Night Seeker (7 page)

“Zoey is loyal to me. I know her oaths bind her, but if I tell her what’s at stake…” Luna pulled out her cell phone. “I should call her.”

“They allow cell phones in their midst?” Kaylin cocked his head, giving her an odd look. “Last I heard, secret societies at least tried to stay…well…secret.”

Luna snickered and blinked a flirty look at him. I didn’t even think she realized she was doing it. “This is the twenty-first century, not the 1900s. They not only allow cell phones, but they sanction occasional visits home, as long as the society member observes the rules. Zoey could sneak out the books and return them when we’re done. Books are to be used—information should flow rather than be locked up away from the world. Though Zoey’s the only member of my family I’d trust with the information about where we are and why.”

She paused, waiting for me to give her the go-ahead. I looked around. Kaylin nodded. Peyton and Rhiannon added their approval. My father remained silent. Lannan was out of the room.

Grieve slowly inclined his head. “I’m willing to chance it if she can find anything. I have to shake these bonds. I’m tired of feeling like my hands are tied.”

Majority ruled.

I turned back to Luna. “Go for it. Call her after we finish our meeting.” She nodded, sliding her phone into her pocket. I glanced around. “I guess we’d better haul Lannan’s ass back in here. We need everybody present because I want all the input that I can get. I have an idea, too.”

Lannan reluctantly joined us, looking bored. He stared at me, ignoring Grieve’s dirty glances. My father just shook his head and rubbed his brow. He gave me a look as if to say,
You caused it, you fix it.

As we sat around the table, I looked at each one in turn. We all had our strengths, we all had our weaknesses. I wasn’t going to lie: The fact that Lainule was no longer on our team stung. The same with Anadey and Leo. They weren’t exactly enemies, but they had all betrayed us, in one way or another. So much had gone wrong, so fast.

“I think I know a way we can regain Lainule’s help. It’s dangerous, but in my opinion, it’s the only thing we can do. We need Summer’s help, and I don’t want to be the one dividing my father from the Queen of Rivers and Rushes.” I looked up at him. That little piece of guilt wasn’t going to go away.

“You are not the dividing line, my daughter. Lainule has her own mind and we’ve argued over many things throughout the years. This is simply one more squabble.” His eyes lit up. “The Queen of Summer has a temper as volatile as fire pouring from the sun. She embodies the flame. It is her nature.”

“Yeah, but I don’t like being on the wrong end of her torch. And we
need
her. We need her to give up on Geoffrey.”

Luna cocked her head to the side. “Why is she so desperate that she would be part of his plans?”

“Cicely knows why.” Wrath gave me a warning look.

I nodded. “If Myst finds Alissanya—Lainule’s heartstone—she can destroy the Queen of Rivers and Rushes. And with Myst controlling the woodland, she
will
find it. It’s only a matter of time. Lainule is a desperate woman, Summer Queen or not. She was hoping that Geoffrey would help her destroy Myst before that plays out.”

“What do you need from us?”

I sucked in a deep breath. “I want your opinion on this. I think, if we can recover Lainule’s heartstone, she will help us. She’s afraid now—if Myst finds it, she will die. If we find it, she will regain her strength.”

“You have no idea of the ramifications of what you’re proposing.” Wrath stared at me, slowly standing. “And you should not talk of this in public.” He grimaced. I’d never seen him look so irritated.

I glanced around. “What public? We’re about as far from
public
as we can get in this town.”

“You know what I mean—you speak in front of yummanii, magic-born, and worst of all—vampire.” He leaned forward and for a moment, I thought he was going to strike me, his expression was stern and terrible and piercing like the eyes of an owl. But all he did was take my chin in hand. “Daughter, even now, you trust too easily.”

I bit my lip. I hated making him upset. But we had to start trusting somewhere, and as bad as we’d been burned already, we only had our little ragtag group we’d managed to pull together.

