Cindy looked pensive again. “We can try that, but like seers, the Djinn have rules—especially the one who holds all of history.”
“You’ve been looking for a ton of people’s futures,” Lizzy pointed out. “Was that breaking any rules?”
“No.” Cindy shook her head. “But telling you that I couldn’t see their futures is. Just like telling you what their futures were, if I had seen them, would be breaking rules.”
“What happens when you break rules?”
Cindy lifted a brow at Alice. “You’re a scientist, so you’re familiar with rules. What happens when you break the rules of science?”
Alice made an explosion sound with her mouth and mimicked an explosion with her hands.
Lizzy sighed. These people had obviously never been homeless or come from a life of struggles. “So if we break some rules, things might explode, possibly the universe itself, and all life as we know it will change or be over. Is that what I’m getting?”
Cindy bobbed her head from side to side. “More or less.”
“I don’t see what the problem is.”
Cindy’s brow went up. “You’re a lot like Jen.”
“She’s the crazy blonde?”
Cindy nodded.
“Would she care about blowing shit up if it meant finding her friends?”
“Nope,” Cindy said immediately. “And I’m not opposed to it, either. My daughter, grandson, and future grandchild are missing as well. But if we’re not careful, and we mess with something we’re not supposed to, we could wind up locking the veils, and then we could be stuck in the human realm …or here. And then we’re?—”
“Screwed,” Alice finished for her.
“Exactly.”
“So we start with the Djinn history keeper and then go from there.” Lizzy leaned against Finn.
“We’ll need to go to the Djinn veil to get in,” Cindy said. “The quickest way is to ask one of these fae warriors to flash us.”
Suddenly, a woman appeared in front of them, causing Lizzy to stumble back. “How do you guys not wind up knocking people over when you just show up like that?”
The woman—Gwen, the high fae, Lizzy realized—glanced at her, but her eyes were wide and filled with fear. She turned back to Cindy. “We have a problem.”
“We’re aware. We’re going to find them.”
Gwen frowned at Cindy. “Find who?” Then she looked around. “Where is everyone?”
“Wait, what problem?” Alice held up her hand. “And why do your clothes look like they’ve been through a shredder?”
Lizzy had been so shocked by Gwen’s sudden appearance that she hadn’t even paid attention to the woman’s disheveled state. But now that Alice pointed it out, she noticed that the fae’s robes were torn and tattered, her hair windblown and messy. Her face was flushed, and her eyes were wild.
“I was flashing in when something shifted. I barely made it without being split in two,” Gwen said. “I don’t know how to explain it to someone who can’t flash, but the magic has changed, and it happened right as I was flashing. It’s like someone just flipped off the power. I was coming here to tell Peri.” Gwen looked around and then focused on Sally’s mom. “Cindy Morgan, where is Perizada? Where are the others?”
“They’re gone. They went to face off with Celise, and now I can’t see them. We were about to go to the Djinn veil to see a history keeper.”
Gwen’s mouth tightened. “You can’t.”
“Why do I feel like an explosion is already imminent?” Alice muttered.
“Why can’t we?” Cindy asked.
“Because the veil to the Djinn realm is closed.” Gwen’s eyes landed on each of them. “Every veil to every realm is closed. That’s why I was trying to get here as fast as I could. I went to the fae veil and couldn’t get through. I reached out to other fae and had them check all the other veils. The same thing happened.”
