As if it was just that easy.
But then again, she wasn’t wrong.I didnotrelish the thought of telling the others that our children were lost.And judging by the way Hisashi’s already pale face just lost every last hint of its color, I surmised he shared the sentiment.
****
“Gesa’s going to kill us,” Hisashi said as he ran a big hand through the top of his hair, making the longer strands there stand up on end.
Kai shrugged.“She might killyou.She likes me.”
When her teasing fell flat, she went to the fox and wrapped her arms around him in a rib-cracking kraken hug.“We’ll find them.”
She was right.And her idea was the best one we had at the moment.I swallowed back my displeasure and tapped “call” on my cellphone.The fact that I had Derek White’s number programmed into my phone never ceased to send a chill down my spine, even after so many years of counting him among our friends.
Maybe because I was about to ask a demon for a favor.
It only rang one time before a cheery female voice answered.“Hello, Oisin!”Troya said happily.“I’ve been waiting for you to call.”
Of course she had.And if a goddess with powers over fate who was married to a demon who could sometimes sense the future had been expecting me to call them about our lost children, that didn’t bode well for our little grypho-foxlings.
“Troya, dove,” I said evenly.“As happy as I am to speak with you, I’m afraid I don’t have the patience for pleasantries at the moment.Where are my children?”
She laughed, the sound flowing and mellow.As if nothing was wrong in the world.Of course, it wasn’therfourteen-year-old children out there lost in the otherworld and potentially devoured by angry ghosts.
“China,” she said happily.
“China,” I repeated, my voice flat.Hisashi frowned and Kai cocked her head curiously.“And,my lovely goddess friend,” I said through clenched teeth, “could you possibly narrow that down by, oh, I don’t know… a couple million square miles or so?”
“Oisin.”Hisashi tried to snatch the phone from my hand, but I was far quicker, dancing out of his way in the nick of time.
Kaimana rolled her eyes at us and crossed her arms under her glorious bust, cocking a hip and tapping her toe like she was about to lose her patience.Which… fun, usually.But maybe not in this particular situation.“Put her on speaker phone, fae.”Her eyes flashed with warning.Right, kraken mother in protector mode.I pressed the button to switch the call to speaker.
“Troya,” Hisashi said at once.“I’m sorry Oisin is such an asshole.But seriously, can you please narrow it down a little bit.I can’t sense where they exited the otherworld.And it’s not safe for them to be out there all alone so far from home.”
I pushed down the wildness that was threatening to overwhelm me.There was only so long I could pretend to be calm or mask my fury with banter and snark.Hisashi’s words were an understatement.It wasn’t safe foranychild to be suddenly alone in a strange country without family or resources.But the twins weren’t just any children.They were powerful creatures full of unusual magic, and linked to a rather infamous family and friends.In other words, they werevaluable.To all the wrong sorts of people.
I had once been quite concerned about someone like my insane father finding out about Hisashi and his vast well of magic, and Hisashi had been an adult at the time.Asa and Kana were onlychildren.And we hadn’t done enough to make them take self-defense lessons seriously.
Everyone was always telling me how overdramatic I was.How we lived in the modern world and our children didn’t need to learn things like how to disembowel a foe with a sharp object.But after this, I was done listening to their nonsense.All of our children would be trained at once.Even little Io.If she was big enough to walk, then she was old enough to stab anyone who dared touch her.
“Oisin,” Kaimana said, possibly for the third or fourth time.
“What?”I snaped, irritated with myself for losing focus.What was wrong with me?I was an ancient fae royal.I had grown up under my murderous psychopathic father’s tyranny.This little situation shouldn’t have me so upset.
Kai arched a brow at me.“You can stab people later,” she promised, a dark glint in her pretty blue eyes.“But right now, you need to focus.Did you hear what Troya just said, little one, or do you need her to repeat herself?”
I sneered at her.“Don’t call me little, just because I can’t turn into a disgusting tentacle monster the size of an office building.”I sniffed.“My hearing and my focus are just fine.But it might help us all dissect the details if you were to repeat yourself, Troya dear.”
She huffed a laugh.“Isaid, I know exactly where they are.Hisashi can’t sense them because they exited the otherworld into a territory claimed by a powerful demon.His wards and his bond with the land there overpowered the tracking spell.”
“Oh,” I said with a flippant wave of my hand.“Is that all.Just a strange demon overlord.I’m sure they’ll pop right back home in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”
Kaimana nudged me with her elbow.Hard.Hisashi just shook his head.“Oisin, please be fucking serious for five damned minutes.”
I winked at him while my insides churned.While I was certainly glad the kids hadn’t been eaten by the strange creatures wandering the in between, a strange demon wasnotgood news.“I’m always serious, love.”
Troya ignored us.“Haoyu is a very powerful lord who keeps to himself.He’s a collector of sorts.Derek has been waiting ages for an excuse to contact him.This is the perfect opportunity.”
I felt like I had just swallowed acid.A collector.One who just had two rare young creatures just brimming with magic appear in his territory.Perfect.If Derek fucking White thought he was going to usemychildren as bargaining chips so he could suck up to some other pompous demon lord, he had just signed his own death warrant.
