Page 64 of Magic Betrayed

A jolt of energy shot through me. It was our first real break. Turrets weren’t particularly common around here, so that should narrow our search considerably.

“Could you see any other houses when you looked out the window?”

She shook her head. “Just trees. Cars.”

So it wasn’t in a neighborhood. Somewhere set back from the main road.

“Could you see a road?”

“Like this.” She drew two parallel lines on her paper. A dirt road? “And the road wasorange.”

And the road was orange…

“Does that mean they’re still in Oklahoma?” I murmured, and surprisingly, it was Seamus who answered.

“Chances are good that they are. There’s some red dirt to the south, and a bit in Missouri, but nothing like here.”

A sudden thought struck me.

“Ari. How many jumps, love? How many jumps did you make when you were in that house?”

She beamed at me. “Just one!” She paused. “Maybe two. I was good!”

It was like asking how many cookies she’d eaten. Not eating them all was the only victory to be hoped for.

“And how many did it take to get home?”

Her finger tapped her lips adorably as she considered. “One to go outside. One to go home.”

Cue the silent, internal fist pump. Not only were they in Oklahoma, they were probably somewhere within an hour or less. We weren’t sure of Ari’s actual range, but even the most powerful sprites couldn’t teleport over a hundred miles in one jump, and Ari had no training.

We were down to homes with a turret somewhere within a hundred miles.

“Too bad those turrets have made their way back into modern home styles,” Seamus grumbled. “Otherwise, this would be easy.”

Almost too easy.

According to Shane, Ari had known the people who kidnapped them. Which meant they knew her, too. They would have known she could teleport. But they hadn’t bothered to sedate her like they had Logan.

So why? Why had they allowed her to escape with this much vital information? Information that could lead us right to their door?

Unless they wanted us to find them.

No… notus. Me.

I had to consider the possibility that Kes hadn’t fooled anyone with that text. They’d allowed Ari to escape because they knew about me, and they hoped to lure me in. Believing I would be acting alone and easy prey.

“They might know we’re coming,” I said heavily, and Kira hummed in agreement.

“I think they’re counting on it,” she returned briskly. “Which is why you should go nowhere near them.”

There was approximately zero chance they could keep me away, but I didn’t bother to argue with her.

“If it’s true, it probably means they’re somewhere isolated. Not in town. Somewhere they can set up a trap without alerting any of the neighbors and without using any magic.”

But that got me thinking again. If they knew who I was and knew they needed me, why hadn’t the kidnappers taken me when they had the chance? I’d been essentially helpless after they hit me over the head, but they’d seemed terrified and simply run away.

So why were they so confident that they could take me now?

---