Page 156 of Claimed

Jase speaks up. “That’s the block Brody says the massage parlor is on.”

Dani remarks, “Thinking he’s not there now, but he’ll be there soon. The way it switched directions has me thinking he’ll either materialize there or that he’s planning on it but his plan could change.”

“How do you know?” Stacy asks.

“Skeptical?” she inquires.

My mate shakes her head. “No, I just wonder how you know.”

“Practice,” Dani explains. “Assessing things after each spell to decode what the implements were communicating. When thedirection changes it’s often been because either the individual will be redirected somewhere or because they’re on a course to that location, but something is preventing us from seeing where they are now. Since your brother is dabbling with witch potions that were prepared for him, this could be the case. It’s also highly possible it’s because of a contingency spell Aphra Starling worked into his cloaks. Being a prisoner of his, she likely had to do what he asked under threat.”

“Definitely under threat,” Stacy advises.

“Right. So she may have put in contingencies. It’s what I’d do. Make sure there are little easter eggs, if you will, in case other witches are working to disable him. Hiding him under a cloak but making it so that other covens could peek under it if they try hard enough. I can’t say for sure this is what’s going on, but it’s how I’m reading it.”

“What about my sister?” Jase asks.

“You didn’t bring anything of hers with you, did you?”

“No, but she made this for me.” He takes off a braided leather bracelet on his wrist. “Could it help?”

“It might. But this will helpmore.”

She grabs Jase’s hand and pricks his finger with a needle, then squeezes his fingertip so three blood droplets land on the tablet. She gestures for Stacy’s hand and my mate holds her hand out eagerly as Dani uses the opposite end of the needle to get blood droplets from her finger on the map as well.

“Hold that over the iPad, Greyson? Let’s focus on these questions as we watch the blood droplets of the siblings of the two people we’re attempting to locate right now. Is Sherry with Wyatt Meadows?”

We all stare at the tablet and the droplets of blood trail toward one another and join up.

“Is Halla Starling with them? Let’s focus on that.” She pulls a strand of dark hair from the hairbrush and sets it across the edge of the tablet, then ties a piece of waxed cotton string around the hairbrush handle and passes it to me.

We wait at least five minutes before the hair floats off the tablet, away from the mingled drops of blood.

Dani wipes the screen with a Kleenex and lifts the hair and sets it back on the edge of the tablet.

The hairbrush on a string I’m holding swings like a pendulum, slowly.

“Let’s focus on the map and hope the hair will float to where Halla is.”

I stare for a long time, it seems. Frustration bubbles up and I feel heat behind my eyes again as I stare harder at the single strand of hair at the edge of the dark screen. It hasn’t moved.

My gaze darts to Stacy’s face and I see how much she wants this to work. She’s worried about this child. Cares about her. I want her to have her answers.

Dani gestures for me to pass the string. I do and it stills. I stare at it with frustration and suddenly it begins twirling forward, then backwards. And then it does it again. It twirls for ten or fifteen seconds and then the direction changes. Dani touches the screen to bring it alive again and the map is now on and the screen zooms on its’ own to Arcana Falls.

“What? Does this mean Halla could come to the village?” Stacy asks.

“Could be,” Dani says. “Maybe someone is going to bring her to you guys. Maybe you’ll take her there after you find her. I don’tknow, but I don’t think she’s with Wyatt right now based on how things have gone. I think she’s under a shield and I think you’ll find her but I think what’s in front of that is a shield for Halla but that you will reunite with her.”

Jase asks, “So, we’ve got my sister and Stacy’s brother on their way to the place Brody found the girls.”

“Maybe. But maybe not,” Dani corrects.

“And we’ve got Halla showing up in our neck of the woods, but we don’t know yet how she gets there. What do we do to deal with all that?”

“We don’t know if your sister will show up too, only that she’s most likely with him now, Jase,” Dani corrects.

“Let’s make a plan to see if we can catch up with Meadows tonight,” I say. “We’ll go to the massage parlor. Then have to see what happens with Halla Starling, I guess.”

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