The Inquisitor's Mark (4 page)

Mrs. Carroway exchanged a glance with her husband and gave him a small, discreet smile. Jax suspected his feelings had just been read and his indignant defense of
Evangeline had won the old lady over. But as he looked around, Jax realized something else was wrong here.

The children who kept peeking around the corner had pale skin, silvery-blond hair, and blue eyes, but none of them appeared to be a thirteen-year-old girl with a personal interest in Jax's story. “Doesn't Addie get a say in this?” he asked. “Where is she? Aren't you going to tell her that her sister's here?”

Carroway Jr. sighed. “Addie's gone. She left here over a month ago.”

“A WAY STATION?”
Riley stared at Mr. Carroway incredulously. “You had an Emrys heir here while operating a
way station
?”

Evangeline had taken the news about Addie bravely but sadly, as if she hadn't really expected a happy reunion today. When the diapered Kin toddler waddled over and lifted her arms like a demanding queen, Evangeline scooped her up and buried her face in the little girl's hair. Jax was pretty sure she was hiding tears.

“Residents don't share their family names,” Mr. Carroway said defensively. “That's one of the rules. If they want to stay here, they remain anonymous.”

Really? Little kids were expected to keep secrets? Jax saw Mrs. Crandall shake her head and guessed she was thinking the same thing he was: that the first thing kids did when out of sight of adults was say,
Guess what I'm not supposed to tell you
.

Riley was blunt about it. “She must have told someone, or they figured it out.”

Mrs. Crandall put a hand on Riley's arm to quiet him. “What you're doing here is a very kind and generous thing,” she said more tactfully. “But considering the importance of keeping Adelina Emrys safe and out of sight . . .”

“Addie lived here for over thirty years, and there was never any problem,” Mr. Carroway said. “Refugees came and went, and no one noticed the one little girl who stayed.”

All the Kin staying here had either been driven out of their homes by Transitioners or were forced to leave by events in the Normal world. Jax had never considered how hard it must be for the Kin, with their extended lives, to find a safe place to live. Buildings were remodeled or torn down when they got old. Sometimes they caught fire or fell into disrepair. And Jax hadn't really grasped the fact until now that a lot of Transitioners had a strong dislike for Kin. Transitioners were the jailers, and the entire Kin race were their prisoners, sentenced for crimes committed long ago. The most hated and evil Kin families were imprisoned even within the eighth day, and the others . . . well, Jax guessed they were like ex-convicts. Allowed out on their own in a limited way, but not really trusted, and nobody wanted them living next door.

The woman nursing the baby had been chased out of her long-time home. She and her children were staying with the Carroways until her husband found a new place. Some of the kids here were orphans, Mrs. Carroway said. Others had been left here by parents who could find no other safe place to keep them.

And six weeks ago, Addie had run away from this house with a teenage Kin girl she'd befriended.

“How do you know she went willingly?” Riley asked.

Mrs. Carroway looked tearful, and her husband said, “Because she left us a letter.”

After an awkward pause, Carroway Jr. said, “We love Addie. But let's face it. She's . . .” He paused.

Evangeline lifted her face from the little girl's head. “Difficult.”

He sighed in relief. “Exactly.”

“Do you have anything that belonged to her?” Evangeline asked. “I could scry for her.”

Jax didn't know what that meant, but apparently Mrs. Carroway did. “She took everything she owned,” the old woman said regretfully.

“Even a hair would do.”

“The house is full of blond hairs. I don't know how we could tell if one was Addie's.”

“You said she left a letter,” Mrs. Crandall reminded them. “Do you still have that?”

Mrs. Carroway twisted her hands together. “I'll get it.” She left the room, and after a moment, her husband followed.

As soon as they were gone, Carroway Jr. said, “Take it easy on my parents. They did right by Addie, and they've been really worried about her, especially after the attack on the spell.”

“I'm sure they did their best,” Evangeline replied.

“She's been part of our family as long as I can remember,” he continued. “She was my big sister, and then my little sister, and then she was like a daughter to me.” He took a deep breath. “I have my own daughters now, and I know they go through stages. But Addie's stages lasted
decades
. We got older, but she didn't.”

The elder Carroways returned, and the wife handed folded papers to Evangeline with a shaking hand. Evangeline took them eagerly. But after scanning them, she frowned. Jax leaned over her shoulder to catch glimpses as she read:

Jax glanced at the forty-year-old Carroway. If he was
Jimmy
, Addie Emrys had kept some childish grudges a very long time.

Mrs. Carroway waited with fingers pressed against her lips for a reaction to this list of injustices. Finally, Evangeline looked up. “I see Addie hasn't changed a bit,” she remarked, ripping a strip off the first page. “May I use a metal pan of water, please, and saffron if you have it?”

