Breaker (Ondine Quartet Book 4) (26 page)

“Well, okay but—“
 

“I have a name, you know.” A slight edge entered Julian’s voice. “And you can’t ignore me forever. We’ll need to work —“

“Hell, no.” She finally shot him a disgusted glare. “I don’t work with liars. Besides, I wouldn’t know which name to use. Was it Sean? Oh wait, no. Now it’s Julian. Hard to keep track of these things.”

“Funny,” he retorted. “Isn’t lying what you do? Or is it okay when you lie, cheat, and steal, but not for me to gain necessary information for security—”
 

“Get over yourself!” Fire flashed in her gray eyes

She turned and marched toward the cabin, furious indignation and hurt rolling off her.

I tilted my head. “Tell me you didn’t.”
 

“And if I did?”

“Then we’re going to have a very long talk about how ondines are not play things for demillirs.” I paused. “I like her.”

“Hold your fists, Crusader. No, I didn’t do what you think I did,” he said, irritable. “And you know that already.”

I gestured toward the cabin where Tara now spoke with Daniel. “Yeah, well. There’s something.”

“She was the one who brought me into the group. Didn’t think she’d be that upset about it.”

Genuine surprise colored his tone, almost as if he couldn’t believe Tara had actually trusted him in the first place.

I sat, cross-legged, and took a deep breath. Crisp air rushed into my lungs with a welcome bite.

Julian exhaled and lay down on the dock, hands locked behind his head. “We need to figure out what to do next.”

The problem was we had no clue where to begin.

The faint padding of footsteps behind us signaled new arrivals.

A shadow cooled the sun on my face. “Want one?”

Lucas dangled a cold soda in front of me.
 

“Thanks.”

“Couldn’t find any beer,” Cam added as he joined us. “Daniel chewed me out for five minutes for even asking.”

Lucas settled beside me, his long legs dangling over the edge. “Any ideas yet?”

“We were just talking about it. Have you seen Dax? Is he coming back tonight?”

He shrugged, dropping his gaze to the water. “You know him,” he said vaguely. “He’s around. Somewhere.”

Dax was pissed and it wasn’t only because of Julian.

Part of my agreement with Ancelin included the provision he secure the cooperation of the gardinels stationed here.

Knowing the King, he’d simply ordered his son to do as he was told.

Tomorrow Tristan and a team of gardinels were likely to storm this place looking for us and the young selkies would have to lie.

My conscience twinged. Dax had just been inducted and I’d already put him at odds with his fellow gardinels.

“So what happened?” Julian asked Cam.
 

Cam leaned against a post, one leg straight in front of him, the other bent. “Nothing. Nixes like spending time in nature.”

He made it sound like his personal version of hell.

“Did they have any ideas on where Ian might be?”

“Didn’t come up. Tara, Grady, and Will clammed up and wouldn’t talk. And Holden was working on traps and explosives.”

I straightened. “What?”

“He’s thinking of trying out a few experiments in the woods. Had all sorts of materials out there.” Cam shrugged. “For a nix, he’s not bad.”

Lucas’ smile dimmed. “Who cares if he’s a nix?”

“Didn’t mean nothing by it. Just meant I was surprised they knew so much about weapons.”

“When you don’t really expect much from people, they constantly surprise you,” Julian murmured.

Cam stiffened. “Guess you’d know something about that—”

“Knock it off,” I said sourly. “Look, we need to figure out what we’re doing tomorrow. We don’t have much time.”

“Lucas!” Daniel waved from the porch. “Help me with this!”

Lucas hurried past Holden who sauntered over, hands deep in his pockets, wary eyes flickering over us.

He casually settled next to Cam. “What happened to Ray?”

“He’s enjoying some alone time in the woods.”

“Nice to know you didn’t run him off.”

“Things might’ve been different if some people had stuck around and helped.”

“What do you think I was doing all day?”
 

Cam frowned. “You were digging holes and setting up that—“

“I was thinking.” Holden looked at me. “This message the Shadow told you. The last one. Can you repeat it again?”

I repeated his odd good-bye.

