The Shadow Stealer (Silver Moon Saga Book 3) (7 page)

“Except your dad. Maybe.” I wished we knew what Liam had been arguing about with Collins! “Did Collins ever get his apprentice?”

“That, I don’t know. Although it is scary to imagine two Collinses.” Rafe shook his head. “I really don’t want him knowing that we suspect him, not when it could lead Collins—or anyone else—straight to you. I know I promised to back off, and not be so overly-protective of you, but—”

“This is completely different.” My fingers folded around my rose necklace as our last fight flashed through my mind, and how I’d been kidnapped two hours after telling Rafe I didn’t need him to protect me. “Can you somehow wipe your mind of all those stupid things I said that night?”

“Only if you forget about all the times I lose my temper and turn scary,” Rafe replied.

“But you’re getting better at
not
doing that.”

Rafe glanced at his side. “I’ve had help.”

“Even without that, you’ve been getting better,” I insisted.

Leaning closer, Rafe smiled again. “But I don’t know, Gabi. If I’m not running around being overly-protective of you, then what am I going to do with all of my free time?”

“Oh, I think I know a thing or two…” Just before our lips met, the sound of shattering glass came from the kitchen. My eyes widened. “Crap. Someone is killing someone in there. It’s probably Alex killing Evan. What do you think? Should we ignore it?”

Rafe thought it over. “On one hand, no more Evan. On the other hand, we’re going to have to explain the blood and the body to your dad.”

We grimaced. In unison, we got up from the couch and made our way to the kitchen.

Philip was standing in the middle of the room, stock-still with his face the palest I’d ever seen it. Shards of glass from a broken drinking cup littered the floor.  For one scary moment I thought Alexandra had decided to kill Philip instead, but I didn’t see any blood anywhere.
I can’t leave these guys alone for one second!

Kain hovered by Philip’s side, his handsome face etched with concern. “Philip?”

Philip was staring at a framed photograph clutched between two shaking hands. I didn’t recognize the frame, and as I inched closer, I noticed the layer of dust coating the brown wood.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Kain didn’t look away from Philip as he answered, “I was getting some water when I noticed this frame wedged between your cabinets and fridge. I figured it fell from there—” He indicated the shelf hanging over the window, where we had placed knickknacks and two other framed photos of me and my sister. “—so I went to retrieve it.”

I scooted over so I could see the photo, and all the breath left my lungs in a loud whoosh. “Oh my god, I can’t believe this is still here. Dad got rid of all the pictures with her ages ago!” I took the frame from Philip, cradling it gently in my hands.

Rafe looked at it over my shoulder. “Is that…?”

“Yep, it’s my mom.” I felt the usual knee-jerk reaction deep in my gut whenever I thought about her, but it wasn’t as strong of a feeling as the warmth that began spreading in my chest. Brushing off the dust, I smiled fondly at the woman in a sundress standing in the middle of her garden—
our
garden—surrounded by brightly-colored blooming flowers, a yellow tulip tucked in her light-brown hair. She held a laughing baby in her arms. “And that chubby baby is me!”

“You were so cute,” Rafe said. “And happy. Look at you laughing!”

“Yeah, which doesn’t explain Phil’s reaction.” I pointed at Baby Me. “Are you horrified at how big I was? Or are you scared of babies or something?”

“My dad keeps a photo on his desk in his office; did you see it, the last time you were there?” Philip’s voice was strained, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the photograph.

“What?” I frowned at the sudden change in conversation. Deciding to humor him, I tried to picture Charles’s office from the last time I’d been there, terrified and angry that our attempt at escaping had been thwarted. I had shouted at Charles and— “There was a frame, but no picture. I remember because after I yelled at him, he slammed the desk and knocked the frame over, breaking it. After he left, I looked at it, but there was no picture behind the glass, which I thought was weird. Well,” I said, “I thought maybe it had been a picture of you, but you pissed him off and he didn’t want to look at you anymore.”

“No.” Philip shook his head rapidly. “No. There was a picture in there, but it wasn’t of me. It was of my mom, Gabi.”

He tapped his finger against the photograph I was holding, his finger landing on the woman’s face and smudging some of the dust that still remained. “It was a picture of her.

“This woman—that’s my mom.”

Chapter Ten

The floor shifted underneath me, like I was on a ship rolling and pitching during a storm. My grip on the frame tightened, and I felt a sudden, irrational, hot streak of anger directed toward Philip.
How dare he
, I thought. He knew how I felt about my mom, about her leaving, and to say something like
that
, like he was trying to steal her away for himself—

“Are you certain?” Kain asked Philip.

“Of course I am!” Philip tried to pry the frame out of my hands, but I refused to relinquish my hold on it. “Look, I know this sounds crazy, but Dad had exactly one picture of my mom. Or, at least, only one picture that he’s ever shown me. Do you know how many hours I’ve spent looking at it, wondering who she was, or why she had to die when I was a baby?”

