so it was like we were in a football huddle.

“I assume the driver is taking us to Scotland. Anderson said the amber was discovered in the highlands. If we can’t escape before we reach the destination the Conclave has in mind, at least we’ll have an idea where to begin looking for the artifact when we return from seeing your mother, assuming that she doesn’t have it or know where it is.”

“But the president has Edie and Andre. We said we’d try to get the artifact. How come they’re kidnapping us?”

“The Conclave doesn’t trust us. Or anyone. They likely want to hold on to us until they have the amber.”

We spent the entire ride whispering to each other, with Bryn’s magic swirling around us to muffle the things we said from any devices or spells that might be trying to listen in. Yeah, wizards are tricky like that.

Since we’d already flown for eight hours, it was really annoying to have to drive for another eight. If we’d flown from London to Dublin like we’d planned, we could’ve been there with seven hours to spare, I thought bitterly. So far my international adventure didn’t have a lot of sights to recommend it.

I shuffled between the seats and kicked the small cooler that the driver had directed us to earlier, when he’d turned the intercom on to respond to my complaint that I was hungry. The cooler just had sandwiches. No cookies. No brownies. No Cadbury bars. I tried to get him to make a stop so I could get my Hershey’s out of my suitcase in the back, but nothing doing.

Huge jerk!
Actually, he was much worse than a jerk probably, but I was reserving judgment until I saw what his reaction would be to our escape attempt.

*   *   *

I’M NOT SURE
what I expected when we turned into the woods, but the road was rough and the trees were thick around us.

“Now we’re talking,” I said. “We must be getting close.”

We finally pulled up alongside a small cabin. The two sedans that had followed us the entire way flanked our vehicle. When the driver got out and unlocked the back door, sliding it open to let us out, we found five Conclave operatives dressed in cat-burglar black, with automatic pistols pointed at us.

The driver had a rifle slung over his shoulder and nodded for us to go inside the cabin.

I glared at him, but we followed him in. We took turns using the restroom, and I washed my face, which made me feel a little better. I would’ve liked to shower and change clothes. And we all needed sleep, but that wasn’t possible.

A female operative with short brown hair stepped forward. I guessed she was the leader.

“President Anderson said you claim to have no knowledge of the artifact,” she said. “You made phone calls outside Association headquarters. I assume if your mother or aunt was willing to disclose the location of the amber, you’d have traded the information for the release of your friends.”

Bryn and I exchanged glances, but didn’t disagree.

“We have reason to believe the artifact wasn’t taken far from the location of its original discovery.”

“How come?” I asked.

“That’s not your concern.”

“Does President Anderson know you kidnapped us?” I demanded. “Because he acted like we could find the amber on our own.”

A couple of the operatives smirked.

“A good Association president allows the Conclave to work at its own discretion on matters of national importance, which this is,” the leader said. She held out a hand. “Do you know the location of the artifact?”

“I couldn’t reach all the people I needed to reach,” I said.

“Well, until you do, we’ll go ahead with our own plans. But anytime your aunt or mother wants to rendezvous with us to turn over the stone, we’ll be happy to accommodate them.”

I frowned, but didn’t argue. What could I say? That I couldn’t reach Momma by cell phone because there were no cell towers in the Never?

“I’m hungry,” I muttered.

“I’d imagine everyone is,” the leader said, nodding at the team.

One of the operatives, a tall man with buzzed brown hair, laid out food from a cooler while the driver tacked a map to the wall. We ate standing up.

“Pay attention,” the leader said, waving me over. “You’re the key here. This is the pub. You’ll go in alone and order a hard cider. You’ll spend at least an hour drinking, and be sure they know you’re an American looking for a member of your family. If no one approaches you, this is the route you take back,” she said, pointing.

Mercutio, who’d slept the entire drive, was climbing on the furniture and doing his feline acrobatics.

“Hear that, Merc?” I asked.

Mercutio meowed.

“He’s got it.”

“He’s not going with you. You’re going alone,” the woman said.

Try to stop him
, I thought. Mercutio was as slippery as a fish when he wanted to be. “So I’m supposed to drink for an hour and walk back here. Then what?”

“Then we wait. Hopefully the contact will come to the pub when he hears you’re there or will track you back here. If no one does, then tomorrow you’ll go back and have another pint.”

“And then?” Bryn asked. “If no contact approaches her tomorrow?”

“Drink, walk, repeat,” the operative said.

My jaw dropped. “That’s your whole plan? What the Sam Houston?”

“In the meantime, Lyons can walk through the woods with a couple agents. He’s from your hometown. If there are traces of your family magic out here, he should be able to recognize them.”