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“I don’t know.” I cocked my head as I considered the article I’d found. “It’s just a little piece from some small-town paper… So small I guess this qualified as news. It’s reporting that Charles Frankford the First purchased a large property near the coast there, ‘just east of the cliff area.’ The First? It’s from fifty years ago.”
“Maybe the dad of the Frankford I’ve met? Or his grandfather? What’s the name of the town?”
“Heronville.”
“Nope, definitely never heard anything significant about that.” Rose’s brow knit. “Maybe that’s something to look into if we can’t dig up anything else to help us, though.”
“Yeah.”
“But not right now,” Seth’s voice carried from the front. “You two are supposed to be getting some sleep, remember? We want to be fresh for whatever the Assembly throws at us tomorrow.”
Rose made a face. “He’s right,” she said. “Come here.”
She nestled against me, inviting me to lean my head against hers. I let myself relax into her the way I’d longed to earlier, because Seth was right. I needed my mind sharp. And I’d already found out a lot.
But under the warm flush of victory, my nerves weren’t exactly calm. We might have allies in Rose’s mother’s family, but what had happened between them and her dad in the first place? And what did this Cliff have to do with anything?
Nothing good—that was all I knew for sure.
Chapter Eleven
Rose
“So you said Margo Elands’s shop is on Staten Island?” Gabriel said. He was at the wheel of the SUV now. It was late afternoon, and we’d just come into the built-up area around New York City proper.
I rubbed my eyes. I’d gotten some sleep here and there overnight and through the day’s long drive, but I couldn’t say I really felt rested. Especially since I’d been reaching out with my magic over and over, testing for the presence of other spells in opposition.
Just in the last few hours, I’d started to feel a faint tingling. Distant still and not an overt attack, but enough to put me on my guard. The Assembly was still searching for us. I couldn’t be sure how closely they were tracking us.
“That’s right,” I said. “I’ve got the address. I can give you directions once we get over there.”
“Looks like we’ll reach the bridge in about ten minutes,” Kyler said from where he was navigating from the phone.
Behind me, Damon leaned his arm out the open window. “I want to head over to Brooklyn for a bit. There are a few guys there I know. They might be able to help out in non-magical ways.”
“Like what?” I asked, tensing a little, both at the idea of one of my consorts leaving the group even for a little while—and at the idea of what Damon might have planned. He’d calmed down some since I’d first gotten back in town, but he still had some… overly aggressive ideas of how to deal with problems. He’d sent a bunch of small-time gangsters to beat up Derek when my former fiancé had been getting overly pushy with me, even though I’d had the situation under control.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” he said in his favorite cocky tone. “I’ll just be getting some supplies. I promise I won’t get anyone else involved.”
Well, I guessed that was something. “I don’t think you should go alone,” I said.
“These kind of guys don’t really want a whole party of people they don’t know showing up on their doorstep.”
“Can you at least takesomeone, just in case trouble shows up?” I wasn’t sure what any of the guys could do against the enforcers on their own, but at least if two of them were together, they had more of a chance of creating a distraction or getting a message to me so I could help.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing more of the city,” Kyler piped up before Damon could argue with me. “I could use some supplies too—see if I can come up with some tech for getting through all the Assembly’s internal security, if we ever have the chance to take a real go at the deeper layers of their network.”
Damon sighed. “All right, all right. But you’re hanging back while I’m actually talking with these guys.”
Ky raised his hands. “No argument there. The low-lifes are all yours.”
Damon snorted a laugh, and Ky grinned. Sometime last night they’d gotten a little friendlier. I’d have been happier to see it if my stomach wasn’t still twisted up at the thought of them leaving my side at all.
But the enforcers hadn’t really hurt the guys even when they’d had us all locked up before. After they’d crashed the van, their spells had been aimed more to capture us than destroy us. They were protectingmefor whatever reason. I could hope they’d at least continue that policy.
“Do you have enough money for these supplies?” I asked, reaching for the purse where I’d stashed all the cash I’d taken out.
“I cleared out my account,” Damon said. “I’m set for a while. I won’t be getting too fancy, angel.”
