Wincing in disgust, I turned to follow Sinthy. The others did the same, Nico barking at Luis to get the perimeter guards’ asses in a sling. He was furious that everything had gone down beforeanyonehad shown up for backup. That was bad, but I couldn’t think about anything but Sinthy. I wanted to see her and help her calm down.
Once we got back to the house, we found Sinthy pacing like an animal in the living room.
Stepping close, I held out my hand. “Sinthy? Are you okay? That couldn’t have been easy.”
Some of the old Sinthy resurfaced. Her face was no longer a seething mask of rage and anger. Shoulders slumping, she turned a pained gaze on me.
“I’m sorry. I got a little out of control. You guys shouldn’t have had to see that.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Once I felt my mother’s magic, realized what happened… I lost it. That’s all I can say.”
I pulled her into a tight hug. At first, she was rigid, unyielding. After a moment, however, she relaxed and sank into me, tentatively putting her arms around me. The others stood around awkwardly, watching us warily. When I finally broke the embrace, Sinthy had even more control back. She almost seemed like her normal self.
“You said you can track that guy?” I said, asking the question that I desperately needed an answer to.
She shrugged. “More or less. It’s a crest. A mark that lets me scry him out anywhere.”
I frowned. “Scry?”
“Um, sort of like viewing from a distance. It has a few different meanings in magic, but that’s more or less what I did.”
“Does that mean we can find out where Viola is?”
“It’s a little wonky. It won’t be an exact location—more like a ballpark. Plus, I can’t tell when he’s around her or not. But it’s something.”
I grinned at her, unable to contain my enthusiasm. “You did fantastic, Sinthy. Thank you.”
The others had gathered around the kitchen island, and we joined them there. Nico’s father joined us, having heard of the disturbance in the woods. Nico gave him a brief rundown, and while he talked, I mulled over what I’d witnessed in the woods. A nagging fear had been eating at me since I’d seen how afraid that boy had been. I’d ignored it while dealing with the shock of the events, but now it surged to the forefront of my mind.
“That boy didn’t look happy to be here. I got the distinct feeling he was more a slave than a conspirator. I’m worried about what Viola may do to him for failing whatever mission she sent him on,” I said.
“What mission was he on, anyway?” Nico’s father asked.
Sinthy waved a hand dismissively. “He was trying to alter the wards. It shouldn’t have worked at all. It wasn’t his magic, and he had no clue how to wield it. The only reason the spells wavered and fell was that it was my mother’s magic doing the work. It has a similar wavelength to mine, which gave his power a boost. They didn’t fall completely. The additional spells I did to strengthen them while I brought the other packs here helped keep the framework there. Once I had that kid under my power, the wards rebuilt themselves. Still, that was closer than I want to think about.” Sinthy looked out the window toward the woods. “I need to strengthen them. The ward won’t come back one hundred percent without my help.”
There was a dark look in her eyes as she looked out the window. We could all feel her distress. It came off her like a tsunami. She was still thinking about what Viola had done to her parents and what she’d done with her mother’s blood.
I touched her lightly as I stepped close to her. “Sinthy?”
The young woman shook her head as if she’d roused herself from some kind of self-induced hypnosis. “I’m fine. It’s okay.”
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
She chewed at the inside of her cheek and finally said, “I feel like… when my mother’s magic was coming from that guy, that it was almost like my mother was trying to warn me about something.” Her voice cracked as she spoke. “I need a minute.”
Sinthy rushed out the door before I could respond. I wanted nothing more than to follow her, to comfort her. I understood what it was like to realize the royals had taken something from you that you could never get back. For me, it was my birth family and the life I could have lived. I was beyond happy with who my adoptive parents were and loved them more than life itself, but knowing something special had been taken away from me was still devastating. It had to be even worse for her because Sinthy remembered life with her parents. She’d had to grieve that loss all the years she’d lived with Isme. The best thing to do was to give her time alone.
Nico looked wired when I returned to the group like he’d downed a pot of coffee. I hadn’t seen him so keyed up in a long time.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” he said, jabbing his finger on the table. “That magical tracker Sinthy put on that kid can lead us to Viola.”
“Right…” Felipe said. “But how do we know when to use it? He could be in a damned cage somewhere. Or worse, he’s nowhere near Viola, and our advantage is lost. If she finds out he has a trace on him, she won’t hesitate to kill him. I don’t care how much time and money was spent creating him. She’s not the type who leaves loose ends.”
“True,” Nico said. “That’s why we have to be smart. This is our one chance to do what we need to do. We can’t fuck this up.”
We all understood exactly what was at stake. We had to be very careful. There was a sense of finality to this. Like God had given us the biggest, baddest weapon on Earth, but it only had one bullet. Best not to miss.
126
NICO