“I know it’s dangerous, but we haven’t got a choice. Either Lainule fades and dies through lack of her heartstone, or we recover it and she lives. She can’t go after it. Her people can’t go after it.
Your
people.”

“What exactly is a heartstone?” Luna asked, glancing from Wrath to me.

I plunged ahead. My father was right to be wary, but we were running out of time. “It’s a part of Lainule’s essence, from her heart, encapsulated in a gem, deep within the Golden Wood. If Myst finds it, she can immediately destroy Lainule. The Queen of Rivers and Rushes is too far away from it and she’s fading. Unless we find it and take it to her, Lainule will die.”

Lannan let out a sharp bark. “You cannot let Summer die.”

Wrath turned to him. “What do you care, Altos?”

“If Lainule dies, then Myst has no checks. Geoffrey’s not going to be able to stop her, as much as he’d like to
think he can. She will flow through, set up the long winter, destroy my people, and all others with us. I do not wish for that any more than you do, Owl King.” Lannan leaned forward. “I will help you, and I will keep your secret because it is for the good of my people to do so.”

Grieve reached for my hand and I gave it to him. He lifted it to his lips and kissed it gently, then lightly nipped the skin. “You are my chosen for a reason. But how do you plan to find where she’s hiding the gem?”

Chatter and I glanced at each other. I cleared my throat. “When Chatter and I journeyed to the Bat People, to help wake Kaylin’s demon, we went through a secret passageway. I’m pretty sure we were close. Instinct tells me Lainule may have hidden it down there. It looked like it hadn’t been used for a long, long time and…I sensed something in the area.”

Grieve nodded. “You could be right. The heartstones are sacrosanct, but we live in desperate times. I say we do it. Lainule was always aloof, but she was never a fool, and for her to link herself to Geoffrey in his mad scheme does not bode as normal for our Lady of Summer.”

Chatter cleared his throat. “I agree. We know where the passage is, we know how to get there. We must go in and search there carefully. If we journey by creeping through the forest, they shouldn’t see us and we’ll have the time to hunt for the gem.”

I turned to Wrath. “We have no choice. If we want Lainule on our side again, we have to bring her the strength to stand with us. Until then, she’s in Geoffrey’s pocket. And suppose he decides that since I won’t let him turn me, that he might try with Summer? Can you imagine what might happen if he turned Lainule? Surely she wouldn’t be as bestial as Myst, but there’s no guarantee she’d be sane.”

My father blanched. “I had not thought of that. Surely Geoffrey isn’t mad enough to try.” He paused, then sucked in a deep breath. “He is, isn’t he? He’s just crazed enough to attempt it.”

“I think he might be.” I bit my lip. I didn’t want to hurt my father or scare him but the thought had crossed my
mind more than once and I was learning to pay attention to my instinct.

“Very well. We go in search of my Lady’s heartstone. I just hope Myst doesn’t catch us.” Wrath deflated, dropping to the chair next to me. “But then Myst is coming and will take us all unless we do whatever we can to stop her.”

Outside, the wind howled around the factory and I had the uneasy feeling we were being watched. The Shadow Hunters were on the prowl, and their Queen was driving the snows behind them.

But we couldn’t go after the heartstone that night. It was too late and too dangerous. We’d need to go during the day, when it was less risky. And there were other things we had to attend to first. I sprawled on the makeshift sofa, closing my eyes, wanting nothing more than a long, warm, comfortable night’s sleep.

Peyton dropped to the seat beside me. She let out a huff, then said, “Rex is coming. I finally got hold of him. At least he’s still alive.”

Rex was her long-lost father who had shown up on her doorstep a few days back, after abandoning her mother and her when she was a little girl. Peyton hadn’t been home to meet him. Making a deal with the vampires, Anadey had sold me out in an attempt to prevent the meeting from ever taking place, but her betrayal was in vain. Rex was still alive, and now Anadey was an outcast to us. Peyton had taken it hard, but she was soldiering on.

“You made certain to warn him to make sure he’s not followed, right?” The last thing we needed was for the vampires or the Shadow Hunters to track us down by following him.

