30. Glacier
Glacier
Eamon
Four weeks she's been gone.
I traced down her movements until the second she vanished. Halfway between our hotel room and Bel's, sheall butceased to exist. There's no sign of a struggle in the hallway where it happened, no blood or even so much as a fucking scuff mark on the patterned carpet. She was there one minute, gone the next.
The hotel's security cameras arecompletelyunhelpful, apparently being looped for the entire time we were within the premises. I'm sure that was Alastors way of being helpful, but now it's left us without asingleclue where she went.
He glances at me now, sitting in front of his computer, watching footage from every security cam, stoplight recording, even the webcams he's gained access to.
Gone is the disgusting, smelly version of him from those months ago, replaced with the militarized persona I've seen in photos and from CCTV of his crimes. Now that he's not a one-man show, his need to disguise himself has finally waned, thankfully for all of our noses.
Since Isla disappeared, the Sanctum's search for him hasn't abated, but they backed off of Bel, Mike, and Charlie, which tells mewithout a doubtthat the Sanctum has her.
Allof her friends are starting to becomesuspicious of Isla's lack of responses.Bel's nearly passing into frantic territory, her demons even taking turns reaching out to me, asking if Isla is okay. And the unfortunate truth is that I have no idea.
I think ifshe wasn't, I would feel it somehow.No matter where she is right now, it's as if I can feel the echo of her heartbeat right here beside me. It's been my only solace during the long nights without any sign of her.
"Where could she have gone?" I ask for the millionth time. Alastor and Kylebothlook at each other before continuing their surveillance of every inch of this city.
Neither of them has an answer, of course.
My phone starts ringing again .
"Is that Bel again?" Alastor asks, and once again, I think about how Isla would wring his fucking neck if she heard him using her name so casually. Instead, I glance at the phone, Fritz's name appearing in the caller ID. "That's like the tenth time today they've tried to talk to you."
But it's the first time it's been him. He usually knows better than to call me. Can't explain it, but he annoys the ever-living fuck out of me. Because of the strangeness, I answer the phone, "Yeah."
"Hey Eamon," his falsely casual tone raises every alarm bell in my head. "How are you?"
"Cut the shit," I bite. "What's going on?"
Rather than get to the point of whatever he's calling for, he remainscooland collected, the opposite of how I usually hear from him. But even still, I can feel through the phone that his nonchalance is false. It's too relaxed. Something is very wrong.
"I'm just checking in on you. Seeing how things are going. Have you heard from Isla lately?" Have I heard from her? What the fuck is he talking about? Asking me as if she hasn't been staying with me. I can't tell him that she's missing or Bel is going to find out and lose her shit. I refuse to answer, waiting for him to explainto mewhat he's talking about. Pretending I did say something, he responds, "Oh, okay good, so you have heard the news then."
"What news?"
"Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. That was cool of you to find a way for her to continue dating him while she, umm, stayed with you. That Silas guy seems nice enough."
My eye starts twitching, bleeding red. Silas.
I put Fritz on speaker so Kyle and Alastor can hear whatever he says next.
"Fritz, if you don't—"
"Are you planning on making it to the wedding? I know two days is short notice, but when you know, you know," he laughs, speaking to someone in the background that I can only imagine is Bel. "Yeah, I didn't think that sounded like her either. But hey, maybe this guy is broadening her horizons."
For probably the first time ever,I thinkthatFritzmight besmarterthan he seems.Clearly, he's figured out this engagement is something more sinister than it appears, even if wherever Isla is, she's going along with it. And he had to tell me the second he heard about it without terrifying his girl.
"Tell me everything," I growl, nearly crushing the phonein my hand.
A door shuts in the background, and he speaks to me again. "God damn it, I really hoped this wasn't news to you. If you don't know about it, that means something is super wrong. So what the hell is happening? Last I knew, the two of you were fucking like bunny rabbits, happily squirreled away in BFE. And now she's surprised us all with pictures from an engagement party. So not only does Bel think that her best friend was dating someone and didn't mention it, she thinks that she went ahead and got engaged and had a party without so much as an invite. I've had to keep her borderline catatonic for the last 24 hours because her real emotions were going to send her off the deep end."
"You've been using your abilities on your girl?" I ask in disbelief, snapping at the two men in front of me and mouthing for them to find fucking Silas.
Fritz whines, his discomfort clear, "I don't like doing it. But she was going to lose her shit. She knew immediately something was wrong. But whatever is happening, I need her to stay out of it. Please tell me this isn't some hunter thing."
I sigh, unable and unwilling to tell him that. I also don't want totellhim that part of me is proud that he's doing whatever it takes to keephersafe, even if it means thereare definitely going tobe consequences for him doing so later.
" Fuuuuuck ," he groans. "I'm so sick of dealing with these hunters. What are we going to do to deal with this?"
