Page 65 of The Tracker's Dawn: Sunderverse
“Anything?” Eric asked.
“Yeah, it’s like Damien said.” I shook my head. “Do you remember anything else, Rosalina?”
She frowned and squeezed her eyes shut. After a moment, she just blew air through her nose, frustrated. “I... I don’t...”
“Shh.” Damien took her hands in his. “Relax. Close your eyes.” He made circles over the top of her hands with his thumbs and spoke soothingly. “Breathe deeply. For just an instant, you’re there again and you hear the classical music, the planes, the sirens. And perhaps there’s something else.”
Rosalina started nodding. “When they were taking me there, I was groggy, but I saw lights flashing and a bell was ringing because a train was coming.” Her eyes sprang open, her pupils reduced to pinpricks, the green irises looking sharp, almost iridescent. “It was a railroad crossing.” Then, under her breath, she added, “Frost.”
“Frost?” I echoed. “What do you mean Frost?”
She looked at a loss. “I don’t know. It just popped into my head.” Suddenly, she seemed to realize that Damien was still holding her hands. Their gazes met. I expected him to withdraw and act nonchalant as he always did, but he continued to trace circles on her skin, looking concerned.
“What?” Rosalina asked.
He narrowed his eyes but said nothing.
I pulled up a map of Lambert international Airport and zoomed in and out of it without any real idea of what I was doing, then something caught my eye.
“Frost Avenue,” I whispered.
Quickly, I clicked the mouse and held it down, grabbing the little yellow man in the corner of the screen. I dragged the figure and dropped it on top of the digital representation of Frost Avenue. The screen immediately changed to a real street view. I followed the road, pressing on the forward arrow and paying close attention to the many warehouses that lined either side. After a bit of clicking, I reached...
A railroad crossing!
I closed the laptop and stood up from the desk. “There is a Frost Avenue close to the airport and it dead-ends at a railroad crossing.”
We were all silent for a moment, then Damien shook his head.
“Something not sitting well with you?” Eric asked.
The mage shrugged. “I don’t know that witch well, but it seems to me that allowing her hostages to remember these details is a bit sloppy.”
“Do you mean she could have erased my memories?” Rosalina asked, sounding afraid of the answer.
I had no idea if Midnight Witches and Mages had that kind of power. If they did, that was terrifying, and from the look of panic on Rosalina’s face, she felt exactly the same way.
“Like telekinesis,” Damien said, “that sort of skill takes a lot of practice and dedication. She may or may not be capable of manipulating people’s memories. I don’t know her well enough. Maybe her knowledge and control of the subject are minimal, hence the sloppy nature of it. But... I don’t know. I just don’t like it.”
“But what if she’s hiding in that area?” I asked. We couldn’t waste that knowledge. This could be the chance to finally put a stop to the Midnight Witch.
“And what if it’s a trap?” Damien shot back, and in the same breath he shakily got to his feet and answered his own question, “I guess we’ll have to be ready for that.”
“We?” Rosalina asked, but not in fear or hesitation. No, there was a glint of eagerness in her eyes, that fierce darkness that came to her whenever Mekare came up, as if she couldn’t wait to discharge an entire magazine into the witch’s body, as if there was nothing else in the world she’d rather do. His protest had to do more with Damien. She just didn’t seem sure he should go since he was weak.
“Maybe we should stay out of it, tell Tom about it instead,” I offered since our call was still fresh in my mind.
“And risk the cops screwing it up?” Eric said. “Don’t forget thatwehad to go in and rescue your sister. Don’t forget those dead men on the floor.”
“Maybe we can give them some hints, work with them,” I suggested.
Judging by the way Eric crossed his arms and twisted his mouth, he didn’t seem to think much of that idea either. Damien, for his part, appeared indifferent to the suggestion, like either way would be fine by him. And Rosalina... she just looked disappointed. I read her expression and interpreted it asI should be the only one allowed to put a bullet between her eyes. I honestly hoped I was reading her wrong. I still couldn’t reconcile her two very different personalities, no matter how hard I tried.
Witchlights, what should we do?
I had resolved not to get involved anymore and to focus on breaking Jake’s pact. I couldn’t jump back into the fray. A very bothersome pang in my chest shot back an argument I didn’t want to contemplate.
As much as I wanted to wash my hands of the witch, I couldn’t leave my city at Mekare Graves’s mercy. I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing while there was a possibility of stopping her. Only the witchlights knew how far she intended to go with her attacks on the city and with the use of those hybrid monsters.
