It would seem the wild magic was now blurring the line between the two.
I sucked in a breath and tried to ignore the spurt of trepidation. “Next left.”
The road became narrower and wound up an incline. Once we’d crossed over the bridge that spanned the railway tracks, the teddy’s link with the kid sharpened and expanded. Vague images of two women talking flitted through my mind. One was a stranger to Jack. The other was not.
“He’s with his mom,” I said, unable to keep the surprise from my voice.
Duke’s gaze cut to mine. “What?”
I hesitated and rechecked. “I could be wrong, but that’s what I’m sensing.”
“But if it was his mom who snatched him,” Monty said, “why was he screaming when he was being put in the car? That makes no sense.”
“He was in the house when his dad was killed,” I said. “Maybe he saw the thing that murdered his dad.”
“Why would the father be fucking another woman if the kid’s mother was also in the house?” Duke growled.
“They could have an open relationship,” Monty said. “Some folks do like that sort of thing.”
Duke snorted, a sound that very much suggested he didn’t believe that was the case here. And to be honest, I agreed with him. There was nothing in that house that suggested a woman’s touch. Nothing in the air that indicated a woman had ever spent any serious amount of time there.
“The three of them are in that weatherboard house with the rubbish bins sitting out the front.”
“Three?” Duke said sharply. “Who’s with them?”
“Don’t know. I’m only getting vague impressions.”
“So one of them could be our killer?”
“Could be.”
He swore. “You can’t go deeper?”
I hesitated. “I can try to widen the link, but I don’t want to risk a full connection. Not when the wild magic is changing and strengthening my psychic senses.”
While joining the mind of another might generally be more dangerous for me than the subject I was tracking, I had no desire to risk anything going wrong when we were dealing with a little boy.
“Do what you can,” Monty said. “The more we know going in, the less likely it is that any of us will get hurt. Especially when we have no idea what we’re really dealing with.”
I took a deeper breath, then glanced down at the teddy and deepened the connection, allowing myself to drift lightly into Jack’s mind. A short woman with curly brown hair was talking to another, taller woman with crimson hair.
Fuck.
“The third woman is a witch. A royal witch.”
“That would at least explain the magic that obscured the scent trail. That sort of spell is generally only taught at the academy.” He unclipped the seat belt and leaned forward. “Can you hear what they’re discussing through the link?”
“Not without establishing a full connection.” I glanced at Duke. “We’ll have to go in at the same time, otherwise you might get hit by a spell.”
He nodded, then leaned forward and switched off the lights as we cruised past the house. It was a run-down, white-painted weatherboard building with a rusting red tin roof. There was no door at the front, just two half-windows with curtains tightly drawn. The entrance was at the side, up a couple of steps that didn’t look as if they’d hold any real weight. No cars sat in the driveway, but the barn at the back of the property was big enough to hide several.
“The place gives all the appearance of being deserted,” Monty said.
“That’s no real surprise if they did kidnap the kid,” Duke replied. “They wouldn’t want the neighbors knowing they were holed up there, especially when news of the kidnapping gets out.”
Which it no doubt would, and pretty damn quickly. The reservation had a very active gossip brigade, and they rarely missed a juicy morsel.
Duke pulled over several houses farther up and switched off the engine. “Give me a couple of minutes to get around the back of the property before heading in. We’ll see what happens.”
“They’re not going to open the door to strangers,” Monty said.
“Locked doors have never stopped you before. I don’t expect they will now.” Duke smiled. “It will also have the advantage of drawing their attention away from me.”
“A normally sound plan, but this reservation?” Monty shook his head. “Be prepared for things to go ass up, my friend.”
Duke rolled his eyes. “You two are turning into fatalists.”
“We prefer to call ourselves realists,” I said.
Duke snorted and climbed out of the SUV. Once he’d shifted shape and disappeared into the yard of the nearby house, we climbed out. The wind hit hard, its touch like ice. I shivered and hastily zipped up my coat, then reached back into the SUV to grab the teddy. Jack would be happy to see it, even if the two women were unlikely to be so happy to see us.
As we walked down to the house, a curtain twitched in the window just down from the door, briefly revealing the soft blur of a face. It quickly fell back into place, and a second later came the sound of sharp footsteps moving in different directions.
“They’ve seen us,” I said.
“If they’re going for the back door, Duke will stop them.”
“If we weren’t dealing with a royal witch, I’d agree.”
He glanced at me sharply. “You think she’d attack him?”
“They’ve split up, so yes.”
“I’ll go back him up, then. You hit the front door.”
He’d barely taken three steps when magic surged, thick and fierce on the air. Monty swore and bolted for the rear of the house. I gripped the teddy tighter and, through it, felt the kid and the mother retreating into a room on the other side of the house.
I ducked under the half-size windows and then paused at the corner of the house and peered around. There was no immediate sign of them, but as I frowned at the teddy, a soft scrape echoed. A heartbeat later, the mother’s head appeared out of a window. I drew back sharply, my heart racing and my fingers twitching with the force of information coming from the teddy. The kid wasn’t scared; he thought it was all part of the adventure.
Magic surged again, this time Monty’s. It was some sort of barrier spell, but I had no idea if he was protecting Duke or merely using it to deflect whatever spell the royal witch had cast.
The window slid up further, then the woman climbed out and dropped to the ground. I moved around the corner just as she was reaching up for her little boy.
“Please don’t be alarmed, and please don’t run,” I said quickly. “I’m with the rangers, and we need—”
She launched at me, catching me unaware. She drove her shoulder into my stomach, hitting hard enough to send me flying backward. I hit the ground with a grunt of pain, felt the movement of air and the heated surge of anger. Swore, and quickly raised my arms. Her fist hit my forearm rather than my face.
“Damn it,” I yelled, “I’m here to help you.”
She didn’t listen, and her aura pulsed with fury and fear. Magic burned across my fingers unbidden and leapt at her, hitting her as forcefully as she’d hit me only seconds ago, lifting her off her feet and sending her flying backward. She hit the ground with a sharp “oomph” but scrambled up and came at me again. I swore and quickly cast a rope spell, wrapping the golden thread of magic around her waist before lashing it to a nearby tree and pulling it tight. It stopped her in her tracks.