Wimberley, Texas – April 1 of this year
I tightened my fingers on the steering wheel, driving as fast as I dared on the poorly maintained roads north of the Build Barn where Cal’s vision had put the next victim. The luchd-òl fola wouldn’t park in the actual lot due to cameras and zero places to hide.
There. A white van. I passed it and parked in front of someone’s house on the next block.
I was already armed, so I just grabbed the tracking device and ran back.
I wasn’t planning on letting them leave with a victim, but I’d let at least one of them escape.
I tried to calm my racing heart. This tracking device would lead me to their safe house, and there were few enough of the luchd-òl fola left that, if I planned things right, I could take them all out in one attack.
I double-checked that the tracker was secure and I could see it on my phone, then I took off for the Build Barn parking lot.
I could hear yelling, so the fight had already started.
In all the years I’d tracked the luchd-òl fola, no one else, until now, had figured out that Wonders were being systematically kidnapped, much less tried to do something to prevent it.
And even though none of the single District Monitors or Cal had turned out to be my mate, I was overjoyed to finally have some fucking help.
And their online chatter about a sentient “Elven artifact” made me think Prince Nicol’s dèideag dìon had made their way here too.
I didn’t believe in fate, but it was obvious things were coming to a head.
I just needed to stay focused on the end goal and stick to the plan.
Victory was close. I could feel it.