“What?” She huffed at me. “Flight didn't do this, I can feel that his heart remains.”
“Something scared him so deeply that it stopped his heart,” Sarah reasserted. “Believe me, I'm familiar with the situation and the results of it.”
“I'll bet you are,” Tiernan muttered and headed away from the body.
I followed after him, looking over the rest of the plane. Every overhead bin I opened was empty and nothing was to be found beneath the seats. Had the kidnappers allowed the raven mockers to take their luggage with them? That seemed unusually considerate for a bunch of abducting murderers. I frowned and went further down the aisle, stopping to stare at an abandoned teddy bear. I swallowed hard and then took a deep, calming breath. But my calm was shattered when a thud echoed through the cabin. Startled, I turned and saw that Raza had come aboard.
“I can't even scent him here,” Raza stared at the nearly empty plane like it could confess its secrets to him. “Where is my son?”
With heavy footfalls he made his way over to us and looked down at the item I'd been staring at. One elegant ebony hand reached out, catching the fluffy terracotta teddy within its claws. Raza put the stuffed animal to his nose and inhaled. He closed his eyes briefly and when he opened them, they were glowing.
“I have them,” he declared triumphantly.
“What?” I gaped at him.
“He has the scent,” Tiernan smiled.
“This way,” Raza cast the bear aside and rushed from the plane. At the cabin door he spread his wings and jumped.
“Raza stop!” I called. “We can't all follow you like that and this is HR, you'll be seen!”
“You can follow,” Raza shouted to Tiernan. “Can't you, Count?”
“If you keep it to a slow pace,” Tiernan agreed.
“Then glamour yourself and follow the birdie,” Raza smiled and a haze covered him. In seconds he was gone and a large black bird hovered before us.
“I am so sick of ravens,” I muttered. Then I called down to Teagan, “We've caught their trail. Raza is leading us to them, I'll call you when we arrive.”
“Wait!” Teagan cried but the bird was already flying away and Tiernan had launched us after it, using as much speed as he could.
“Glamour yourself, Seren,” he said.
“Oh!” I hurried to conceal myself as Tiernan chased after Raza.
“You're not going anywhere without me,” Wasutke cried as she too launched herself into the air.
Shadows immediately enveloped her, turning her shape into a sooty fog. Sparks streaked behind her as she flew, like she was a mass of smoking tar. I didn't see any wings but then it was hard to see much of anything within that nebulous shape. As I stared, a head turned to me from within the angry cloud, its face was shrouded but I could still make out a gaping mouth, stretched open to emit a sound like the call of a diving raven.
I looked away in annoyance.
We flew for at least twenty minutes before the bird descended in front of an old warehouse. It was clearly abandoned, with rusted metal walls and dirty broken windows. Grass had grown up around it like the beard on a homeless man; unkempt and scraggly. The raven disappeared as Raza's glamour fell and Tiernan set us down in patch of packed earth beside him. Then Raza went to the warehouse door and tore it from its hinges. He threw it aside and strode into the dark interior as Tiernan and I chased after him.
Then we stopped short. The place was empty, emptier than the plane had been. There was nothing inside except a single chair set in the center of the room. On the rusty metal seat was a black feather. Raza ran over to the chair and picked the feather up. He lifted it to his nose and inhaled. His exhale became a roar as he crushed the feather within his hand.
“I don't understand,” I whispered. “Where are they?”
“Not here,” Elder Wasutke's jaw clenched.
“I will incinerate them!” Raza shouted. “Whomever is behind this is already dead.”
“They most certainly are,” the witch agreed.
“The trail just ends here?” I asked Raza gently.
“Right here,” he opened his palm and released the crushed remains of the feather.
“This makes no sense,” I looked around at the oil stained cement floors and the pitted metal beams spanning the ceiling. “How could it just end?”
