Sydney found her hand in the air like an overeager school child.
“Yes?” Tam said.
“How do you know it wasn’t just you imagining him? How do you know it was really your friend?” Tam had a reputation for magic, but dreams and visions felt too unreal to bet your life on.
“I didn’t do this today. Henry came to me two days ago. He told me you guys were on your way but that the magic users in the hub city wouldn’t be far behind.” She looked apologetic. “I didn’t say anything because if you didn’t make it back, I didn’t want your parents to mourn you twice. And there was always a chance my information could be wrong.”
Jane and Cole nodded their understanding, but Anthony looked like he wanted to kill her for withholding information.
Tam ignored him and continued. “The people in the city waited because they didn’t want to just chase you down and kill you. They want to eradicate what is left of our city and take everyone who survives the fight back with them. It’s a capture, not a kill mission. Those require more planning.”
It hadn’t occurred to Sydney that they wouldn’t simply rush up there seeking quick vengeance. The risk of death, she’d weighed and accepted. She hadn’t considered the horror of recapture or the capture of her family and friends as well.
“Are you okay, Syd?” Tam asked.
“I-I’m fine,” she lied.
Tam arched a brow but went back into her speech. “Even from the beyond, Henry has watched out for me. When I told Cain about it, he suggested the same as you, that maybe it was just a dream. But I started preparing, anyway. When Jane told us of the meeting tonight, I got to say ‘I told you so.’”
Cain chuckled from beside her.
“Jane and Cole know Fiona,” Tam said. The blonde stranger gave a shy wave from beside the panther therian in the leather jacket whose arm she clutched as if he might keep her from going beneath the surface of the sea and drowning. “Fiona and Z took Noah in when he was just a pup after Jane died that one time.”
Z. Yeah, he looked like a one-letter-for-a-name sort of guy.
Jane stifled a laugh.
“What’s funny?”
“After Jane died that one time,” Jane said. “I love how casual you are about my untimely demise.”
“Eh, you came back,” Tam said. Mystical deaths and resurrections and changing species was just another day for the bad ass superwitch turned demon mate. “Anyway,” she said, preparing to go back into catching the group up.
“Ummm, can I?” Fiona asked from the table. “It’s my story.”
“Sure, why not,” Tam said.
“Some of you met me that time we had that big fight with Anthony.” She pushed a long strand of blonde hair behind her ear.
Big fights with Anthony were fairly commonplace, but the group seemed to know which specific big fight she was talking about. Anthony had the good grace to look ashamed. He had briefly kidnapped Fiona, after all.
Sydney had still been in the womb when all this had gone down, but she’d heard the stories about fifty times, mostly from Noah when they were kids, who she was sure had exaggerated what he’d heard from his parents. The story had directly involved Noah, as he’d been the one Anthony had taken to try to get Cole to spill the beans about his den’s secret location.
Fiona continued. “I wasn’t a very good witch back then. I was too scared of my powers and of everything else. It didn’t become an issue until I spotted my first gray hair. Because I wasn’t using magic to the extent and level that other magic users were, I was aging like a regular human. Meanwhile I knew Z could live centuries. I panicked and looked Tam up. She taught me how to grow and channel my power. So that’s why I’m here, to help. I-I can talk to the animals.”
Talking to the squirrel made sense now.
“It’s a rare gift,” Tam said. “And it’s one we’re going to use to our advantage. The forests around here are teeming with deer, coyotes, wolves, bears, and birds. Without the humans around encroaching on their habitats, the wild areas have gotten very wild. We can use magic, but with only magic, we’re simply fighting them with what they already know to expect. When the wildlife comes after them as well, it might change their vindictive outlook. Once we fight them back, we can strengthen and create strong magical wards to keep them out in the future. But we don’t have time for that now. We didn’t have time for it two days ago. We’ll need the right moon and a lot of magic users. It’s not something we can do under pressure or deadline. But we can fight. We’re good at fighting.”
Anthony interrupted Tam. “I let us down.”
The group seemed startled by the admission. Her father admitting to doing anything wrong was pretty much unheard of.
“It was foolish to try to control everything and every one like I did. It was for Sydney and Charlee, but it got out of hand. If I hadn’t set up a police state—no matter the overall good I intended for my family—it couldn’t have been taken over in so many places by the humans. We wouldn’t have had to hide and stay invisible like this. I ushered us into another dark ages for our kind. I’m sorry.”
Everyone at the table sort of sat in a freeze frame until Cain clapped the vampire king on the back. “It takes a big person to admit to that.”
Anthony seemed to search for a joke or insult, but it wasn’t there to find.
Tam closed her eyes, and the wind swept up around her as she lapsed into a trance. When she opened her eyes again, she looked panicked.
“They’re coming. They’ll be here in less than an hour. They’re moving fast.”
“I’ll start my part,” Fiona said.
Tam nodded. “I’ll get everyone else ready.”
“I’ll go with her,” Sydney blurted out.
“No,” Noah said, “I don’t want us to get separated.”
Sydney felt her eyes flash, and her fangs begin to push out. Noah must have seen her resolve and realized that now wasn’t the time for a challenge fight between an alpha pair. He nodded slowly as if to convince those assembled that it was his call, and he’d decided to be magnanimous with his mate.
Sydney didn’t need permission. She was finished getting permission to go on walks. She wouldn’t be locked inside compounds or cells or penthouses or dens any longer. She’d lost all her taste for cages.
15
Sydney followed Fiona through the woods. She was surprised the witch’s panther mate had stayed behind with the others, but Z seemed like a fighter by nature. He’d want to hear the plan for the big confrontation.
Fiona pushed a long strand of blonde hair out of her face with one hand and pulled back a tree branch with the other. Sydney grabbed the branch before it could thwap her in the face. While nice, Fiona seemed off in her own world and perhaps a little scatterbrained.
Sydney hadn’t felt any particularly strong connection to the witch, she just wanted to get away from the discomfort of not being accepted by Noah’s dad.
Every few minutes, Fiona made various animal calls, but it was clear she wasn’t mindlessly calling like a hunter in the forest seeking to mimic. She knew and spoke their language. A line of animals formed behind them and followed as she collected more for her menagerie.