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The fatalistic thought clung to me, making me sick to my stomach. I had lowered my guard with Elix, let her see a side of me no one had seen before because I loved her. But I had also driven her away with my irrational words. The thought of living without her now was unbearable.
Stop it! Of course we’re going to find her. She’s here.
We were presumably very close to Elix now, according to Cade’s and the warlock’s intel, but I couldn’t help but feel like they were wrong. I didn’t feel her here, even if she had been once.
Of course, standing in a private airfield, a few miles away from the heart of Copehaven, maybe my senses were skewed.
A gleaming, armored SUV waited near the airport building, a driver rushing to open the door for the three of us to enter.
“Can you do a locator spell from here?” I demanded of Cirilla once we were sitting in the back of the vehicle, zooming away from the runway.
“Theoretically,” she answered. My eyes narrowed, but before I could question her, Cirilla was quick to explain. “Solomon is convinced that she’s here. He saw her quite vividly in his vision.”
“Well, Cade is saying there’s no sign of her.”
“Let’s get into town and see what we can find out,” Saint suggested before Cirilla and I could launch into one of our infamous arguments. “Let’s not start launching magic unless we need to.”
“It can’t hurt for Cirilla to do something while we’re driving,” I insisted, nodding at the enchantress. She didn’t argue with me and closed her eyes, settling back to touch her thumbs to her index fingers in meditation mode.
I stared at my phone, willing it to ring with some news as Saint gnawed at his cuticles and Cirilla continued to work the locator spell on Elix. But as the fields disappeared and low buildings materialized on the landscape in place, there wasnothing beyond the silence in the vehicle as it slid over the roads. My nerves frayed more with the drive, and I welcomed the stop at the border, bringing us back into Goldhaven, the closest airport in Ironhelm.
Cirilla’s eyes popped open as the driver dealt with customs.
“Did you get anything?”
She shook her head. “Not yet. Maybe once we enter Goldhaven officially?”
I grunted to myself, but the car began to move again, heading over the cement bridge that was more symbolic than truly guarded.
“Try now,” I urged Cirilla, and she bit on her lower lip. “Please?”
Cirilla inhaled and resumed her positioning as I ordered the driver toward the bus station.
“Why can’t she feel Elix?” Saint asked, finally speaking his troubled mind aloud.
“Shh!” Cirilla hissed, peeking through a half open eyelid.
Ignoring her, I answered his question. “Locator spells are a delicate business. Enchantresses have a lot of power, but even they have limits. If Elix is out of range, we need to find another warlock out here.”
“This is ridiculous. How can she be out of range again?” Saint growled, but I wasn’t listening. I tensed as the SUV slowed.
It wasn’t the encampment set up across the way that alarmed me, but the heaviness that sank into my bones as the vehicle slowed.
“Stop here,” I ordered the driver.
“Here?” Cirilla and Saint repeated in unison.
“Yes…” I didn’t wait for the car to stop before letting myself out.
“Jace!”
Without knowing why or how, I forsook the bus terminal altogether and moved toward the encampment… but I wasn’t headed there.
“Jace!” Breathlessly, Cirilla caught up to me, Saint joining my side a moment later. “Where are you going?”
As if I was possessed, I continued forward, eyes darting over the unhoused population as my guards remained close and tense, all expecting trouble.
My shoulders rose closer to my ears, a knot forming in my throat.