Mrs. Carroway exhaled in relief. “With all the Kin in this house? Of course I have saffron.”

Jax watched in fascination as Evangeline set up her spell. Her talent was very different from his. He could call on his inquisitor magic at any time, but it was only good for gathering information. Evangeline could perform a wide variety of magical acts, but she needed symbolic objects and rituals to activate them. She set the pan of water on Mrs. Carroway's kitchen table, then cast the paper with Addie's handwriting into it. Once the surface of the water grew still, Evangeline placed two golden threads of saffron on her tongue, closed her eyes, and murmured a spell. Opening her eyes, she leaned over the pan and stared into the water. Jax held his breath.

“I don't see her,” she whispered, her eyes fixed unblinking on the water.

“She's blocking you.” The Kin woman with the baby
spoke for the first time, causing Jax to jump. He'd forgotten she was there.

“No,” Evangeline said. “I don't get that sense.”

“Keep your eyes on the water.” The woman handed her infant to Mrs. Carroway and approached the table. “Open your mouth.” Evangeline did, and the woman placed more saffron on her tongue. Then she covered Evangeline's hands with her own, lending strength to the spell.

Evangeline tried for a minute longer. Then she collapsed into a chair and buried her face in her hands. “Addie's not out there. I think she must be dead!”

Mrs. Carroway burst into tears, and her husband and son rushed to her side. Jax shuffled his feet uneasily and looked at Evangeline and then at Riley, hoping
he
knew how to comfort a crying girl.

Apparently not. Riley made a move as if to pat Evangeline's head or give her a hug, but then he chickened out and did neither. Mrs. Crandall elbowed him out of the way so she could put an arm around Evangeline.

The Kin woman, meanwhile, cleared away the pan of water and saffron, then folded the remaining pages of Addie's letter and pressed them into Evangeline's hand. “You're overwrought. Try again when you're fresh. You were blocked.”

“No one was fighting me,” Evangeline argued. “I'd know.”

“Not if she was shielded by wards.”

Evangeline inhaled sharply. “It could've been wards.”

Now
wards
, Jax knew about. They were protection spells placed on objects or places. Last week, Evangeline had designed wards based on Kin symbols for their cabin in the mountains, and A.J. had spent all week working on them.

Everybody jumped on the idea that Addie was safe and secure behind wards somewhere, comforting both Evangeline and Mrs. Carroway. Meanwhile, Jax slipped out of the kitchen and wandered off to the front room of the house, the one with windows facing the porch. He didn't want Evangeline to see how disappointed he was in this failure.

Addie had left here six weeks ago. That was only six days for the Kin. Evangeline had missed her sister by
six days
. Not only had the sisters failed to reunite, but Addie had no way of knowing that villainous Transitioners like the Dulacs would be hunting for her because of the near miss on the pyramid. And how were Riley and Evangeline supposed to find her first with their limited resources? They couldn't call her or text her or send her an email because no technology with a computer chip worked on the eighth day. Addie Emrys would never have used a phone or a computer in her life.
How do people live that way?

Jax glanced back toward the Carroway kitchen. He and Riley and Evangeline must be some kind of cursed
trio. Riley had lost his entire family in a devastating explosion. Evangeline's brother was dead, and now her sister had vanished. And since the death of his father eight months ago, Jax's only relative was Naomi, a cousin of his mother's, and she was a Normal. There was a time when Jax would've given anything to live with Naomi and her family—to live in a home with parents and cousins who'd be the siblings he'd never had.

Now that he knew Mrs. Crandall and Riley were actually planning to send him there, Jax balked. Those people didn't feel like family anymore. They were practically strangers, and they could never know anything about Jax's secret day or his magical talent.

Jax wanted a family he didn't have to keep secrets from. A family where he fitted in.

He lifted his head, sniffed suspiciously, and turned around. “You. I thought so.”

The Kin toddler held up her arms.

“No way. You stink.”

“Brigit likes you.”

Jax jumped at the voice. The Kin woman who'd helped Evangeline stood in the doorway. “Sorry,” Jax said, embarrassed. “I think she needs changing.”

The woman crossed the room, picked up the girl, and set her on her hip. “Brigit likes you
and
your liege lady. I take great stock in that.” She examined Jax with her very blue eyes. “It's rare for a Transitioner to swear to Kin.”

“Yeah, well . . .” Jax didn't know what to say to that. He hadn't known it was unusual when he'd done it, and he wouldn't change it even now that he did know.

“May I see your mark?”

Jax held out his arm and let her take his wrist with her free hand. She ran her thumb across his tattoo, and Jax shivered. “You're not who you think you are,” she said.

“Huh?”

She lifted her face, and Jax saw that her eyes had gone glassy, her pupils unfocused. “You're not who
they
think you are, either. You're something new.”