" You're going to continue doing what you're doing," I tell him. "Put Bel in a god damn coma if you have to. And you're going to tell me when and where the wedding is. And whatever you do, you're going to stay far away from this."
With another whine, he tells me the very little that he knows, "The wedding is in Glacier National Park. Some little fucking cabin villa thing. I'll send you the address. Her post says that Glacier is where they're honeymooning so they wanted to get married nearby. And that's the other way I knew something was wrong. Isla would never get married somewhere like that. And no way in hell would she consider hiking in the snow a vacation."
"Focus, Fritz," I don't need him to tell me what Isla would or wouldn't do, as if I don't know her entire soul inside and out. "Do you have a phone number for Isla? Or any other information about where she is right now?"
"No, that's the shit. She posted it on Instagram. Didn't even say anything to Bel about it." He speaks to someone on the other side of the phone, "Fuck. Fuck. E, I have to go. Bel's about to lose it. Call me if you need back up, but like, please don't need back up." As the line goes dead, my head starts spinning.
No phone. Already engaged. Getting married and honeymooning right on the border to Canada. Never mind the fury that radiates up my spine, thinkingabout the factthat she and the word married exist in the same sentenceat allwithout it including me.I've spent the last month traveling back and forth from Alaska to this fucking rental house, losing myself in the bedding that still smells of her, nearly tearing apart the entire world to find her, and someoneelse thinks they're about to marry her.
Not to mention that someone is a piece of shit, a hunter, a trafficker, a murderer.I put my hands on a chair, squeezing the backof it until the wood starts to splinter.
"Glacier? That's a weird place to have a wedding," Kyle comments. "I mean it's pretty I guess, but there are definitely nicer places if you're looking for hiking."
"It's beautiful," Alastor adds. "I've been to several weddings there."
Something about that fact sticks in my head.
"How many?"
He shrugs, "Not sure. It's a pretty popular place for our family, I guess. Grandpa has a cabin up there but getting to that is a pain in the ass. There's no service. Even the closest neighbor is over a mile away."
Cold dread crawls into my throat, "What?"
"What?" he asks, chewing ona piece ofcold bacon from the diner down the street.
"Your fucked up family has property in the middle of a freezing cold, isolated mountain range? I've done a background check on every single one of you. Nothing like that is listed anywhere." My throat starts to clog with emotion, heavy with sorrow and fury.Anda million other emotionsI don't have time to unpack right now."Did Isla know about it?"
He frowns in thought, "Probably not. She never wanted any part of the family so I don't think anyone told her much."
"But you've been there."
"Once," he shrugs again. "It isn't much."
"Could you find it?" My voice raises, a frantic madness filling my chest. Even if we leave right now, there's no way we could make it to northern Montana in time to stop the wedding.
He scoffs, "I got dragged there one time when I was like eight. No, I couldn't find it."
"She did this on purpose," I tell him, remembering the last time we were together before she disappeared. I'm yours. No matter what comes next. I didn't think anything of it at the time. It definitely wasn't the craziest thing either of us have said in bed. "She went home, knowing they'd take her there. She set this into motion after meeting with you that night."
"So this is my fault?" he rolls his eyes. "Please. If she did this, she's been planning it since finding out they were still watching her friends."
"And how did she find that out?" I bite at him. He might be a great asset, but some days he pisses me off like it's his fucking job.
"Well, you weren't going to tell her, were you?"
"No," Duh. "Because I know her well enough to know that she'll happily go on a fucking suicide mission for the people she loves. And I wasn't willing to let her do that."
It all makes sense now, though. The enthusiasmshehad for training. Hiding from me that Alastor warned her away. She's been preparing for this for months now. She's going to let herself get dragged away to their cabin, let them lock her away with all the other women.
"I need the two of you on the first fucking flight to Montana." Kyle starts typing away on his computer, and Alastor pulls up his phone. "And get everyone who can be there to back us up."
"They're might try to offer a trade," Alastor says, not looking at me. "The book for Isla."
I'll make that trade any fucking day. "What makes you say that?"
"They've got blood and they know how to get more. There's only one Benedici," now he glances up at me. "Are you really willing to give them all that power back for one person?"
"Yes. And you'd better be, too, or I'll gut you along with the rest of them."
He chuckles, "Sure thing, boss. Let's go get your girl. You can be soul-bonds and match with all the other demons who went fucking soft."
"Shut the fuck up," I tell him, but I don't deny it. There's no fucking point; it's been obvious since she left, and my whole world fractured. Hell, it's beenobvioussince the very beginning. Since I set eyes on her and my psyche slanted, my vision narrowing onto her, never seeing anything else clearly ever again. "I'm leaving now. I'll call when I find it."
"Did you not hear me when I said there's no service?" Al asks.
I breathe in heavily through my nose to keep calm. Being in the same room as a real hunter for this long has been a trial in patience I didn't anticipate. "I'll use the satellite phone and send my coordinates."