Sing me a story about princesses and moons, of lakes and mountains and five balloons.

Cam took a drink and set aside his can. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Princesses and moons,” Julian mused, a smile dancing on his lips. “Rather poetic. Maybe I should start calling you —“

“Holden,” I said loudly. “What is it?”

“Well, it ain’t a reference to elemental history or any kind of legend. And it’s not
 
a word puzzle or reference to any elemental community.”

My heart fell.

“Which means it’s got something to do with Kendra. This has always been personal.” Holden’s brow furrowed. “If the words aren’t referencin’ anything, only logical conclusion is it’s tied to her.”
 

Cam repeated the phrase again. “Sounds like a nursery rhyme.”

“He said it in a sing-song voice,” I told him.

“Maybe that’s the key,” Holden murmured. “Singing.”

“Have you heard her voice?” Julian leaned back on his hands. “It’s for cursing, not singing.”

“Shut up.” I turned to Holden. “I’m not the singing type.”

“What about family? Friends?”

I shook my head.
 

“Combine nursery rhyme and singing,” Cam said. “Don’t moms sometimes sing to their babies?”

He had a point. But Naida Irisavie was the type to bark orders, not recite nursery ditties.

“My mother wasn’t really like that.”

“You sure?” Holden pressed. “Maybe she wasn’t the singing type, but the words could still have meaning. Something to do with your past or childhood.”

I strained for a memory of balloons or princesses or moons. Nothing.

Discomfort spread. I never spoke about my life before Haverleau.

“Life with my mom wasn’t like that. It…everything was about training. Survival. The war.”

I focused on the soda in my hand. Just saying it sounded bare. An empty life.

“How’d it happen?” Holden asked bluntly.

“On patrol in California. They got her in a strip mall parking lot.”

Cam leaned in. “Humans didn’t pry further?”

I shook my head. “It looked like a clear-cut suicide.”

My mother’s broken neck had been consistent with a fall. The location and placement of her body made it seem as if she’d jumped off the roof of the building. The police hadn’t pursued any further action.

Since I now knew the investigating officer had been the Shadow, that made sense.

“What happened to her body?” Julian asked.

“She was buried in the city cemetery.”

No funeral because there’d been no funds to cover it. The county buried her in a plot of land reserved for those with no families or homes under the assumed name we were using at the time.

“Are you sure?” Julian looked at me, his eyes intent.
 

The customs for elemental burial differed. Ondines were returned to the dessondines in the ocean. Demillirs were cremated, their ashes scattered across water in designated locations, while selkies were placed in underwater caves, sacred burial sites known only among their people.

By choosing to live outside communities, Rogues gave up the right to a proper burial.

“Why?”

“Because I can’t imagine Rhian would leave her daughter in a human cemetery.”

The thought had never occurred to me.

By law, Rhian should’ve left my mother alone. Naida Irisavie was no longer a member of the elemental world.

But my grandmother had watched over us for years. She’d known when my mother was killed.

Did she choose her heart over the law? Being a mother over being a Governor?

If so, why didn’t she tell me? Why didn’t Jeeves say anything?
 

Julian met my gaze and I saw the same doubt reflected in his eyes.

“How did she fight Aquidae?” Cam asked.

“Mom? She used her Virtue—“

“No, I mean the weapon to kill them. Did she have a dagger like you?”

I shook my head. “She used my dad’s
kouperet
.”

“Did you get it back?” Holden asked sharply. “The
kouperet
?”

My skin prickled. “No.”

I’d assumed it’d been lost during the fight. Maybe the Aquidae had even managed to get rid of it prior to the cops discovering her body.

But knowing how long the Shadow had tracked us shed new light on everything.

Lies had the power to alter time. I could no longer view my past with the same lens I once had.

“Every
kouperet
is accounted for,” Julian said slowly. “The registry is double-checked every week by the Justice Department. If someone is killed in the line of duty, part of clean up involves turning the deceased’s weapon back in. When your parents went Rogue, your father’s
kouperet
would’ve been removed from the registry.”

“And if it had secretly been returned, the numbers wouldn’t add up.”