“My mom isn’t
dead
.” My fury curled around my throat, threatening to choke me. “I don’t know who you think you saw in that picture, but it can’t be my mom. I’m three years younger than you, Phil. Are you trying to tell me she died, then came back to life to have me and Chloe?”

“Gabi, calm down,” Rafe said, watching me shake with rage.

I whirled on him. “How can I calm down? I don’t know if this is Phil’s way of making a joke, but it’s
not
funny—”

“I’m not,” Philip interrupted. He reached for the frame again, but this time he rested his hands atop of mine, waiting until I made eye contact before continuing. “Shit, Gabi, I would never do that to you. You know that!”

I closed my eyes and concentrated on taking a few deep breaths, in and out, until some of the anger managed to subside. I opened my eyes again; everyone was watching me, waiting for me to regain my composure. “Sorry.” I wanted to smile, but my lips refused to obey me. “I have a lot of baggage, obviously.”

“It’s okay,” Philip said kindly. “I understand. But what I don’t understand is—”

“Why your dad has a picture of my mom.” I paused. “Our… mom?”

Holy crap,
I thought, staring at Philip like it was the first time we met, my eyes searching his face for features that were similar to mine. We both had brown eyes, but didn’t, like, a zillion people have brown eyes? And his hair was dirty-blond, lighter than mine or Chloe’s, but Mom’s had been that shade, hadn’t it? I glanced down at the photograph again for confirmation, ashamed I couldn’t remember my own mother’s hair color.

A tear ran down my cheek, splashing against the dusty glass. “Are you my brother?”

“Maybe,” Philip said. “I don’t know. Dad said she died when I was an infant. He told me that more than once. Did he really lie to my face all those times?”

Suddenly, I couldn’t stand to look at the photo any longer. Shoving it into Philip’s hands, I stepped away, running both of my hands through my hair and feeling the need to start screaming or breaking things. Or maybe both. Rafe hovered by my side, and I knew all I had to do was look at him and he’d wrap me up in his strong arms. Instead, I started pacing the length of the kitchen.

“You know what?” I laughed bitterly. “Your dad probably did lie to you, Phil. Mom probably left him, just like she left us. She’s really good at doing that, apparently.”

Philip grimaced. “So, what, she goes around starting families and then abandons them? Who
does
that?”

“The better question is:
Why
would someone do that?” Kain asked. “I know none of you are going to like what I’m about to say, Rafe especially, but you’re not going to find the answers to your questions here, in Gabiella’s kitchen.”

I already knew what Kain was going to suggest, but all the same, I couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped my lips.

From across the kitchen, Kain gazed at me. “If you want to know the truth, you need to ask Charles.”

“Are you suggesting we waltz back to the city with her?” Evan asked from where he sat at the table, his plate of untouched Chinese food growing cold. “Because then you’re an even bigger idiot than I thought. Why don’t we just tie a bow around her neck and deliver her to HQ?”

Kain opened his mouth, but Alexandra cut him off. “Didn’t you already do that to her?” She pointed an accusing finger in Evan’s direction. “When you acted like a moron back in December?”

Evan’s face went white. “Alex, that was different.”

She sneered at him. “I fail to see how this is
any
different. Unless you mean the part about betraying your friends.”

“So we’re doing this now? In front of everyone else?” Evan asked. “Fine. I screwed up, and I’m not proud of myself, but I don’t regret it, not for a second. I saw a means to heal you, and I took it. I was so desperate, Alex, don’t you get that? First I watched you almost die, and then I spent two years watching you lie in bed, unresponsive. What did you expect me to do?”

Alexandra shook her head. “You should have let me die.”

Evan stood so suddenly, Alexandra flinched. “Don’t
ever
say something like that again.”

“Guys, come on,” Rafe interrupted, shouldering his way between them. “No offense, but Gabi and Phil were just handed a huge bombshell. Couldn’t you have picked a better time to start screaming at one another?” Evan and Alexandra at least had the decency to look ashamed. After they mumbled their apologies, Rafe continued. “What do you want to do?” He directed the question to me.

My response was immediate. “Go ask Charles about this.”

“Gabi, you don’t have to come,” Philip said. “I’ll go, I’ll ask him—”

“Like hell I don’t have to come!” I made a face. “Are you seriously going to stand there and tell me your dad might know where my mom is at this very moment, but you expect me to stay at home and do nothing about it?”

“No.” Philip shook his head mournfully. “No, I never expected you to agree to stay home. I just needed to say it. That way, when this all blows up in our faces, at least I can say I warned you.”

“
Nothing
is going to happen,” I told him. “We’ll stay far away from HQ, okay? There’re a thousand different places to eat in the city. Tell your dad to meet us at a restaurant on, I don’t know, West Four Hundred Fiftieth Street.” For some reason, everyone suddenly looked like they were fighting off grins, making me self-conscious. “What? Why are you looking at me that way?”