"Do you have any idea how large Glacier is?" Kyle asks, his eyes locked on his computer. "Over 1,500 square miles."
Fuck. How am I supposed to search an entire national park?
My phone pings with the address for the wedding from Fritz, and I read it aloud to Kyle.
"That's right in the middle, up towards the border to Alberta," he turns to Alastor. "Is the cabin in the states? Or Canada?"
He shrugs, "It's in no mans land. There's a good chance both sides think it belongs to the other."
"The wedding venue is to the west of Bowman Lake, so that's where I would start," Kyle tells me, turning his laptop to show me where on the map it is. He pulls up coordinates, and I type them into my phone to give me a landing zone to focus on.
Within seconds, I've transported to the hideout in Alaska. The silence in here is deafening without her. I can see every empty corner of this place, all the spots she should be occupying. She didn't even clean up the pair of underwear I ripped off her the night before we left for New York.
I almost smile at the frilly little pink things, but fuck, I miss her too much. I'm too scared of what might happen if I'm wrong, or if they hurt her before I get there. She might be royalty to their family, but to Silas, she's just going to be a warm body, a meal ticket, a fucking broodmare. And the thought of his hands on her body makes me physically sick.
Frantically, I go through my closet, a plan already forming as I search for the costume that will make the most sense.
Squeezing into the olive green get-up, I take one last look at the home I've only ever shared with one person, praying to the gods above that I'll be able to see her in it again, safe and happy.
Then Itake astep backward into the Aether, exiting on the other side into a snowy, bare mountaintop.
I can only imagine how much Islais going tohate every second of being here. Even in May, there's white powder every which way I look, the snow making it impossible to tell which direction I'm even facing.
Even if I had more guidance, traversing this place would take me days, if not weeks. There has to be a ranger station around here somewhere. But walking is going to take too long.
Using my abilities, I walk through the Aether, landing on the other side a quarter mile south. Then, again, I jump through space and time, landing just out of sight of where I was before. For hours, I do this, heading south, then further east, north, east again, andthen finally south.
As thesun starts to set, and exhaustion from using my powers settles in. Finally, in the distance, I see smoke rising in the air, concentrated as if from a fireplace.
It may not be a ranger station, but it's something.
A whole row of somethings. This is the closest thing I've seen to civilization out here. A neighborhood of small cabins, with a main road heading out towards a large cluster of lights.I canonlyimagine out that way is a city of sorts, andmaybeIsla is in it somewhere.I want to track her down and drag her home, make sure she's safe and unharmed, then punish her for leaving me behind while she takes off and gambles with her own life like this. If her life is on the line, shehas to know thatmine is, too. That there's no point in living in this world if she ceases to exist in it.
The house on theedge of the neighborhoodcomesfullyinto view, the rear wall a sea of windows pressing up against the forest I'm hidden in.
As Icontinue towalk closer to it, staying in the growing shadows of the trees around me, I find what I've been looking for. The owners of the vehicle are going to be pissed, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and I am nothing if not fucking desperate.
Just asI get to the snowmobile, motion-detecting lights catch me, blinding me for a second before I can dart out of their view. A man stands from the warm brown couch inside, turning toward the window to peer outside. I reach for his mind, easing it and convincing him that it must be a bunny or deer like it always is this time of year.I assure him thatthere's nobody out here thatcould be a threat.He knows all his neighbors; they're all perfectly safe people who wouldn't hurt a fly.
I feel bad takingwhat is clearlya well-loved toy, but I need it. I won't find Isla on time without it, and if they sneak her into some underground breeding area before I can stop them, there's no guarantee I'll ever find it or her.
As the snowmobile startsup, the man runs towards a safe in his living room. Fuck. Of course, he has firearms. He storms out the door, readying his rifle and pointing it at me.
I hold both hands up, shouting, "Official Park Ranger business, sir."
"Show me your badge," the white-haired, fully bearded man yells.
I flash him the fake ID, the flash of his bright yard lights in my eyes as I beg him to just let this go. "There's an injured hiker two miles east of here," I smoothly lie, putting on my most authoritative voice. "He's been missing for 18 hoursand we just found him with a broken ankle."
I push his mind to accept the lie. I really don't fucking have time for this.
"What about my snowmobile?" he asks, his mind clouding from my influence.
"The rangers will bring it back, fully fueled, just as soon as we can, sir." I could just leave. I'm already on the damned thing, and it's not like he could chase after me in his bathrobe. But if he shoots at me and hits it, I'm fucked.
He lifts the firearmup, laying it against his shoulder and watching me for a second before responding, "Fully fueled?"
I breathe a sigh of relief, "Yes, sir."
"Alright. Good luck,"hetells me, looking athissnowmobile warily, likely wondering if it can even carry my weight.
Revving it, I take off into the night, thankful for this man's small act of kindness, hoping it'll be enough to give me the edge to find my girl before time runs out.