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“The rest of us should get going,” Sulien said. “We’re losing our advantage every second we linger.”
Not having the first clue who their real enemy was was proving to be a true pain in the ass, apparently. Sienna’s insides were all twisted up with unnecessary nerves after they left the house, even despite Rajan’s promise to protect Maya. Despite Fenn’s reassurance that they would find the man tormenting her sisters and make him pay. Part of her had thought having all four of them together would make it super easy to accomplish their goals—that they could snap their collective fingers andpoof, Piper would be home, safe and sound.
That had been naïve, she realized.
Cassian and Sulien split from them as soon as they stepped off the driveway, both fading away into the evening darkness. Slipping into whatever magical dimensions they had that allowed them to travel invisibly and utterly undetectably across spaces.
Fenn stayed beside her, though she suspected they also cheated, because it took no time at all to go from the driveway in front of her childhood home to a darkened business street. Only a few sporadic loops of Christmas lights, mostly sparkling white or nearly violet blue, decorated the buildings here. It was the street Piper’s office was on, in fact.
Sienna swallowed against another rush of unhelpful emotion. “You think they’re here?”
“I wish I knew where they were,” he said. He spoke quietly and curled his hand around hers. “I only doubt she’s being held in the heart of downtown, where the people seem to be gathering to celebrate the holiday.”
Her chest tightened and Sienna slipped her fingers between his, gripping almost desperately to his hand. He was surely referring to the event Maya had been helping collect donations for. Had she at least gotten to turn them in first? Or were they still sitting in a pile somewhere within the empty walls of Turn A Page?
She licked her lips and pushed out the first reasonable question she could think of, needing a distraction. “How will we know … if we’re close?”
Fenn hummed low. “If Florence is there, even if she manages to control herself, I’ll sense her. The healing power she possesses operates on what you might call a different frequency than the magic of my void. When we’re within a certain proximity of each other, I can feel it, like a constant aggravation at the back of my mind.”
“She’s basically life, you’re Death, that makes as much sense as anything I suppose…” She said the words, but barely heard the conversation. Maya’s bookstore wasn’t on this street, but for some reason Sienna couldn’t describe, she suddenly wanted to go there. Was she just stupidly obsessing about the donation books?
“If Florence isn’t with him,” Fenn continued, unaware of Sienna’s wandering mind, “it could be trickier. We’re essentially looking for a being with some amount of divinity in his blood, or something that might be on par, and someone who most likely doesn’t belong. It’s vague, which makes it complicated. He’s helping us by keeping hold of Piper, unfortunately.”
They were nearly parallel with the law firm where Piper worked as a secretary. Sienna recalled, all of a sudden, arguing about stupid things like jobs and work status with her sister. Probably not even that long ago. Piper was good at what she did. She saw value in the old-fashioned concept of paperwork and desk jobs. She had once aspired to work in some big Fortune 500 company, but when their lives had been turned upside down after their parents’ passing, Piper had downsized her expectations.
It had always bothered Sienna. So Sienna had made a point to get the most “new school” job she could handle, to do what her generation was expected to do and find a way to make money on her terms. They’d never seen eye-to-eye on the subject of work, with one exception. They were both so proud of Maya for keeping the family bookstore running, even in the digital era.
Sienna came to a full stop and tugged on Fenn’s hand. “The bookstore,” she whispered. “I need to go to the bookstore.” She couldn’t explain it. She wasn’t sure there was any justification for it. She just couldn’t get the damn thing out of her head.
Fenn’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t argue. He stepped up to her side and the swirls of his power lifted off the ground, presumably to do as she’d requested.
Sienna was prepared for the visual adjustment when his power receded a moment later, allowing color and life to bleed back into her senses, but she was briefly startled at realizing he’d transported them inside. They stood directly past the main door, so the entire store opened up to them.
The two registers remained seemingly untouched just ahead and off to one side. Ambient street light filtered in through the main front window around the edges of the simple privacy shade. Unlit holiday decorations, including a sign encouraging donations, celebrated the season all across the front of the space.
For a moment, Sienna felt relief. The table that was clearly labeled as designated for donations was empty, so they’d been picked up. She took a step forward, still compelled to look around, and came up short when Fenn tightened his grip of her hand.
“Don’t let go of me,” he said. His eyes were narrowed and glowing in a haunting way every clichéd creature of the night would envy. “Something’s … wrong.”
She immediately tensed again and swiveled her head back and forth, attempting to spot the wrongness in the dim lighting. Of course, she couldn’t. Not from the entryway, at least. “What do you mean? Is Piper—”
“No.” He guided her forward, deeper into the store, at a slow pace. He wasn’t looking down aisles or reading section labels, he was watching the floor. “But something did die here, very recently.” He pointed outward. “Can you see that?”
Her stomach twisted and Sienna found herself hesitant to follow his extended arm with her gaze, but she complied. She had to squint to see it.
Blood. Streaked as if something had been dragged down the center aisle.
She sucked in a breath. “Holy crap!” She twisted toward Fenn, breathless and admittedly more freaked out than she ought to be at the sight of blood. “Is that— Tell me that’s not Piper?”
Fenn brushed his thumb across her cheek. “That blood came from something which was never human,” he said. “There’s an owl in the back. The life was drained from it less than an hour ago.”
His words steadied her and anger, and disbelief, sparked in her chest. “Anowl?” The question came out of her in a hiss, as if she had some need to keep her voice down.
He nodded.
Sienna glared down at the streaked blood on the floor for a moment. “Take me.”
Fenn didn’t say another word before guiding her through the bookstore, keeping her out of the trail of blood, until they came to the partially open space Maya had painstakingly decorated for her customers. It was furnished with high-backed chairs, a loveseat, and two different tables, creating a sort of mini relaxation point. Shoppers could rest their feet, or curl up and read their latest purchase. The sisters had once claimed this space as a playroom when their mother had been responsible for the store.
