Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23

I felt Charlotte shift to move behind me, and just when I thought she was using me as a shield, she took my hand and pressed the cool handle of my dagger into it. Bless her for remembering to bring the one thing that could possibly get us out of this mess.

"Where are Kai and Jax?" I demanded.

Fiona pointed the weapon at me. "You're not welcome here. Go now, or I'm calling the PPPD."

I contemplated letting her do just that, but considering the warning Stone had given me and Charlotte only a few hours earlier, I didn't think that would go well for us.

"We know you set the smoke bombs next door," Trish snarled.

"Stop talking nonsense," Fiona said, sounding irritated. "I don't know what you're trying to pin on me, but I'm not standing for it. Understand?"

"We have video," Trish pressed.

"Ha! Like video means anything anymore. If you have something like that, and it's a big if , then I'm guessing it's AI. You know they can do just about anything with video these days."

"Fiona—" I started, but then I shut my mouth when she released the safety on her gun. "Never mind." I took a step back. "Let's just go. Clearly we aren't going to get anywhere here."

Trish whirled on me. "But, Marion, we can't just let her get away?—"

I held my free hand up, stopping her. "We don't want any trouble. Let's go."

"At least one of you has a brain," Fiona spat before she stepped back into her house and slammed the door.

"I can't believe we're just leaving," Trish growled at me as I led the way back to the winery.

"Shhh," I hushed. "It was a mistake to come here like this. We need to regroup." I didn't know what I'd been thinking, heading over to Fiona's half-cocked without a plan. This was a woman who'd orchestrated an attack on the pack, knocked out most of the members, and presumably abducted Kai and Jax. What did I think she was going to do, open the doors wide and invite us in? I'd been so angry that I hadn't thought any of it through. Actually, I'd let Trish lead, and that had proven to be a mistake.

"Idiot," I muttered to myself, already pulling out my phone and calling Brix. This was bigger than just me and my two sidekicks. The call went straight to voice mail, making me curse.

"Who are you calling an idiot?" Charlotte asked as she glanced at Trish.

Trish flipped her off.

"Me. That was beyond reckless. What we need is a plan. We need to do recon. And we need backup." I stomped into the old barn and took a seat at Kai's desk.

"Who said you're in charge?" Trish challenged. "This is wolf business."

I glared at her. "The Magical Task Force put me in charge, Trish. Like it or not, Charlotte and I actually do have the authority to call the shots. If you want to help, fine. I welcome that. But if you're going to fight me on this, then I'm going to have to insist that you stand down. Because it doesn't get more serious than this. Jax is missing. So is Kai. And we have a room full of wolves that have been magically subdued. We have no idea when they are going to come out of it either. Plus, Jessa is out there, and if she's involved in this, it sounds like we have a royal mess on our hands."

Trish stared at me for a long moment and then sank slowly into one of the chairs, her face white. "We just made a huge mistake, didn't we?"

"Maybe not," Charlotte said as she glanced at the door to the office. "Isn't it interesting that Fiona was caught on camera?"

"What do you mean interesting?" I asked her, wondering where she was going with this.

"Look at her again," Charlotte said.

We gathered around the computer, and I hit Play on the recording.

"See how she looks right into the camera and pauses for just a moment? It's almost as if she wants to be seen. I think she's baiting us."

"You mean she wants us to know it was her that did this?" I asked Charlotte.

"I think so. She didn't have to look at the camera. If she'd just kept her head down and walked in, we never would have known who that was. Fiona does not strike me as a woman who makes mistakes like that."

"I don't know. She was pretty unreasonable about the pipe that was cut. She seems irrational to me," I said.

"She's an old busybody who hates wolves," Trish added. "I don't think it's that complicated."

"There's only one way to find out," I said. "We need to do a recon mission and figure out what's going on over there at Fiona's farm."

"Tonight?" Charlotte asked.

"Tonight," I confirmed. Whatever Fiona was up to, I wasn't waiting a second longer to find out what happened to Jax.

"Just us three?" Trish asked, looking both ready to spring into action and slightly worried.