He nodded. “Garreth and I both get weekly reports from the Justice Department. The last
kouperet
removed from Haverleau’s registry was Gabe’s. No discrepancies.”

“So we got a mom we’re not sure is buried in the place she’s supposed to be buried,” Holden said. “And a missing
kouperet
.”

“Kendra.” Cam’s voice sobered. “What happened two years ago?”

I had no answer. “We need to find out if any humans covered up my mom’s death.”

If they had, there was a possibility they still held my father’s
kouperet
.

Cam shook his head. “Oriel and Daniel can’t help you there. Network is highly regulated to protect the identities of its members. They don’t know anyone outside their geographic group.”

“But Haverleau does,” Julian said. “It has a database of all the people assigned to each city.”
 

The problem was how to access it. Normally, I’d ask Ian or Aubrey.

“Aub’s out,” Cam said.

Every move she made would be scrutinized and monitored. The risk was too high.

Holden gave a loud, exasperated sigh.“Well, then, I guess you’re just screwed.”

Sarcasm dripped off every word.

“Haverleau’s classified info isn’t easy to break into,” I pointed out. “Ian and Aubrey are the best—“

“And you can only have the best.” He shook his head. “Ain’t you the spoiled one.”

Julian chuckled. “I’d forgotten.”

I stared at him. “Are you kidding me?”

“I meant I’d forgotten they could do that.”

“They?”
 

Holden tilted his head in acknowledgement.

“Wait.” Cam frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Holden motioned toward the cabin.
 

The gathering dusk poured gold across the plain wood exterior. Will sat on the porch steps with a laptop, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

“Neo and Redgrrl may be the best. But if you willin’ to settle,
sondaleur
, we got the third best right here.”

FIFTEEN

“This is it.”

Julian parked and I jumped out of the car to stretch. My back muscles groaned in protest.

What would’ve been a simple five hour drive on I-5 ended up being three times longer.

Before we left Daniel’s cabin, Holden had given us a crash course on living off the grid. We needed to stay mobile and off any human radar as much as possible, which meant cash and traveling via car on backroads and smaller highways.

Three impatient individuals cooped up in a small car for an extended period of time wasn’t exactly an ideal situation.

The last two hours had been especially rough. Cam had gotten so surly, I’d seriously considered knocking him out so he’d stop complaining.

I waved my hand in front of me. “Take off the Virtue.”

“You’re going to be visible—“

“I don’t care.” The feeling of Julian’s magic over my aura was suffocating. “Just get it off.”

The pressure lifted.

I took a deep breath, savoring the fresh, crisp air. Silence permeated the grey night. The moon hung large and yellow in the clear sky, stars glittering around it like a tapestry of jewels.
 

San Aurelio was too small to warrant the stationing of humans sympathetic to elementals. All elemental problems in that section of northern California was assigned to the network of the nearest city, which happened to be Portland, Oregon.

On Haverleau’s directory, the Portland group consisted of three humans.

Two were currently out of town on business. The last was the county medical examiner, a woman named Eleanor Malpass who just so happened to be working tonight. Julian had texted ahead and set up the meeting.

The bland two-story concrete building housing the medical examiner’s office sat on a quiet street near the southeast outskirts of the city.

We followed the instructions she’d provided and made our way to the back entrance, avoiding the security cameras positioned in the corners.

Julian texted her while I checked the facility perimeter for any unusual activity. The relief I’d felt at our arrival had already dissipated.

Julian paused and glanced toward the cluster of trees where we’d parked.

Cam tensed. “What?”

I moved in beside him.

He shook his head. “Thought I saw something.”

Cam’s hand automatically went to the
kouperet
holstered beneath his coat. “Aquidae?”

My Virtue prodded the area. “Can’t sense anything.”

Julian remained still, his gaze locked on the shadowy corner.

We waited. Listened.

No flickering shadow or rustle of movement.

The night provided no answers.
 

Finally, he shook his head. “Probably just imagined it.”

A soft click sounded from behind the steel door. It opened, revealing a tall, middle-aged woman with judgmental eyes and a slash of a mouth set within a severe face.