“He’s not stupid.” Peyton gave me a sharp look, then grimaced. “I’m sorry. Yeah, we talked about it. He’s being careful. He’ll be here tomorrow morning. This is the first time I’ll have seen my father in…over twenty years.” She looked like she was going to cry but then grabbed the dishes from the table, carrying them off to the utility sink in order to wash them.

“There’s another thing we need to discuss before we track down the heartstone. We did a hasty ritual to band the Moon Spinners together, but if we’re going to ask for help from the Consortium, we’ll have to do things by the book. They don’t cotton to people trying to buck the trends.”

Rhiannon tapped her fingers on the table. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

I frowned. “I don’t think so.”

“What about the fact that you told Ysandra Petros that you and Kaylin are married? It was Kaylin’s dumb idea at the time—and though I see what he was getting at, things didn’t work out the way we thought they would. She’s going to expect to see a marriage license. She pretty much said so before we left.”

We didn’t know a lot about them, but the Consortium served as an international organization to which a good share of the magic-born—at least those in high places and with any public notoriety—belonged. They laid down rules of conduct and enforced them. Heavily. They also backed up members who ran afoul of the law—as long as it was a blatant frame-up—or afoul of enemies. They were an impressive association, and their membership was daunting. The real
Who’s Who
of the magical set.

And since Peyton and I had started magical businesses together without realizing that all such enterprises needed to be registered with the Consortium, we were on the hook for becoming members. Ysandra Petros, a high-ranking member of the organization, had dropped in for a visit when we opened the doors of the Veil House to customers for Wind Charms and Peyton’s endeavor—Magical Eye Investigations.

When Marta, the town witch for New Forest, left me her
business and her position as the official leader of the now-defunct Thirteen Moons Society, I’d apparently earned a place in the ranks of the Consortium. Marta had been Peyton’s grandmother and Anadey’s mother—but Anadey and her mother were at odds. Because of a vision, Marta had named me as her heir before Myst killed her. But now, I had to come up with a magical society to replace hers—and so the Moon Spinners were born.

I’d been leery at first, but now with Geoffrey taking a trip into La-La land and Lainule ignoring us—we needed the Consortium’s help. When in danger, any help is usually better than no help at all.

“Oh. That.” I turned to see Kaylin laughing. “And just what do we do about this? I’m not about to marry you just to back up your lie, especially now, with the situation so out of hand. I don’t know what possessed you to encourage me to tell her that or why I even listened to you.”

“We were trying to keep the whole matter with Myst quiet, and with Heather in Myst’s grasp…well…we needed a ruse as to why we were all living there, and we needed it quick. Rhiannon—and you—yeah, she would have bought that. But I didn’t think she’d believe that Leo and I were just dropping by. Chalk it up to stupidity, but then we’ve all done some stupid things, haven’t we? You were just as flustered as the rest of us.” He gave me a
whatever
shrug and went back to sorting out the stuff we’d purloined from the house.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake. I’m just going to tell her everything. At this point, they’re bound to find out at some point, and if I admit I lied, she might be more apt to forgive me rather than if she discovers it later on.” Ysandra had seemed a reasonable person. At least, I hoped she was.

You run a risk once she discovers you were deceiving her, but that may be the least of your worries.
Ulean’s voice was gentle in my ear.

“We could go through with it.” Kaylin grinned at me.

I let out a sigh. “Oh, Kaylin, I like you, dude, but you have to be kidding.”

Kaylin set down the sack of herbs he’d been sorting and dropped to one knee. “Oh, Cicely, marry me!”

“You can’t marry Cicely.” Grieve didn’t sound at all happy.

“I’m not
Lannan
. I’m not trying to
fuck
her. But seriously, I’m joking. Don’t have a fit.” Kaylin stood, dusting his hands on his jeans, and then started to laugh. “Yes, my idea was stupid. Of course we’ll tell her the truth. I’m really not trying to co-opt your lover.”