"Is that Bel again?" Alastor asks, and once again, I think about how Isla would wring his fucking neck if she heard him using her name so casually. Instead, I glance at the phone, Fritz's name appearing in the caller ID. "That's like the tenth time today they've tried to talk to you."
But it's the first time it's been him. He usually knows better than to call me. Can't explain it, but he annoys the ever-living fuck out of me. Because of the strangeness, I answer the phone, "Yeah."
"Hey Eamon," his falsely casual tone raises every alarm bell in my head. "How are you?"
"Cut the shit," I bite. "What's going on?"
Rather than get to the point of whatever he's calling for, he remainscooland collected, the opposite of how I usually hear from him. But even still, I can feel through the phone that his nonchalance is false. It's too relaxed. Something is very wrong.
"I'm just checking in on you. Seeing how things are going. Have you heard from Isla lately?" Have Iheardfrom her? What the fuck is he talking about? Asking me as if she hasn't been staying with me. I can't tell him that she's missing or Bel is going to find out and lose her shit. I refuse to answer, waiting for him to explainto mewhat he's talking about. Pretending I did say something, he responds, "Oh, okay good, so you have heard the news then."
"What news?"
"Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. That was cool of you to find a way for her to continue dating him while she, umm, stayed with you. That Silas guy seems nice enough."
My eye starts twitching, bleeding red.Silas.
I put Fritz on speaker so Kyle and Alastor can hear whatever he says next.
"Fritz, if you don't—"
"Are you planning on making it to the wedding? I know two days is short notice, but when you know, you know," he laughs, speaking to someone in the background that I can only imagine is Bel. "Yeah, I didn't think that sounded like her either. But hey, maybe this guy is broadening her horizons."
For probably the first time ever,I thinkthatFritzmight besmarterthan he seems.Clearly, he's figured out this engagement is something more sinister than it appears, even if wherever Isla is, she's going along with it. And he had to tell me the second he heard about it without terrifying his girl.
"Tell me everything," I growl, nearly crushing the phonein my hand.
A door shuts in the background, and he speaks to me again. "God damn it, I really hoped this wasn't news to you. If you don't know about it, that means something is super wrong. So what the hell is happening? Last I knew, the two of you were fucking like bunny rabbits, happily squirreled away in BFE. Andnow she's surprised us all with pictures from an engagement party. So not only does Bel think that her best friend was dating someone and didn't mention it, she thinks that she went ahead and gotengagedand had apartywithout so much as an invite. I've had to keep her borderline catatonic for the last 24 hours because herrealemotions were going to send her off the deep end."
"You've been using your abilities on your girl?" I ask in disbelief, snapping at the two men in front of me and mouthing for them to find fucking Silas.
Fritz whines, his discomfort clear, "I don't like doing it. But she was going to lose her shit. She knew immediately something was wrong. But whatever is happening, I need her to stay out of it. Please tell me this isn't some hunter thing."
I sigh, unable and unwilling to tell him that. I also don't want totellhim that part of me is proud that he's doing whatever it takes to keephersafe, even if it means thereare definitely going tobe consequences for him doing so later.
"Fuuuuuck," he groans. "I'm so sick of dealing with these hunters. What are we going to do to deal with this?"
"You'regoing to continue doing what you're doing," I tell him. "Put Bel in a god damn coma if you have to. And you're going to tell me when and where the wedding is. And whatever you do, you're going to stay far away from this."
With another whine, he tells me the very little that he knows, "The wedding is in Glacier National Park. Some little fucking cabin villa thing. I'll send you the address. Her post says that Glacier is where they're honeymooning so they wanted to get married nearby. And that's the other way I knew something was wrong. Isla wouldneverget married somewhere like that. And no way in hell would she consider hiking in the snow a vacation."
"Focus, Fritz," I don't need him to tell me what Isla would or wouldn't do, as if I don't know her entire soul inside and out."Do you have a phone number for Isla? Or any other information about where she is right now?"
"No, that's the shit. She posted it on Instagram. Didn't even say anything to Bel about it." He speaks to someone on the other side of the phone, "Fuck. Fuck. E, I have to go. Bel's about to lose it. Call me if you need back up, but like, please don't need back up." As the line goes dead, my head starts spinning.
No phone. Already engaged. Getting married and honeymooning right on the border to Canada.Never mind the fury that radiates up my spine, thinkingabout the factthat she and the word married exist in the same sentenceat allwithout it including me.I've spent the last month traveling back and forth from Alaska to this fucking rental house, losing myself in the bedding that still smells of her, nearly tearing apart the entire world to find her, and someoneelse thinks they're about to marry her.
Not to mention that someone is a piece of shit, a hunter, a trafficker, a murderer.I put my hands on a chair, squeezing the backof it until the wood starts to splinter.
"Glacier? That's a weird place to have a wedding," Kyle comments. "I mean it's pretty I guess, but there are definitely nicer places if you're looking for hiking."
"It's beautiful," Alastor adds. "I've been to several weddings there."
Something about that fact sticks in my head.
"How many?"
He shrugs, "Not sure. It's a pretty popular place for our family, I guess. Grandpa has a cabin up there but getting to that is a pain in the ass. There's no service. Even the closest neighbor is over a mile away."
