Chapter 8

"Bridgette did this," Charlotte said as she set a chair back onto its legs and sat, her voice wobbling, tears trembling on her lashes. "She was really good at making a house a home. It was her favorite thing to do. Nothing even broke."

She was right. The furniture had all survived, and none of us were badly hurt. A few scrapes, a few bloodied ears.

I put a hand to her shoulder after I righted the table with Eric and Sarge. "We'll find her, Charlotte."

She tipped her head so she could look at me, far more grown for her age than she should have been. "I don't think we will. I think…I think she's gone."

Her certainty struck me like a blow. I crouched beside her chair. "Charlotte. Why would you say that?"

Her young eyes clouded, making her look older than her years. "I just…she makes homes…she's not magic like some of us. Someone like Remy wouldn't see how special she is." A tear slid down her face, chased by another and another. Her voice cracked as she spoke. "She is my best friend. I don't want her to be hurt, but I think…"

I looked over her head at Penny. "Maybe you can remember something…from the fight. It might help us find her, and Bree and Feish."

She blinked and wiped away her tears. "It all happened so fast. It's like a blurry movie in my head."

Penny took hold of the chair next to Charlotte and sat next to her. "I can help you with that, child. I'll help you remember if you'll allow it."

Charlotte went pale. "I…would have to see it all again?"

"Yes, child. But it won't be real," Penny said. Celia joined her, standing behind her lifelong friend.

"Will you try, little witchling? Will you try so we can find Bree and Feish and Bridgette? We need to bring them home."

Charlotte looked from Penny to Celia, then to me. "Okay, I'll do it."

Penny took Charlotte back to the main living room, where she could lay her on the couch. "It'll be like going to sleep and having a dream," Penny said.

"A bad dream," Charlotte whispered. "I hate nightmares."

But she didn't run from her fear. She settled onto the couch and closed her eyes. "Okay, I'm ready."

Penny sat beside her and ran a finger down the center of her face, along the bridge of her nose and then back up to her forehead. A shiver of magic rolled through the space and then faded to nothing as it absorbed into Charlotte's skin. "Go back to this morning, waking up in your room."

"I can see it," the little girl said. "I'm there."

"Start at the beginning of your day, walk us through it," Penny said, her voice lulling.

The first part of Charlotte's day had been simple enough—her mother going to work, Bridgette helping with breakfast and then they had played cards…

"I decided we should play another board game." Charlotte's voice changed in tone, fear leaking into it. "I went upstairs to get it."

"Okay, child, go slow now. I will ask questions as you see the memories."

"I can smell something," Charlotte whispered. "I know it's bad magic. Sulphur. There is a green fog slipping out from underneath my bedroom door."

Her breathing hitched and I looked at Penny, but her eyes were focused on Charlotte. "You knew someone was in there?"

A tear slid down her cheek. "I thought…I thought I could be brave and make him go away. He called my name. I knew who it was before I opened the door."

Penny had a hand resting lightly against Charlotte's wrist. "You aren't really there, child, you don't need to be afraid. Just tell me what you see."

Charlotte took a deep shuddering breath before she spoke. "I pushed the door open, and I had a spell ready, but…he was fast. He almost got me with the first spell, a body bind."

"What was he wearing?" I asked. Penny shot me a look, but Charlotte frowned and answered me.

"He was all in black. Except he had a new mark on his…" She brushed her hand against her own collarbone. "Here. It looked like a tattoo, only it wasn't black, it was faint…like scratches."

It was my turn to frown. A faint mark that looked like a tattoo but wasn't. That was strange, but it wasn't going to help us locate him.

Penny shook her head. "What else?"

"He seemed surprised that I fought him. He told me he'd been nice to me. I should come with him. I…screamed for Bridgette. Its my fault he got her."

Her voice hitched then, and my heart broke for her, for the pain that she was reliving.

"Keep going…" Penny said softly.

Sobbing now, she shook her head and sat upright, pulling herself out of the spell… "He took them both. I don't want to see this again! I can't!"

Penny pulled her into a hug. "You did good, Charlotte. You did good. Shh, you aren't there. You're safe."

I put my hand to her cheek. "Thank you, Charlotte. Penny is right. You did good."

None of what she'd told us would lead us to Bree, but I wasn't about to tell her that. I left Penny and Charlotte and went back to the kitchen. My hopes were dwindling. The book found in the grave had been a trick. Robert's journal had proved nothing. Eammon was searching for the original church that Robert had met Evangeline at…my last hope was that Roderick had found something after the call with Bramble.

"Anything?" Sarge asked, his voice a low rumble.

I shook my head. "Very little. But she'd noticed new marks on Remy's collarbone. Faint, like scratches."

No one at the table had any idea what it might mean—if anything at all. Could just be marks from whatever lover he had in his bed now.

Winnifred tapped her fingers against her coffee mug. "I still think I should go and check out Charlotte's house. I have the best nose of anyone here."

"It stinks of magic," I said, "But if you think you can break through that and get a whiff of something, I am all for it."

Winnifred stood and Sarge followed her lead. He tipped his head at me. "Two is better than one, let's go find us some clues, Winny. We will check the house and the Hollows as well."

I noted that Corb floated after them without asking. He caught my eye and nodded in my direction. "Maybe a ghost can see something a fae king can't."