“What do you mean?” The woman swayed, and Jax grabbed her shoulder, worried she was going to drop her kid. “Who do you think I am?” he asked. “Who are
you
?”

The Kin woman leaned toward him and whispered into his ear:
“Oath—an oath falls to Lear today.”
A moment later, she slipped away from Jax's grasp like water. “Let's take care of your diaper,” she said brightly to her child, apparently unaware of the last few seconds.

She turned and walked away, while Jax stared after her.

What was that about?!

IT WAS NEARLY MIDNIGHT
on Grunsday when they got back to the Pennsylvania mountains. The ride home took longer than it should have, because Riley decided along the way that Evangeline needed driving lessons as a survival skill.

“What about me?” Jax demanded. “What if I need to make a getaway on a Grunsday?”

“Let's wait until you're old enough to see over the steering wheel, squirt.”

That was lame. Jax was just as tall as Evangeline. But he suspected Riley was really trying to distract Evangeline from her disappointment and worry. If so, it didn't work much. Evangeline tackled driving the way she did everything, with determination and competence, but she didn't seem to take any joy in it. It wasn't
fun
for her, the way it would've been for Jax.

A.J. greeted them at the cabin door and didn't need to ask if they'd been successful. Their faces said it all, and they obviously didn't have an extra Kin girl with them.

“No luck?” called Mr. Crandall from the second-floor loft.

“Not a lot,” Mrs. Crandall said, heading directly for the stairs and her bedroom.

“Sorry, Evangeline,” said A.J. She gave him a smile, but her eyes filled with tears. “Hey,” he added quickly. “Come see what I did.” He motioned her into the main room of the house, where he'd painted protection wards on two opposite walls. “North and south,” A.J. pointed out. “There's one on the west wall in the kitchen, and I put the east ward in the little room where you'll sleep instead of on the stairwell above it. I thought that might give you a little extra protection.”

Evangeline surveyed the convoluted symbols A.J. had painted, one above the fireplace and the other between two windows. To Jax's eye, they looked like giant knots—interesting to look at, but meaningless. “You altered the design I gave you,” Evangeline said.

A.J.'s face fell. “Yeah. Dad gave me heck for that and wanted to paint over them and do them himself. I said, ‘At least wait till she sees 'em.'” He sighed. “But I know. I shouldn't mess with Kin symbols. I'll start redoing them tomorrow.”

“No. Don't.” Evangeline looked perplexed. “What made you change them?”

A.J. shrugged. “Thought they looked better this way.”

“I think you've made them stronger,” Evangeline said. “These wards will obscure our presence from sensitives. They'll repel magical attack and physical assault.”

“Wish you'd had that at Mrs. Unger's house,” Jax said. A lot of things might have been different if Evangeline had been invisible to sensitives there. Especially one orange-haired scent sensitive who had caused them a lot of trouble. But Evangeline couldn't have painted weird symbols on Mrs. Unger's walls. The poor old lady would've called an exorcist!

“Me too,” Evangeline said. “But wards made by me wouldn't be as potent as these anyway. It takes a gifted artisan like A.J. to invoke this much power from a symbol.”

A.J. beamed.

Jax and Riley glanced at each other. Probably nobody, not even A.J.'s mother, had ever called him
gifted
.

“Will they protect us from scrying?” Riley asked.

“Yes,” she admitted. “And that may be why I couldn't find Addie today. I should have thought of that myself, but I panicked.” Evangeline sank down in a chair and rubbed her eyes with her fingers. She wasn't the crying type usually, but this had been a long, discouraging day.

“I haven't given up, you know,” Riley told her. “I have
a trick or two up my sleeves.”

“I thought all you had up your sleeves were tattoos,” Jax said. Riley made sure Evangeline wasn't looking, then smacked Jax in the back of the head.

“What time is it?” Evangeline asked from behind her hands.

Jax checked the cheap Timex watch he wore on Grunsday. “You've got ten minutes.”

She lowered her hands and looked up at her friends glumly. “Where do you want me? In the car or in the house?” Wherever Evangeline was when midnight came, that was where she'd remain until next Grunsday.

Jax hated seeing her so miserable. “We want you to
stay
. I wish we had handcuffs.”

“They wouldn't work,” Evangeline said.

“You don't know that,” Jax protested. “I took that bank robber to Grunsday, and he didn't belong there.” It hadn't been Jax's idea—getting handcuffed to a criminal—but he
had
dragged the guy to the eighth day.

“But Normals aren't
forbidden
to enter the eighth day,” A.J. said. “They just don't have a way to get there, normally. With Evangeline, it's different, especially after she repaired the spell on the pyramid.
Even if it imprisons me for the rest of my life.
” He shook his head at her. “Did you have to say it that way? Couldn't you have given yourself parole or something?”

