Chapter Thirty-Three
I texted Austin as Torrent searched the Internet for children who'd been reported missing in the Austin area within the last day. There were nine. The number made me shiver. It was a powerful number, especially for me, and I assumed it had some significance for Adro as well. Sure, one or two of the children might have been abducted by a human, but I didn't think so. Nine felt right, or wrong, rather. And if Adro had all of the kids he needed, their hours were numbered.
“He's going to kill those kids tonight,” I concluded.
“I think you're right,” Odin agreed.
“But all we need is something one of them wore,” Trevor pointed out. “They couldn't have taken the kids through the tunnels, which means that we'll be able to track them through the city.”
My phone beeped. I read Austin's message, then relayed it to the others. “Austin says he's leaving work now and he'll meet us at his house.”
“I've got addresses for the missing kids,” Torrent announced.
“Are there any near where we found Viper?” I asked.
“One is a couple of blocks away.”
“Perfect. We can trace into that empty building, then go from there,” I suggested.
“I'll fetch Austin,” Odin offered.
“Hold on.” I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “I think Austin should sit this one out.”
Odin blinked, then huffed a laugh. “I completely forgot that he's not one of us. You're right. Text him and tell him we're hunting Adro down tonight and he should stay home and wait for our call.”
I nodded as I texted. I was pretty certain that Adro would be focused on killing children tonight which meant that it was safe for Austin to be home alone.
“Now, who wants to hunt a child-killing half-god?” Pan asked brightly as he raised his hand.
I slipped my phone back into my pocket and stood up. “Let's go get this mother pucker.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
We didn't have to go invisible right away. It was midday in Austin and the sidewalks were crowded with a diverse selection of people; we didn't stick out as we would have on the streets of Lexington. But as soon as we neared the missing child's two-story, brick home, we went camouflaged ourselves in magic. Trevor snuck inside through the backdoor and had to creep past a herd of police officers to get to the child's bedroom. He grabbed a shirt out of a laundry hamper and traced back to us; it took him less than three minutes. Once we had the shirt, we went down the street a ways, where we used a van as cover for returning to visibility. Then all of us shifters took a deep sniff of the shirt.
The next hour or so was spent strolling around the neighborhood, trying to find the boy's trail. There were multiple fresh trails leading from the house but it was hard to determine which of them was the one we needed. We had to split up and follow them all. Finally, Kirill got a whiff of fear and snakes. He texted us his location and we converged on the spot. Once we had the correct trail, it was a done deal; wherever that kid was, we'd find him. Adro would have to trace the boy to the God Realm, bury him deep underground, or submerge him in water to get us off his trail. The first was impossible and the last two unlikely. Oh, and it was a boy who we were tracking: Scott Anders, age 9. The shirt had the logo of a little league team on it and smear of mustard. I was going to tear this half-god into quarters.
We were a few miles into the hunt when the owls descended.
By this point, it was late afternoon and we were nearing the city limits. The number of structures had thinned and so had pedestrian traffic. Perhaps that was why the Itakupe felt brave enough to land as a flock and bar our path forward. By the way, I looked it up and I was wrong. Owls do occasionally form flocks. There's even a name for them—a parliament of owls. Isn't that fantastic?
We stopped walking because, well, owls.
“Oh, goodie,” I growled. “The Guardians are back. What area do you guard or do you just fly around America, looking for snakes?”
The owls extended their wings and lifted them, forming a shield around one of their flock. These were big owls and the wing thing worked; I could barely see past the feathers. I did notice a haze through the cracks so when the feather barrier dropped, I wasn't surprised to see the man I'd spoken to—or rather, who had spoken to me—the night of Viper's rescue. Why he'd bothered with the privacy shield when he hadn't the other night is beyond me. I'd never heard of a shy shifter.
“What's up, Bubo?” I smirked. “Did you sharpen your battle claws? Because you didn't finish the job I trusted you to do. I believe your words were 'We'll take it from here.' Except you didn't, did you?” I shook the boy's shirt at him. “Youdemonstrablydidn't take it from there. You left it here for us to deal with.”
Yeah, I was a little pissed. Don't tell me to let you handle something and then fail. Especially not if that failure results in the death of two kids and lands nine more in deep snake dookie.
“My name is not Bubo, it's Shaw,” the man said with utter seriousness. “And yes, we watch over North America, but we don't guard it against snakes specifically. It was the evil of the act that attracted our notice.”
“Oh, great, you're one of those,” I muttered. “It's a movie reference. Forget about it. What I really want to know is what the hell you're doing here,Shaw?”
He frowned as if it were obvious. “We're here to help. We've been watching you. You seem to have picked up the trail.”
“So, now you want to help us? What happened with the Adroanzi?” I demanded.
