Mine to Fear (11 page)

“
I'll second that,” I
reply.

We continue hurrying through the area
like the bear is chasing us. I don't think we want to take any
chances. We walk several more hours until Jack stops leading us and
is lazily wandering into a clearing that has nothing in it and is
surrounded by trees and bushes coming over a
mountain. It seems
he is ignoring
u
s and has
all the time in
the world to lollygag.

“
Is it time for a break?” Or have you
just gone mad?

Though his body language ignores me, he
says, “Just making sure we weren't being followed, at least not by
someone close by.”

Oh, he's good. “Which means you don't trust
your own spell to keep our tracks hidden.”

“
Which means I'm cautious because I
don't want to lead them to a safe hiding spot.”

Fine. But just because he's being smart for
the moment, doesn't mean I have to trust him. Tawny and Annabelle
have no problem as they talk quietly to each other. I'm sure I
could join them, but I'm just so used to keeping an eye on
Chardonian warlocks, I can't bring myself to chat.

Finally, he moves to a group of vines off to
one side of the clearing. It was hard for me to pick them out with
so much other foliage about. Underneath is a dark, narrow
opening.

“
Are there any critters living in it?”
I ask.

“
Why don't you go see? If there are
any, I'm certain you can scare them away for us.”

I raise my head and, without giving him a
second glance, I stride into the cave. So what if there's a mama
bear protecting her cubs? I can take it, though once I'm in, I
release some of my magic in a burst to light the way. After moving
through a narrow tunnel, a wide cavern opens up. Relief floods
through me that there's no mama bear, or any other animal in
sight.

I make sure to scout the entire area. It's
not big, but big enough to suit our needs. Once I'm certain there's
nothing here but dirt and rocks, I lower my hand.

“
Did the critters frighten you?” Jack
says as he enters the cave.

“
Only as much as you do.”

“
How did you find this?” Tawny asks
him.

He shrugs. “Like Annabelle said, I've
explored around here often.”

Once everyone is in and the vines are back
in place from the outside, I collapse to the floor, using my pack
as a pillow. “That was exhausting.”

“
If we weren't running for our lives,
it would have been a good vigorous walk,” Jack says.

I glare at him. But the running for our
lives reminds me of why we're here, and now that I'm not distracted
by keeping track of our surroundings, it's impossible not to think
on Zade.

Where is he? Is he in a lot of pain? Are
they torturing him?

I squeeze my eyes shut tight, trying
to keep composure. What is Serena going to do when she finds out
how serious things are for Zade? I told her to run, told her to get
out of there as fast as she could and that Zade was in
troub
le
. But I didn't say how
bad things really are for him. I don't even want to think how bad
they are. What the Grand Chancellor could do.

Across from me, Annabelle is silent, her
eyes closed, but I doubt she's sleeping. At least I didn't tell her
everything, and that she doesn't know how serious it actually is.
Torture. That's what the Grand Chancellor said.

How am I possibly going to save my brother
from torture?

I
don't know
when I fall asleep, but it’s followed by much fitfulness. At least
I manage to get some sleep in. By the heavy bags under Annabelle's
eyes, it appears she had a lot more problems than I did.

“
Can we make it to your safe house
tod
ay
?” Jack asks, handing me
some dried meat.

The action startles me until I see Tawny
pull out more and hand it to him and then hand some to Annabelle.
“I'm not sure exactly where we are,” I admit.

He casts a spell in front of us that looks
like a map, only made out of colored lights instead of paper. It's
a spell I've seen from far away before but never up close. It has
detail and talent.

“
Councilman Daniel's house is here. We
traveled this path yesterday.” His finger traces a line on the
glowing map.

It's easy to tell where the safe house
should be, but I don't want to trust him with its location. The
thing is, he did bring us here, and his spell to hide our tracks
seems to have worked since no one has found us yet. Plus, he didn't
turn us over to the guards when he had the chance.

Besides, as much as I don't think I want to
think of the possibility, something could happen to me. Zade's loss
has taught me that much. I have to trust him.

“
We should be able to make it to there
ev
en
if we don't run into any
trouble along the way.” I hesitate only another second before
pointing to the spot on his spell where the closest safe house is.
I can only hope it's still safe after everything that's
happened.

“
I'm certain we can make it.” The soft
but serious tone of his voice makes me feel like I was right to
trust him. I only hope he doesn't betray that trust.

“
How soon can everyone be ready to
go?”

Annabelle jumps to her feet. “As soon as
needed.”

The ache in her gaze makes my own heart
wrench to the ground. As soon as they're safe, I'll do what I can
to help Zade and Daniel.

Tawny is still eating but bounces to her
feet as well, dried meat in hand. “Let's go.”

I nod to Jack who leads us out of the cave
and then arranges the vines and grounds carefully after we're all
back in the clearing.

He moves next to me but seems to have
trouble saying anything.

After several moments of silence, I say, “Is
there something you needed?”

His jaw tenses and relaxes several times.
“Would you like to lead us today?”

He's offering? And not just offering, but
offering without any sort of cajoling? And I already showed him
where we're going. He doesn't have to be doing this.

I almost give an eager “yes” response, but
then I realize he's trying to do what's best for our group, even
when it means making things hard for him. What I need to do is the
same. I may know where we're going and be familiar with things
close by, but he clearly knows these woods better than I do.

“
Why don't you continue leading us
until we get close and then I can take over?”