Good gods, was he still pissy that Bree had chosen me? I tipped my head in his direction, truly unbothered by his jealousy—I was far too old for shit like that. I took note that Celia sniffed in his direction. She'd been with me in the house, and was far more qualified than Corb in the ghost department, and the magic department. "I will hope that is the case," I said.

The three of them left. "Do we just wait?" Suzy asked. "I want to feel like I'm doing something."

Dr. Mori had returned at some point, though he'd remained silent through almost all of our discussions, so much so I'd hardly noted his presence until he spoke. "I have sent my people out to look for her—she is like us, so there is a bond there between us. But there has been nothing thus far. I suspect that she is being hidden well by Evangeline. A combination of Remy and Evangeline's magic. I cannot even reach her in dreams as I have done in the past."

I turned away from him and headed to the door, fear lancing my side.

Night had fallen. If Roderick didn't have news, then I would go to the land of faerie.

My feet picked up speed.

"Crash!" Suzy called after me. "Crash, what?—"

"I just need a moment to think."

Those were the only words I could manage to speak around the sudden deep fear that perhaps we weren't going to be able to bring Bree back without taking the risk on me finding the Seer.

Every path we'd looked down so far had been blocked. Hidden. Destroyed.

Robert was gone, and he had been our best shot at figuring out the three places where Bree was most likely to be hidden. The book within the grave was a trick.

I made my way swiftly to the council chambers again, and Roderick was there waiting for me.

"Anything?"

He shook his head, worry set into the lines of his face. "Whatever hold Evangeline has on the other vampires, it is solid. I cannot even reach Richart. I will keep trying but I fear that there will be no answer."

I clenched my fist and turned away from him. "Do that."

"We cannot always save the ones we love, Fae King." Roderick said. "I, of all people, know that truth."

His words cut into me, worse than any blow, deeper than any blade, opening the fear anew.

I didn't respond, nor did I look back at him. I strode away, masking my fear with a confidence I didn't feel, as if I knew what to do.

I walked, and walked, and finally found myself back at my old forge on Factors Row, without really seeing the path that had taken me there.

I lit the forge, and the coals bloomed with color as I stoked it, forcing air into it. I needed to think, to plan my next step.

"You think this is the time to create something?" Celia stepped into view, startling me. "I've been following you. Are you running away, Crash? Are you so afraid that you would leave her to save herself?"

I shook my head, "I need to think. And I can't do that there at Haven House, with all those….with so many people looking to me for guidance, Celia. And I am…afraid. I am afraid to fail her."

She laughed softly. "You are the fae king, Crash. And you love Bree more than she's ever been loved by any single soul. All of us recognize that connection. Why do you think they look to you? Not because you are a king. But because you love her."

"I need to think," I repeated. "There might be a way…"

I grabbed a set of tongs and shoved a piece of steel into the slow growing flames. I didn't even have anything in mind to build, but this was where I went when my mind was torn up and the noise of the world and my life became too much.

Only there, working in the forge, the place that was most like home to me, could I say what I was afraid of. "Why can I not find her then? Why is that bond not strong enough to take me straight to her?" I looked up at Celia over the open flames. "We have asked a child, a skeleton, a pair of werewolves, a vampire and a witch, everyone…everyone to help me find the woman that I should be able to find!"

Might have been yelling at the end of that.

Celia smiled. "You think I don't want to be the one to find her and bring her home? She is my granddaughter, and she saved me once already. I feel like I should be able to find her too, Crash, but Evangeline and Remy have done their job well."

"I know we all want to be the one to save her." I set my hammer to work, flattening the steel, letting the flow of the movement take me to whatever shape that the steel wished to be.

"She will be the one to save us, Crash," Celia said quietly. "She was born to stop Evangeline."

Tension ripped across my shoulders. "And if it kills her? If stopping Evangeline and the spell kill Bree, what then?"

"I hope it does not." Her voice quavered. "I pray she survives to live a full life."

I snorted. "Thoughts and prayers? Is that what you're telling me? And what, we just ride it out?"

Celia shook her head, anger flashing across her face like a shimmer of lightning. "Of course not! We fight for her!"

"HOW?" I roared that one word. "How do we fight for her, when we cannot even find her?"

Celia reared back as if I'd slapped her. "You are giving up already?"

I ignored her and kept my focus on the steel I was working on. When I looked up next, Celia was gone and I was alone. I worked the steel until it was a long thin bar, rounding and smoothing it over and over until I had to use my smallest tongs and a finer hammer. Delicate work, I could see the steel was turning into a piece of jewelry of some sort. As I finished it, I found myself making a second one. Smaller, but matching.

"Boss?" Jinx dropped from the ceiling in her spider form as I finished the two items and dropped them into the cooling vat. "Is Bree really missing?"

"Yes."

She sucked in a sharp breath. "I hoped I was hearing wrong. You don't think we can find her?"

The urge to throw my tools across the room, to flip the entire forge and burn the building down rocked through me. I set the hammer and tongs down and stepped back, I pulled the jewelry from the cooling vat, still warm from the flames. I snapped my fingers and the flames faded.

"I will find her," I said.

No matter what I had to do.

I tucked the two rings into my pocket.

"Where are you going, Boss?"

I let my chin touch my chest. "I am going to find a way to her. If I don't come back in time…tell the others I am searching for her."

My one hope was the very last thing I wanted to do.

I had to dive into the land of faerie and search for the one soul that had every reason to avoid me. Every reason to let me fail.

The Seer.