Our theories about Norah were correct. Shehadbetrayed her coven. Kidnapped Reva and Delilah, maybe others we didn’t even know about. Likely she’d known about the vampire ambush at her house after Asher and Haley had been taken. Hell, she may have even sanctioned it.
“He has everyone in the cave prison,” she said, glancing up at me. “Did you get my message before?”
“I did, kiddo. You did great. We searched the beach, right where you told us to, but the prison is fae spelled. Camouflaged.” I glanced at Gray, then back to Reva. “But you’re here now, physically. How did you manage to slip out of sight?”
“I knew there was another cave system behind that one, and it wasn’t spelled. There was a shaft that led back out to the beach.”
“How did you get out of the cell?” Gray asked.
“They said they were going to move us,” she said. “Something about relocating into the city? So when they came back to get us out of the cell, Asher and Haley started a fight with the fae guards, and I did my thing.”
“Fae guards?” I asked. “Can you describe them?”
“Black uniforms, gold patches on their arms with a weird swirly kind of design. It kind of looked like tree branches, maybe?”
I shot another glance at Gray. “Darkwinter,” I mouthed.
“Did the guards say anything about where in the city they were going?” Gray asked.
“No, the fae guards didn’t sayanything. The guy in charge was human—a hunter. Asher said he’s the guy who…” She swallowed hard, her eyes filling with tears as she looked at Gray. “Who killed your mother in New York.”
“Dirty Beard,” Gray whispered. She was positively ashen. “Jonathan’s father.”
Reva nodded.
“Reva,” I said, “I’m going to need you to remember as much detail as possible about the prison and everyone in it. Anything the guards or the old man said, things Jonathan might’ve mentioned before, things about what happened with Norah, anything you can think of at all. Nothing is too silly or insignificant to mention. Do you think you can do that for me?”
She nodded emphatically. “I told those guys my plan would work. I knew I could find you.”
“And I’m so glad you did.” I couldn’t help but smile. “You hungry, kiddo? How do you feel about cheeseburgers?”
She grinned, her smile lighting up the room. “I feel like I love them.”
I waved for Elena to come in.
“Did I hear something about cheeseburgers?” she asked.
“Make mine a double,” I told Elena.
“Mine too,” Reva said.
My sister rolled her eyes, but she was nodding. I even caught a smile on that grim face of hers.
Turning back to Reva with a smile of my own, I pulled out my phone and hit the voice recorder, setting it on the table between us. “Okay, Reva Monroe, stealth spelunker and master escape artist. Tell us a story, and make it a good one.”
* * *
“Story checks out,” Elena said a couple of hours later. “We’ve got them.”
“That fast?” I asked.
“All thanks to this one.” She smiled at Reva, who beamed right back at her. “I might have to make you an honorary detective, kiddo.”
Elena gave us the lowdown, pointing out the site on a map on her phone.
After hearing Reva’s account, she said, she was able to narrow down the possibilities to the most likely locations in the city—abandoned commercial buildings that had plenty of space to imprison captors and set up labs for their ongoing experimentation, all without attracting too much attention. From there, she had her guys combing through security camera footage, and apparently Hobb had hit the jackpot with a condemned three-story building down at the intersection of Granite Top Road and Spring Street, right on the seedy outskirts of the Cape’s warehouse district. The place had been on the auction block for a year, dead to all but the rodents who’d made it home. Yet earlier that night, cameras picked up on six nondescript black vans rolling into the alley adjacent to the property, right where the service entrances would be. The footage was grainy, she said, but they were able to zoom in on a partial view of one of the divers.
“Jael identified the armband insignia as Darkwinter.”
