Page 59 of Magic Betrayed

The only question was, did they intend to use her or destroy her? I wasn’t sure I had enough evidence to guess.

The only clues were in Kes’s texts. She believed she was safe. She didn’t want me to follow them, because she was convinced it would be dangerous for me. But the kids were being used as hostages. So did she not want me to find them because I would be just another hostage? Or because whoever took her wanted me, too? Hated me? Hoped to use me or destroy me?

And then she’d said she had secrets. That there were things she needed to do.

It’s better this way.

Please forgive me.

At least five magic-less elementals had banded together to kidnap Kes, and Kes was trying to help them. But she couldn’t give them their power back, even if they also had access to the person who now possessed it…

Logan. That was why they’d taken him, too.

But it was still impossible. Elayara had also tried reversing the process, and it simply wouldn’t work. For good or ill, the magic forced into our human bodies stubbornly remained there, and Kes had been through unimaginable pain while trying to prove it.

But maybe they didn’t know. Maybe they hadn’t been a part of those later experiments. Maybe they didn’t believe Kes, or maybe she hadn’t told them yet, because if they learned the truth…

They would have no reason to keep Logan—or Kes—alive.

THIRTEEN

Before I even walked outof that room, I was puzzling on the best way to explain the situation to everyone else without also explaining Kes’s magic. Her magic was the key to understanding what we faced—and possibly the only piece of information that would make sense of all the facts—and yet, I still didn’t want to reveal that truth until absolutely necessary.

But in all my plotting and planning, I’d forgotten to account for one very important variable—the innocent babbling of an extroverted six-year-old.

When I walked back out, Ari was sitting at a table with a plate of sliced baguette, a banana, and a can of whipped cream. Maybe that was all the appropriate kid food they could find in a bar, but she was giggling as Kira sprayed whipped cream first on the banana, and then on Ari’s nose.

“Were you scared?” Kira asked her sympathetically, and my tiny sprite shook her head.

“No.” Her high-pitched voice was entirely matter-of-fact. “My room wasn’t scary. And the house was really big. But the man was grumpy, so I didn’t let him find me—like hide and seek!”

House. They were being kept in a house.

“Were they mean to you?” Kira was careful to keep her tone light, but I could hear the tension in her query.

Ari’s nose crinkled as it always did when she was thinking. “They were mean to Kes. And Logan wouldn’t wake up.”

Rage threatened to choke me. They were keeping Logan sedated, and I had no guarantees they were being safe about it.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Kira reached out and smoothed Ari’s flyaway curls, her own anger clearly under tight control. “And don’t worry, we’re going to find Kes and Logan and make sure they’re safe.”

“Kes doesn’t want to leave,” Ari announced. “She wants to help. But she can’t help.”

I was too far away to stop what was coming. Too late to prevent the damning words from spilling out…

“She gave us our magic, but she can’t take it away. And it hurts if she tries.”

Every eye in the room was suddenly fixed on Ari.

“How did she give you your magic?” Kira’s voice was quiet. Thoughtful. Possibly even dangerously so.

“Just did,” Ari reported with a shrug. “So she has to hide.” She nodded with all the sage wisdom of her half-dozen years. “So no one can find her and make her use her magic again.”

Every head in the room turned in unison, every eye landing on me like a physical blow, pressing into me, making it harder and harder to breathe. Kira and Callum. Rath, who must have come in while I was in the card room. Seamus, Niko, Oliver, and Emberly. Talia. And from beside me, Shane.

Their expressions were difficult to read, but they were far from happy.

Kira was the first to break the silence. “Raine, what does she mean?”

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