I tried to get a peek at who Dad was talking to without opening the door.
Blue skin.
I clapped a hand over my mouth to cover my gasp. It was that hulk thing that had taken Mom! Except, maybe not... This one seemed about two feet shorter. Were there a lot of blue fae? Another fae shifted behind the first, mostly blocked from my view. How was Dad so calm?
“No problem.” The paper crackled as Dad took it. “Like I told you when we crossed paths earlier, I had a gut feeling I had false information. I’ll do anything to get her back.”
He wouldn’t actually sign something, would he?
Dad, don’t be stupid!I wanted to yell.
But after confronting the fae last time without a plan and failing miserably, I wasn’t going to repeat my mistakes.
Instead, I leaned over the thin metal railing beside the steps to peek through the window over the sink.
“Ouch,” Dad hissed. “That pen is sharp.”
“Did it make you bleed?” the fae said with an innocent tone that I didn’t buy for a second.
“It’s fine,” Dad assured them. A second later, I caught a glimpse of his solemn face as he held the paper out. “Here you go, officers.”
Officers?
A hand snaked out to take it, the same pasty-white color as the paper. Something that looked like ivy wrapped around the slender forearm.
Nothing about these two said “police.”
The list I’d made in my notebook, still in my backpack by the bench, came to mind.Are they doing that illusion thing? Making Dad see what they want him to see?
That made sense, except—why can I see through it, then?
It must’ve been because they didn’t know I was here. They probably needed to focus on people to make it work.
“You said you have daughters?” the female voice asked.
“Yes,” Dad agreed distractedly, waving at the bedroom behind him. “Thr—”
“They’ll need to sign as well,” she said, cutting him off. “We need all the family signatures.”
Nope, nope, nope, I chanted internally. Nothing about that statement made sense. Dad would realize they were faking it now. Even if his eyes somehow saw uniforms and normal-looking people, his ears still worked, right?
“Well, Rissa and Olive are in their room, and Bry—” He stopped abruptly. “What’re you doing?”
I leaned so far over the railing to see that my feet lifted off the ground. The big blue brute had shouldered past Dad to open the bedroom door.
“We’re in a hurry,” the woman—or fae—said in a soothing tone. “Please ask them to join us.”
“Oh, okay,” Dad agreed, too easily. “Um, girls? Can you come out here please? The police need to talk to you.”
Olive came out first, eyes glued to her sparkly pink phone. She definitely hadn’t been doing her homework. Rissa shuffled out a few moments later in her blue robe, yawning, dark hair sticking out in multiple directions. “Dad,” she whined, eyeing the big blue fae staring at them but not seeming to notice anything unusual. “I was napping.”
If I weren’t so worried, I would’ve snorted. She’d completely forgotten about making dinner.
“These officers are helping search for Mom,” Dad told them.
“But... don’t we know where she is?” Olive said slowly, glancing at Rissa, who chimed in, “Yeah, the note said Fiji, didn’t it?”
“Well, that’s what we thought, but today these officers were explaining—”