"I'm going to leave a message for Brix and let the coven know what we're up to. But we're not going to plan any sort of attack. I just want to know what we're dealing with. Once we do, we'll call in everyone we can," I said.

Charlotte nodded. "Sounds good."

"I don't like it," Trish said, shaking her head. "Are you telling me that if we find Jax being tortured that you're not going to try to stop it?"

I ground my teeth together. Trish had a point. Would I be able to retreat if I saw something heinous going on? I wasn't sure I could. But how could we plan an attack without knowing what we were walking into? "Honestly, I don't know, Trish. But we can't just bust in there. We'd likely get ambushed or arrested or both."

"Fine," she said. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

"Stick close to me," I told my two cohorts as we crept along the southeastern edge of the property line. After studying Kai's security footage, we were able to roughly identify where Kai's land stopped and Fiona's started. "We need to figure out if there are alarms and security cameras before we head onto Fiona's property."

"We're not going anywhere until you tell us to," Charlotte said.

I gestured for her to stand next to me and then held out my dagger. She grabbed it with her right hand, and we both held on as I conjured up a spell. "Goddess of light and darkness, show us safe passage. Keep us safe and hidden as we enter the lands of the unknown."

A small clap of thunder rumbled overhead, and suddenly a mass of green glowing fireflies appeared on the property with a few paths of darkness winding through the spectacle.

"Whoa. That was impressive," Trish said, awe in her tone.

"That was pretty cool," Charlotte added. "Where'd you learn that one?"

"At one of the coven meetings. We've been practicing various spells. I ran across this one in an old spell book that Brix gave me and asked them to help me refine it. Looks like it worked. Just stay in darkness out of the range of the fireflies and hopefully we won't trip any alarms. Got it?"

"Got it," they said at the same time.

"Let's each take a path and meet back here in ten minutes with what we found. Text if you get into any trouble. Just make sure you have your ringers turned off," I ordered.

The three of us checked our phones, and then on my signal, we snuck our way onto Fiona's property.

Careful to stay in my darkness bubble, I crept along, trying to peer out onto Fiona's property. I knew she was supposed to have lavender fields and bee hives, but as far as I could tell, there wasn't anything planted, and I couldn't see any bee houses among the fireflies. The land was cleared, though. The house was off in the distance, illuminated by one window light. And although I couldn't see it, I knew there was a large barn and a garage with at least six bays directly to the south of the house.

A text came in. I glanced at it to see it was from Charlotte. I don't see anything yet. What about you two?

Nothing, I typed back. We're going to need to check the structures. I'm heading that way now.

I'll check the house, Trish replied.

Be careful. I sent the message and prayed she didn't find herself on the barrel end of Fiona's rifle again.

I was about halfway to the barn when a light caught my attention off to my left. It was brighter than the fireflies. As I moved closer, I could make out lit torches that circled a clearing. And right in the middle was Jax. His wrists were bound over his head and tied to a tree limb, leaving him dangling there while Fiona held a gun to his head.

"No!" I cried out, hearing both Charlotte and Trish scream the same thing.

The fireflies disappeared, and suddenly I saw the scene flicker; Jax turned into Ty and then into me. Confused, I shook my head, trying to clear it. And once again, Jax was staring at me, his eyes vacant as if he didn't even recognize me. Below him had been earth, but now it was a dark pit. Nothing I saw could be trusted. My heart started to pound, and blood rushed to my ears. Then everything became clear.

"It's an illusion!" I called out. "They've set a trap. Retreat, retreat!" I ordered.

Charlotte, who was to my left and had been running toward the scene, froze. But Trish had already shifted and was running flat out toward the circle.

I broke into a sprint, not at all confident I could catch a wolf, but thankfully I'd been closer to the circle than she was, so I just managed to get right in front of her before she crossed over into the circle. "It's a trap, Trish. It's not real!" I cried.

The wolf tried to slide to a stop, but her momentum was too much, and she slid right into me, knocking me backward.

I felt like I was falling in slow motion, reaching out for someone to catch my hand, but it was too late. Unable to grab onto anything, I lost my balance and fell backward into the black pit, landing with a loud thunk . My head spun, and as I struggled to breathe, my world faded to black.