“No, girl, don’t be stupid,” Abigail said. “Do you think I would recover her alive? Not one child has ever been brought back from the Pravus alive.”
“The Vvyndicate—” Rissa began, but Abigail cut her off.
“—Is two members short and can’t open a mind-gate to the Pravus because of it.”
Mina looked stricken. “Then what? She’s just enslaved, or killed, or…?”
Abigail shook her head with no idea what to say.
“There’s avodvodwho can get into the Pravus,” Mina said. “Crew Arcoal.”
Abigail saw her chance to get full cooperation and she took it.
“I will scry." She hurried into the house, straight into Mina’s bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror. She didn’t need to scry; she knew what the fates said, but she did need to make sure Dred knew her family had been compromised. That old fool could activate the Vvyndicate, a secret organization offoxenCitlali, and he would jump at the chance.
Abigail didn’t have her phone. She went out into the kitchen, looking for Mina’s. She found it on the table, and she looked up Eldred Van Crimson in Mina’s contacts and called.
He answered on the first ring. “Yeah.”
“Dred, it’s Abigail. What we’ve most feared has happened. We’re activating all call trees and moving the family.”
“I’ve heard,” Dred said, his voice deep and quiet.
“You’ve heard from where?” Abigail snapped. “This just happened.”
“We all felt the crossover.”
“That’s not even what I’m talking about. This is avodemergency.”
“Because Frannie called 911.”
Abigail gasped. “How do you—” but then she stopped. She knew how. Dred’s grandson, Reynard Van Crimson, monitored all police communications, even secured ones he should have no access to.
“Great. Why did I even call you? You know everything. Bye.”
“Wait.”
“What?”
“I activated the Vvyndicate.”
“I know you did,” Abigail said, because she knew Dred.
“How?” Dred asked.
Abigail hung up. She held her finger on the record of the call and magically deleted it in a poof of electrical discharge. It didn’t go to the trash can or recycle bin, it went straight to the ether.
She hurried out of the house, dropping Mina’s phone on the counter on the way by.
Mina and Rissa were both near Frannie, watching Abigail approach. She nodded firmly and said, “The vodvod Crew Arcoal will be the one to save Paisley.”
Mina took a step, hope in her expression. “She’ll be saved?”
“The fates say yes but we must do our part.”
Mina nodded vigorously, her hands clasped together. Rissa only watched silently.
The sirens swelled loud, sounding so close they could be right on the next street! Abigail called her animal forth and asked it to speak powerful words of ancient spells to slow down the vod. It came at once and the words spilled from her mouth.
