“Yeah,” I agreed. “Star can find me. He'll bring them back.”
Raza grimaced at that, but our large group hurried off. And our timing was perfect. It was a good thing we hadn't gone invisible because just as we turned a corner, shop doors started to open, signs getting turned to Open as music piped out of speakers. People appeared as if by magic, locals and tourists alike strolling down the streets and stopping to take pictures in front of little castles and trees that looked as if they'd been made for that very purpose. At the end of the road, I saw the telltale architecture of Chinatown.
“I didn't mean to set her off,” Medea said.
“Telepaths, remember?” I said. “And they can't control what they see. Sometimes it comes out sounding like a riddle. She doesn't mean to be obtuse.”
“Shit. I'm sorry.”
“At the end of the rainbow,” I muttered. Then I looked at Hunter Ji-woon. “Why did you ask if it was on a wall or the ground?”
“There's an alley with rainbow steps,” Ji-woon said.
“At the end of the rainbow!” Medea exclaimed.
“Take us there,” I said to Ji-woon.
We wove through a growing crowd, the smiling human faces blending in with the cartoons. Cars rolled by, but then we turned onto a walkway. Shop owners rolled out little toy vending machines and bins on wheels. They smiled at us, but then frowned when we rushed past. Lights on strings came on overhead and the sounds of children echoed up from the road.
Dread filled my chest.
“There they are!” Ji-woon pointed.
Just as we started up a narrow stairway of strange, short, cement slab steps, their front edges painted in a rainbow of colors, Star appeared with the Trance Twins.
I jerked to a stop, but then recovered enough to demand, “Is this the rainbow?”
Alexis looked up the narrow walkway. The steps were only about a foot across. The rest of the width to either side was taken up by slabs of slate embedded in gravel, then narrow flower beds. The height of the steps was only a couple of inches,but with each one painted a different color, going from red to orange to green to blue and all the shades between, you got the illusion of a rainbow rising before you. You wouldn't be able to see it from the top, but at the bottom, it was pretty cool. Which made the bottom the start of the rainbow.
And the end was the top.
“There.” Alexis pointed at a white building on the left at the top of the stairs. “She's in there.”
Medea didn't wait for a command to go, she just ran up the steps. The rest of us followed her, taking a turn at the top to get to the white building. It wasn't painted like the rest, nor were there any shops on its bottom floor. There was a single door. It was solid. And locked.
It lasted for about two seconds under Medea's boot.
Once we were in, Alexis said, “To the basement!”
Medea found the stairs and led the way shouting, “Sang-hee!”
“Damn it, now he'll know we're coming,” Raza growled.
“He's gone,” Alex said. “He saw us coming and fled. But she's still here. He had to abandon her.”
Raza stopped and pointed. His guards turned and ran outside. The hunters followed them. Even without an extinguishment warrant, their priority was the human. It's their job.
“Go with them, Alex,” Alexis said. “They may need you.”
Alex nodded and rushed after the hunters.
“Des,” Dax said.
“On it.” Desmond left as well. As a Cu-Sidhe, his nose might come in handy.
The rest of us kept going down the narrow stairs to the basement, Medea's voice leading us until . . .
“Help,” a soft female voice called out.
