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I knew Rhi meant well, but I had never ignored advice so thoroughly. I was pacing the living room, phone in my hand. I’d sent three texts and made three calls, all of which had gone straight to voicemail, and ended in me leaving three successive and increasingly hysterical messages.
“Don’t panic? Rhi, she’s missing!” I cried.
“Well, hold on, now, we don’t know that yet,” Rhi said, though her own voice trembled. “She… she might have gone for a drive to clear her head or… or gone downtown for a coffee.”
“And she needed her suitcase for that?” I asked.
Rhi bit her lip. “I still think it’s too soon to panic.”
“Why should anyone panic? Isn’t it obvious what’s happened?” Persi snapped. She’d thrown a satin dressing gown on over her slip and traded the coffee for another cigarette. “She freaked out, changed her mind, and bailed!”
“No, she didn’t!” Rhi cried.
“Oh, what, like she hasn’t done it before? We practically had to drag her back here. Is it any wonder she left? I can’t believe you’re this naive, Rhi.”
“Last time was different. She left to protect Wren,” Rhi said.
“So?” Persi spat.
“So, I’m still here!” I said, feeling the anger boiling up inside of me. “She wouldn’t leave me here, she wouldn’t just leave without telling me!”
“Why not? She did it to her own mother. Once a coward, always a c—”
I couldn’t take another word. Before I could even think, I had crossed the room and stood right in front of Persi, our faces inches apart. “Never call my mother a coward again, do you hear me?Never.”
For a moment I thought she might slap me, but then Persi dropped her eyes to the floor, abashed. I backed away from her, trying to calm myself down.
“When did you notice her car was gone?” I asked, and there was no venom in Persi’s voice when she answered.
“A couple of hours ago, when B—when I got up,” Persi said evasively.
“When what?” Rhi asked sharply.
Persi rolled her eyes, aggravated with herself for the slip-up. “When Bernadette left, okay? She… you know how she gets. I woke up, and she was getting dressed, saying shehadto go paint; and so I got up to walk her down to the door, and that’s when I noticed Kerri’s car was gone.”
“What time was that?” Rhi asked.
Persi shrugged. “Around 6? 6:30?”
“And you didn’t think that was strange? Why didn’t you tell anyone?” I cried.
“Your mother’s a grown woman, Wren! She can go where she wants. I’m not her babysitter!”
“We have to go look for her. Something is very, very wrong,” I said, pacing now.
Rhi held up her hands in a placating gesture. “Wren, why don’t we just wait a little while and see if she—”
“We can’t wait! Don’t you get it! This is about the Covenant! Someone tried to stop me from renewing it, and now someone’s trying to stop her!”
Rhi’s eyes went wide. “What do you mean someone tried to stop you from—”
“Do you even have police in this town? Who do you call when there’s an emergency?” I demanded. “Who can help us?”
“I… we… we should alert the Conclave,” Rhi said, standing up. “I’ll call Xiomara.”
Persi looked at the two of us, and a tiny bit of the panic we were feeling finally sparked in her eyes. “I’ll call Bernadette and tell her to send Ostara over here,” she said, pulling out her phone. “And I’ll ask her if she saw or heard anything last night.”
“Thank you,” I said, and though I was still so tightly wound with anxiety that I felt like a rubber band about to snap, I was grateful that they were finally taking this seriously. Because whatever doubts my aunts may have had, I had none.
