Page 144 of Alterant

from the holding facility. Contact me immediately

if you hear from O’Meary. Don’t meet him

under any circumstances without me or Quinn

present. We need to talk first.

What had Quinn seen in O’Meary’s mind that would make Tzader think O’Meary would contact her?

Quinn had sent a more recent email:

I am exceptionally pleased you have returned

unharmed. We’ll speak soon.

How could something a crazy witch said change the way Evalle thought about one of her two closest friends?

It shouldn’t. It wouldn’t.

She refused to feel suspicious about Quinn. He’d earned her trust and had yet to give her reason to question it. She’d tell him what Kizira had said and he’d explain how there was no way possible for Kizira to have gotten that information from him.

She stared at her inbox, willing an email from Storm to be waiting for her.

None.

Feenix rubbed her arm.

She smiled over at him, but his eyes were sad. He put his head on her shoulder.

Did this little guy have empathic ability?

Or could he hear her heart cracking with a new fracture every minute she didn’t hear from Storm?

She patted his face. “We’ll watch NASCAR next.”

He grinned at her and plopped down on the pillow beside her, grabbing his stuffed alligator to hug.

Starting tomorrow, she had to take care of Alterant business. Macha had handed her the chance to prove Alterants should be a recognized race. Evalle would tell Tristan as soon as she found him. She doubted he’d make it out of this country, since the airport really was shut down after all. He should be more open to working with her once he found out she had Macha backing.

Life was good.

All she had to do was find Tristan and Storm.

She turned back to her computer to send Storm an email and a new one popped into her inbox—from Storm. She froze, staring at the blinking message, then clicked on it. The message had been sent from his cell phone several hours ago. She hadn’t seen any of his clothes when she’d gone back to search after being dropped at her bike, but now realized she hadn’t seen his cell phone when she’d unloaded her tank bag. Had Storm retrieved his things . . . or had someone else?

Her heart thumped like crazy. She opened the email and read:

Evalle

I’ll be in touch.

Storm.