“Because, farm girl,” Philip said, “there’s no such thing as West Four Hundred Fiftieth Street.”

I threw my hands in the air. “Whatever, who cares! Just pick a damn place and tell him to meet us in a few hours. How long does it take to get to the city by train?”

“Wait—what? You want to go
now?
” Philip asked.

“Yes, right now. Let’s go. Train station!” I snapped my fingers a few times for emphasis. “You can’t just drop this bombshell on me and expect me to ignore it and go on pretending like my life is normal, Phil. Because it’s not. It hasn’t been normal since I met Rafe.” I shot him an apologetic look when he made a noise of protest. “No offense. And if your mom and my mom are, in fact, the same woman, then maybe I can finally get some answers about who—and what—I actually am.”

“And that,” Rafe said, “is why I agree with Gabi. We need to go to the city. The sooner, the better.”

Everyone, including me, stared at him in surprise. “You have
got
to be kidding me,” Alexandra muttered under her breath.

I ignored her as I approached my boyfriend, two seconds away from throwing my arms around him. “Really?”

“Yes, really.” Rafe tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Gabi, I know how much her leaving hurt you. How it
still
hurts you. If we can find a way to erase that pain? Of course I’m going to do whatever it takes to help you find her.”

“Rafe Fitzgerald, you are the best boyfriend in the entire world,” I said in a rush. “I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that, but you are, but just make sure it doesn’t go to your head, all right?”

“How come you’ve never told me that?” I heard Kain ask Philip.

“Because you
would
let it go to your head and it’s big enough to begin with.”

“My dad is going to murder me when he finds out I went to the city without telling him, but maybe he’ll forgive me if I come home with some info about Mom, right?” My voice sounded normal, but I was already worrying about Dad’s reaction. I wasn’t used to disobeying him. That was Chloe’s job.

Rafe eyed the kitchen knives nervously. “Something tells me you’re not the one he’s going to murder.”

***

After everyone quickly cleaned up the barely-touched Chinese food, Alexandra followed us out of the kitchen protesting, “I still say this is crazy. You’re bringing her straight to the lion’s den!”

“We’re not going anywhere near HQ,” Rafe replied. “And Kain can help cloak Gabi, can’t he?”

“I can?” Kain asked. “Ow, Philip, please don’t hit me. You’re very strong.”

“Don’t act surprised about your powers when you know what you’re capable of!” Philip glared at him. “Just put that spell on her, the one you used the night we broke out of HQ.”

“I would, but if Collins—or anyone else who may be guilty of murdering Rafe’s parents
or
interested in a potential Soul Healer—happens to be in the area, he’ll sense it. Even from a distance.” Kain reached for his jacket, pulling it on. “We’re better off not using magic, and just blending in with the millions of others.”

Evan made a face. “I hate to say this, but he’s right.”

“Why, thank you, Underwood,” Kain said, pleased. “That wasn’t so horrible to say, was it?”

“It tasted like crap on my tongue.”

“You’ve tasted crap before?”

“I still think this is the worst idea ever,” Alexandra muttered as she grabbed her jacket.

“Nothing is going to happen,” I said firmly. “We’re going to hop on the train, have a nice chat with Mister Director, and then come back home. That’s it.” Without waiting for her response, I ran upstairs, retrieving my purse from my bedroom. I packed an extra sweatshirt, ran a brush through my hair before tying it up into a ponytail, and applied a layer of clear lip gloss before assessing myself in front of my bathroom mirror. I was pale, but my eyes shone with determination.

I knew what we were doing was insane, but I always did get a little wacky when Mom was involved. But I couldn’t just go to school and to work, or eat dinner with Dad and Chloe and pretend like I hadn’t just discovered potential life-altering news. No. That wasn’t me. That would never be me.

Mom.
Would I find her? Would Charles know where she was, or would he be as clueless as my dad was? I narrowed my eyes in thought. Mom had left Dad a note the day she vanished. What had been in it? What if she had explained everything to him, and he’d kept it from me and Chloe to protect us?

Okay, you’re getting way ahead of yourself, Gabi. Maybe Mom wasn’t involved with Silver Moon and Charles. Maybe Philip thinks his mom looks like Mom, but he’s wrong. And maybe you’re just a freak who can heal. A Soul Healer or a demon spawn or something even crazier.

But something told me I wasn’t a freak. (Okay, yes, I know, healing powers automatically made me a freak, shut up.) Mom was involved, and Charles was going to hand me the final pieces to this puzzle I’d been working on ever since she left. In return, we could tell him about our suspicions regarding Collins.
Maybe we’ll be able to wrap up these two mysteries today!
My heart started racing in anticipation.

It’s time for the truth.