Page 67 of The Seeker
Meera shook her head.No.
“I would talk to them,” she said. “Find out who they are. Find out who their father is and why they’re living alone.”
“They’re living alone because it’s easier to make their victims disappear that way,” Roch said. “People go missing in the swamps. People aren’t found. You pick up someone that no one is going to miss, they won’t even leave a ripple in the water.”
Meera turned her head. Roch would ignore her. She cared for Roch, but he was like most scribes, convinced that violence was the only way to deal with Grigori.
“What would you do?” Rhys asked again. “After you talked to them. What if they weren’t free? What then? Would you kill them? You know the violence bound Grigori are capable of.”
“I know.”
“So…?”
Meera looked Rhys in the eye. “Keep Roch from killing them, and I’ll show you what I would do.”
He looked wary. “You expect me to let you get that close to these Grigori?”
“Yes.” She kept her eyes on Rhys. Would he challenge her abilities?
“Roch”—Rhys didn’t look away—“we’re going to let Meera try talking to them.”
“What?” Roch did not sound pleased. “You can’t be serious. These aren’t children or untried soldiers. The scribe who called me—”
“We’ll be with her, and I’ve experienced a touch of her offensive magic,” Rhys said, finally turning back to face the front. “I have confidence that she’ll be able to deter them with us protecting her.”
Roch’s voice was a growl. “Someone put you in charge and I didn’t hear about it?”
“Two votes against one,” Meera said. “Give me a chance, Roch.”
The scribe was silent. She could feel his ire radiating when she lowered her mental shields, though the smooth timbre of Rhys’s soul voice mitigated the effect on her senses.
They turned off the paved road and rolled onto a smaller track. Roch touched histalesm primand cut the lights in the car. The spells he’d scribed for night vision would be enough for him to navigate through the rougher terrain.
“How far?” Meera asked quietly.
“A few miles.”
She could make them come to her. That would be better.
“Find an easily defensible position,” she said, “and stop there.”
Roch asked, “Why—?”
“Do it,” Rhys said. “Trust me.”
A few more turns and there was a wide spot in the road next to a clearing. The trees had been hacked back, and an old shack was crumbling to pieces on the edge of the woods.
Meera got out of the truck as soon as Roch stopped. A slow-moving creek flowed behind the shack, and the moon reflected off the water. She could hear night birds calling with the high screech of insects a constant cacophony in the darkness.
Where are you?
Meera opened her senses and tried to ignore the voices of the two men with her as they took veiled positions, Roch near the road and Rhys in the trees behind her. She could smell the bite of both their magic in the air. One by one, the birds left. The insects fell silent.
Predators were hunting in the forest.
With her shields down, Meera felt a tug in the pit of her belly.Where are you?
Coming closer.
