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The trees, the undergrowth, the path were all a blur as I sped along, buffeted like a leaf in the wind. I tried to disentangle myself from the current, but found myself wrestling with something holding me tight. And then I caught sight of a face, carved in ice, captured in a haze of mist. A snow Elemental, with concave eyes and a crazed laugh on its lips.
Let me go. Please let me go . . .
The lace-winged creature tightened its grip, squeezing me so hard I thought a rib might break. Then, with another laugh, it let go and I tumbled toward the ground, flailing as I went. We'd been high in the canopy--I was going to break my neck. But as I careened toward the forest floor, my fall slowed and, like a feather, I drifted back down and . . .
. . . back into my body.
Blinking, I looked around. I was right where I'd been standing when the Elemental caught me up.
You mustn't stay here. That one is old, and I can't fight his strength. This is his territory. If he took you body as well as soul, I couldn't stop him. Ulean's whisper cloaked me like velvet fog.
Shivering, not understanding what had just happened, I cautiously forced a thought into the next wisp of breeze floating past. Grieve, Chatter. We need you. My aunt has disappeared. Something in the woods took her. Please, help us.
When there was no answer, I turned and hurried back to the house. I didn't have to look back to know that the owl was watching me from high in one of the cedars as I raced across the lawn.
Chapter 4
A quick call to LeAnn proved our fears.
"I can't help you," she said over the speakerphone. "I wish I could but I have my baby to think of. I'm sorry, but I've resigned from what there is left of the local Society. It's over, Rhiannon. Your mother, along with Elise and the others, they're probably dead. I suggest you get the hell out of Dodge while you can. By tomorrow, my family will be two hundred miles away, and safe." She hung up without even saying good-bye.
"That's it." Rhiannon dropped onto the sofa. "Tyne is Marta's grandson--he might help us but I don't have any clue of where he is. And Rupert wasn't at home when I called him. Oh man, I'm tired."
"Let me make some tea for us." I found my way around the kitchen, glad Leo was here to help. Rhiannon's slip into trance freaked me out and whoever the hell the Indigo Court was, I didn't want them mucking inside my cousin's head.
When the tea finished steeping, I carried the tray to the living room and sat near the window, steaming cup in hand as I stared out at the woodland.
"What are you thinking?" Rhiannon sipped her tea, and some of the tension fell away from her face.
"I'm thinking I need to get my ass back out there to find Grieve."
"I'm sorry, Cicely. This isn't fair. You just got home this morning, you haven't even had a chance to unpack."
"Not a problem. I'm used to living out of my car. And when Krystal was alive, we were always on the run. This is nothing compared to nights when we were trying to get out of this city or that before the goons she hooked up with found us to collect on her drug debts."
Memories of dark nights spent running through back alleys, trying to get to the freeway so we could hitch another ride to another city, flooded my mind. I'd learned early how to cage rides, and more than once Ulean had protected me from the rapists and serial killers who prowled the highways.
"I can't begin to understand the life she put you through," Rhiannon said. "Heather wanted to bring you back more than once, but every time she talked to Krystal, she'd get off the phone crying because your mother was such a basket case and wouldn't let you come home. And by the time you did . . ."
"I felt obligated to go back to help my mother. She trained me well with guilt. I wanted to stay every time I came home for a visit. Hell, I know Heather did everything she could short of kidnapping me. But I'm here, now. That's what counts."
I set down my teacup and shrugged back into my jacket. "Call the lawyer and make an appointment for me later today, if possible. Tomorrow, if not. I'm going in search of Grieve. If I'm not back in an hour, come to the edge of the wood and call my name, but whatever you do, don't step inside."
Leo nodded. "Got it. And Cicely--be careful. Your cousin needs you."
"You're really going out there?" Rhiannon pushed herself to her feet.
"Yeah. I'll be careful," I said, zipping up my jacket.
"Do you have a pair of gloves I could wear? I didn't count on snow."
Rhiannon handed me a leather pair of gloves and a scarf. "Bundle up, it's cold out there. And please, be careful. I don't want to lose you, too."
Before I headed outside, I ran upstairs and grabbed my switchblade. Highly illegal to carry but I didn't give a damn. I'd learned early that protecting myself was worth getting ragged on by the police if they caught me. As I stepped out onto the porch, Rhiannon was on the phone, talking to the lawyer.
The snow had let up, the clouds parting just enough to show the moon rising, full and round in the afternoon sky. The air was ripe with the tang of ozone that presaged a hard winter storm.
I crossed the yard. When I was little, Rhiannon and I weren't supposed to go into the ravine alone, but we always found a way to sneak off without being caught. I suspected my aunt always knew, but she never said anything.