“I was trying to save the world, A.J. I wasn't thinking of anything else.”

“But you know, Jax is right,” said Riley, which is something Jax had never heard him say before. “We won't know for sure unless we try. I mean,
Jax
can't do it. He's a newbie and barely trained.” Okay, that sounded more like Riley. “But maybe
I
can do it.”

“How do you figure?” A.J. demanded.

Riley unsheathed Excalibur. “This is a pretty potent magical artifact itself, and it was used in the spell—both times. Plus there's my talent.” He looked at Evangeline. “I could command you to stay.”

“Do you actually have handcuffs?” Jax asked.

“It doesn't have to be handcuffs. Any kind of binding should do it.” Riley walked out of the room and into the kitchen. They heard him opening and closing drawers. A few seconds later, he returned with a roll of duct tape. “Let's experiment.”

“Are you sure?” Evangeline stood up, looking hopeful.

“What's the worst that can happen? You guys can stand to be without me for a week, right?”

“Longer,” Jax said, making sure he was out of head-smacking range.

“Just in case”—Riley pulled his phone out of a pocket and handed it to A.J.—“call in that favor, like I told you.”

“Okay,” said A.J. “Gimme the tape and hold her hand.”

Riley took Evangeline's hand. She blushed and looked everywhere but at him while A.J. wrapped the tape around their wrists. Bound together in this physical manner, they had to stay in the same timeline. They couldn't be separated.

Riley checked his own watch, then balanced Excalibur on the palm of his free hand. “Look at me,” he said, and she did, but her cheeks got even redder. “Evangeline Emrys, I command you to stay with me for Thurs—”

Then they were both gone.

A full second passed before A.J. said, “Well, that went the way I expected.”

Mr. Crandall was furious—especially because A.J. didn't tell him until morning.

As if he could've yanked Riley back if he'd known earlier.

“
What
is that boy thinking?” he roared. “I mean, I
know
what he's thinking, but he's never lost his head over a girl before.”

Mrs. Crandall dumped a fresh stack of pancakes onto the table. A.J. and Jax both stabbed their forks into the pile. “If you give him a hard time, Arnie, you're only going to make it worse. You know how stubborn he is.”

“I've got nothing against the girl,” Mr. Crandall said apologetically to Jax. She was his liege lady, after all. “But there can't be anything between them. You know why.”

Jax nodded. Evangeline lived on a different timeline. Riley and everybody in this room would probably be dead and gone before she aged ten years. Jax was surprised to discover that the idea of getting old didn't bother him as much as the thought of Evangeline being left behind.

“Anyway, we've got instructions for while he's missing.” A.J. brought out Riley's phone. “We keep on looking for Adelina Emrys.” He thumbed through the menus until he found what he wanted, then stabbed at a key and put the phone to his ear. He grinned at Jax, although Jax had no idea why.

“Yeah, hi,” he said after a moment. “No, it's A.J. Crandall.” Pause. “Riley's not here. He's gone to the next Grunsday with Evangeline.” Pause. “They tied themselves together, trying to pull her into . . . Well, I didn't think it would work either, but . . .” Pause. “Hey, forget about Riley. Aren't you going to ask about
Jax
?”

Jax froze with a forkful of pancakes halfway to his mouth. Who the heck was A.J. talking to?

A.J.'s eyes grew wide, and he held the phone away from his head for a moment. Then he brought it back to his ear and said, “How does a girl your age even know words like that? Put your father on.”

Jax groaned.
No, no, no. It can't be. . . .

“Gimme that,” growled Mr. Crandall, taking the phone from his son. He waited a moment, then bellowed, “Donovan? It's Crandall.”

“Are you crazy?” gasped Jax. “You're asking the Donovans to help us?”

Mrs. Crandall put the final batch of pancakes on the table and slapped her son's hand away so she could serve herself. “We already discussed this with Riley. The Donovans have proved they can sense Kin on any day of the week and identify families by scent. We need them to track down Adelina.”

“But you can't trust them!” Jax protested.

“Payment?” Mr. Crandall was yelling into the phone. “Wasn't my son just talking to your daughter? Remember who got her back alive for you? My liege lord, in case you forgot. You
owe
him!”

Jax threw up his hands. “A.J. wards the house against enemies, and then you
invite
the worst people you can think of?”

“It's already settled,” Mrs. Crandall said. “Riley banked on this as Plan B.”

He'd never told Jax. None of them had discussed this with Jax.

Jax shoved his breakfast plate away, his appetite gone.

These people didn't consider him part of their clan or
their family. He was temporary and disposable and not even worth consulting on important decisions.

And now he was going to have to put up with Tegan Donovan.

Super.