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Michelle leaned back on the bed. The look of relief didn’t last long on her face. “If he isn’t dead, then that monster still has him.”
“That’s what we suspect,” Agent Silva interjected. “I have all our best psychics on the case. They’re hoping for a break soon.”
“I don’t understand.” Michelle folded her hands on top of the blanket. The IV had been taped to her left hand. “Why haven’t the psychics found him already? I thought they could find anyone. Last year, they found that baby-eating witch hiding in the Rocky Mountains.”
The search for that old woman had been all over the supernatural news in late November. I remembered watching it over a Thanksgiving weekend alone in my apartment. After three babies went missing from a hospital in New York, the SI realized they had a Baba Yaga on the loose in the US. Baba Yagas came from Ukraine and surrounding countries. Creatures like her weren’t allowed into the country unless under strict observation. Somehow, she’d slipped under the radar.
The manhunt ended when SI psychics found the Baba Yaga hiding out in a cave in the mountains. As far as I knew, she was still lingering in Mastix, the SI’s mysterious underground prison, awaiting her trial. Not many creatures that went into Mastix came out.
“This Gorgon’s been trained to avoid getting caught,” Agent Silva said.
For the first time, she snuck a glance at me. It didn’t last long, but the way she narrowed her eyes told me she blamed me for Nicky’s involvement. As if I had a part in his crazy act.
“They’re doing the best they can,” she added.
“But I need my little boy back.” Tears began to spill onto Michelle’s cheeks. “He starts kindergarten next year. He’s so excited.”
It took everything I had not to rush to her side and pull her into a hug. But instead, I gripped the doorframe. Agent Silva awkwardly patted Michelle’s shoulder, giving her what I’m sure she thought was a comforting smile.
Michelle buried her face in her hands and choked on her sobs. They gave her a minute to cry, waiting until she’d blown her nose on a tissue before proceeding.
“Ms. Yonas, can you tell me what you saw?” Gideon asked. He grabbed a hard plastic orange chair from its position against the wall, and sat next to her bed. “I need everything we can get to find Kit.”
“I didn’t see much.” Michelle hiccupped and covered her mouth with a new tissue. “He kept us in dark rooms mostly. I didn’t even know for sure my parents were dead until I got to the hospital. He’d only take us one at a time.” Tears rimmed her eyes, but she dabbed them away.
“What about the bleeding? How did he do that?” Gideon had his notepad out. He was scribbling on it before she even answered.
“He tied me to a table. Cut my arms on both sides.” She held up her arms for emphasis and pointed to the bandages. “And then let the blood drip into cups. After he drew those symbols on my stomach, he dipped an amulet into the blood and then said a spell. That’s all I saw.”
Agent Silva’s head snapped up from her own notebook. “Do you remember the spell?”
“No. It was in a weird language. I didn’t recognize it.”
Most of the spell books I’d seen Angel carrying around were written in Latin or ancient languages from extinguished cultures. It wasn’t surprising that Theo’s spell to steal powers was in one of those languages.
“Is there anything else you can remember that might help us?” Gideon looked up from his notepad. “Anything at all?”
Michelle pursed her lips and then closed her eyes. For a moment, I thought she’d fallen asleep. But they snapped wide open again.
“He had a key,” she said. “It fell out of his pocket when he was tying me to the table. He didn’t think I saw it, but I did. He had a key.”
“What kind of key?” Gideon asked. He leaned forward in the plastic chair, lifting the back legs off the ground.
“A hotel room key. One of those card keys. I clean rooms part time at the Holiday Inn, so I recognized it right away.” Michelle bounced up and down in the bed. “It was green with white writing. I’m not sure what hotel it belongs to, but I know I saw it.”
“That’s great, Ms. Yonas.” Agent Silva patted her on the shoulder again. “We’ll look into it right away. Now, get some rest. We’ll update you as soon as we have something.”
I moved out of the way for Gideon and Agent Silva to leave the room. They closed the door behind them and walked across the hall into the empty sitting room.
A TV hanging on the wall was turned to the local news station. The weather man stood in front of a map of Arcana, predicting rain for next week. Usually, I’d be happy about a little rain in the forecast. Rainy days meant people tended to stay indoors, and that meant more business for the museum. But now, it just made me grumpy.
“We’ve got to get working on that hotel key,” Gideon said to Agent Silva. “Let’s put out an alert to all local police and start contacting hotels.”
“I’m on it.” Agent Silva sucked in her cheeks and flipped through her notebook. “You know we don’t have much time left. There’s no way he’s leaving town with that boy in tow.”
“I know.” Gideon reached for the tie that wasn’t there, so he unbuttoned the top of his shirt instead. “It’d be too hard to travel with a kid and everyone on alert.”
I’d known since the beginning that the Yonas family was in danger, but even still, I had the tiniest hope that Theo wouldn’t kill an innocent little boy. That hope was dying a slow death.