His brows lift before he leads us out of the
clearing, but there's something different about how he leads that
wasn't there yesterday. Something in the way he holds branches out
of the way, how he's even more careful helping Annabelle and Tawny,
and I let him help me when I need it. Somehow, he's actually very
good at being a gentleman. He just needs some final polish on how
to treat women.

Is it because yesterday we were running for
our lives? We still are today, but without the same urgency driving
us. Maybe he can take the time to become even more of a gentleman
than he already is?

It takes us several hours to get to the safe
house. Hours filled with worry and stress over if we're going to
have more problems, but wherever the warlocks searching for us are,
it's not here. By the time we arrive at the house, we're all
exhausted, too much so to pay any real attention to anything. Not
just from the journey but the stress of looking over our shoulders
the entire time.

We're sa
fe
. For now.

“
I'm going to send some messages to
friends that can help or may need help,” I say.

“
Sounds like a good plan,” Annabelle
says.

I eye Jack, knowing that her statement isn't
entirely true, though I suppose I could have done it again without
saying anything, but at least he's prepared for it this time.
Something in me wants to give him that notice. Probably the
something that doesn't want him to take his anger out on me.

I send a note spell to Katherine and then to
the last Sanos house I knew Chadwick was going to, hoping he's
still there. The note flies off in yellow and dark blue, taking
with it my hopes and fears.

It doesn't take long for a different
note spell to return. I keep myself from slouching with relief only
because the others need to see me be strong. Sometimes, it feels
like my strength is the only thing holding things
togethe
r
, but it's not real.
I have to fake so much that it can be too weighty.

The note is from Chadwick. Part of me is
relieved it's from him, that he's well, but the other part of me
can't help but stress about Serena. Why didn't she respond? Why
didn't he tell me about where things are with her?

The only thing it does say is that he'll be
here as soon as he can.

Does such a short message mean good things
or bad? I can't imagine much good taking place now.

T
here's a
restlessness that comes with waiting. Too much time to think on
what is happening in the outside world knowing we’re not able to do
much about it from our small hideout. Cooking, cleaning, and
sitting around is all that happens for two days straight. There's a
lot of cleaning that needs to be done, which helps. This place has
been abandoned for some time. I'm grateful it is here to shelter
us, even if it is covered in dirt.

The house is small, two stories with several
bedrooms and an attic. The kitchen is large enough to get done what
needs to be, but not big enough for more than two people to work in
it at a time. The dining room is part of the kitchen, all one big
room. When not cleaning, we spend a lot of time there or in the
sitting room.

Outside there's nothing but trees, trees,
and more trees. This nice little house is far from most
civilization. Only a small dirt path shows the way to the main road
and it's overgrown. It's one thing I won't fix up.

The cleaning doesn't take nearly as long as
I'd like. At the end of day two, everything is in fairly good
condition, which means more of just sitting around. I've never been
so bored in all my life.

“
How can you sit so calmly through
this?” I ask Jack, who has been almost meditative through this
whole process.

“
Easy. Stressing about it won't change
anything.” He gives a pointed look to my leg that's been jostling
up and down whenever I have to sit still.

“
It's not like you can just turn
stress off.”

“
You need more breathing exercises,”
Tawny tells me.

I laugh. “As if I could sit through
them.”

The laugh doesn't last long though. There's
too much pain and worry eating me up inside when there's not a
thing we can do about it. We're stuck here with nowhere safe to go
and no way to help our loved ones in danger come to safety with
us.

“
I can't stand this any longer,”
Annabelle bursts out. “I have to do something. They took my
husband. I can't just let them get away with it.”

“
I feel the same,” I say. “Only, what
can we do?”

She flops onto the nearest seat, defeat
etching her posture. I can't help but think of Zade. Of him being
locked up wherever he is. Of what he must be going through. My
chest tightens and tears threaten, but I blink them away. Now isn't
the time for tears. Crying won't save them, not that I know what
will.

“
If only there was something we could
do. Something that we could make happen. Something to let the Grand
Chancellor know we don't approve.” I say.

“
There is something,” Tawny
says.

“
What crazy scheme are you cooking
up?” Jack asks, tone begrudging.

“
We should attack back. We don't have
to sit and do nothing.”

“
How do you propose we do something?”
I ask wondering how we can accomplish anything.

“
We attack a law
offi
ce
. See if we can shut it
down. I know it won't get our loved ones back, but it will tell
them we are not going to sit by while they do whatever they
want.”

“
It would be dangerous,” I say. “I'm
in.”

All dejection has fled from Annabelle. “I am
as well.”

“
You are all crazy,” Jack says. “The
only thing that is going to happen is that you're all going to be
captured and put in the same position as Councilman Daniel, if they
don't tarnish you.”

“
It's worth the risk,” I say. “There's
a town not far from here with a law office. It would be the easiest
to hit.”

Jack crosses his arms and slumps back in his
chair.

“
But would that put our safe house at
risk?” Tawny asks.

“
If we do it right, they'd have no
reason to suspect this house. And what reason would they have for
searching it?”

“
Still, I think we should go to the
next town over.”

“
It will mean more walking,” I reply.
“But we can do it.”

“
What type of attack spells can we use
on a law office?”

I
stare at the
plain brick building, wondering if we can really do this. It's not
like we picked an easy target. Law officers have their position for
a reason. If all goes to plan, we won't even be suspected. Which
means it had all better go to plan.