Chapter 35
Troy
TWO DAYS. THAT’S HOW long we had before Blackwood came to claim his prize. Mer police forces were on high alert, but they didn’t show it, giving the traffickers an illusion of safety. Meanwhile, the city was slowly getting searched. Very slowly. High alert so far from the sea meant they had a handful of people.
Abandoned factories got a casual visit just to make sure the squatters didn’t set anything on fire. A couple of civilian drones passed over the farm fields, but the bitter truth was that the city had entirely too many abandoned properties.
I was doing everything I could on my end to find any possible location, but so far, none of them proved viable.
My bag was already packed to go. If I left tomorrow morning, I’d have plenty of time to make it there for what would hopefully be the downfall of Lucius Blackwood.
I wanted to do it personally. For Kiora.
Letting out a frustrated breath, I pushed back from my computer. I still didn’t get mine and Kiora’s relationship back on track, and it was my own fault. I had seen the answer in her eyes. Hell, she had come to me during her first shift. That alone meant everything. She trusted me.
But in the back of my mind, a voice kept telling me that she was still getting used to the new reality of her life. What if she only wanted me now because she wanted something to grab onto in the storm? I couldn’t build a sturdy foundation for our future in the middle of a storm.
My phone rang, and I cringed when I saw who it was. Here I was, contemplating my future with my best friend’s daughter while he was calling me. It was like a mental sucker punch.
“Hey, Dylan,” I answered, letting my exhaustion bleed into my voice.
“Is Kiora with you?” he asked.
The exhaustion vanished. “No. You can’t find her?” Stupid question. He wouldn’t have called me asking if she was here otherwise. “Give me a minute.”
I turned on the tracker on my laptop and watched the dot move on the map. Away from Whynot. As in, far, far away from Whynot. She must’ve made a run for it hours ago.
Had she gotten a new truck? I could call her company and ask, but they’re not likely to give me any answers. Confidentiality and all that. At least I had trackers on her.
And then I noticed the direction she was headed, and my blood chilled.
“She’s going to Erie,” I said to Dylan. Bait. She had wanted to be bait. Was that what she was doing? She had asked about a way to track her, so no one would kidnap her, making it sound like she was worried because of the sealskin, but no, this had been her plan—she wanted me to see where she would end up.
“What do you mean, she’s going to Erie?” Dylan roared. He never roared.
“She knows I planted a tracker in her sealskin bag, so I think she’s trying to lead us to Blackwood.”
Great. Just fucking great. I had wanted her to stop running and start fighting, but I hadn’t expected it to work this well.
“Eirlys, she’s playing bait,” Dylan shouted to his wife.
“What do you mean, she’s playing bait?” Eirlys’s voice echoed in the background.
“I’m going home to grab my bag, and then I’m coming to pick you up,” I said to Dylan as I started for the door, my laptop with me.
I ran to my car, hopped in, and floored the gas. Never in my life had I been this grateful for packing ahead of time. It took me less than four minutes to get home, get my two bags, one of them filled with every weapon I could think of, including a few explosives, and then drive to Dylan’s.
They didn’t waste any time either. It was their daughter’s life on the line. Still, judging by the single bag they had, they hadn’t been ready to go on this trip the way I had been.
“Open my laptop,” I said to Dylan who rode shotgun. “There’s a map icon labeled Kiora. Open that.”
Dylan followed my instructions diligently, finding the red dot moving on the map. “You planted a tracker on her.”
“Multiple trackers,” I corrected him.
“All the gifts you’ve been bringing?” Dylan guessed.
“She knows about the tracker in the sealskin bag.” But I hadn’t told her about the rest. She was a smart girl, so she could’ve guessed.
Eirlys let out a pitiful whimper. “She just got her sealskin. What was she thinking?”
I knew exactly what she was thinking. It had been all over her face when I had shown her the number of supes who had disappeared in just that one city. I had seen it again when she had realized how many had been kidnapped every year for the six years she had been able to evade that very fate.
“She’s finally ready to fight.” And not just for herself but for everyone who had deserved so much better than what those traffickers and their clients had in mind.
I gritted my teeth against the need to protect her. She... Waves, she could lose her memories for good if her sealskin got stolen, and she knew it.
“But she has a sealskin,” Eirlys said.
I nodded. She was willing to risk it all to save those people. I was willing to let everyone rot if it meant my girl was safe.
I fished my Bluetooth out of the cupholder and said, “Aqua, dial Officer Falls.”
The AI voice chirped in my ear, all calm and peaceful. I didn’t need peaceful. I needed my little mermaid back. I could tell Falls to intercept Kiora, and she would be safe. She wouldn’t be playing bait for anyone the way she wanted to.
She wanted to. Fuck. She actually wanted this.
“Officer Falls,” the familiar voice on the other end answered.
“Hi. It’s Troy Wavesong. We have a situation coming your way. Kiora Bering took it upon herself to flush out Blackwood. She’s probably using the name Mira White, though.” I couldn’t bring myself to give her other name—Kiora Davis—the name Billy had given her when he had led everyone to believe she was his daughter.
She had spent most of her life as a captive, even if she hadn’t known it. Then she had spent another six years on the run because the man she had thought was her father had tried to sell her. And still, she was willing to risk it all.
“I have trackers on her,” I continued, then addressed Dylan. “Text him the link to the trackers.”
It took two long minutes before Officer Falls could see Kiora’s location. Two minutes of me thinking, agonizing over what I wanted—Kiora safe in my arms, and what she wanted—thousands of supes in the arms of their loved ones.
“Okay, got it. You want us to intercept?”
Yes. “No. If you can prevent her sealskin from falling into the wrong hands, that’d be great, but let her get captured.”
Bile rose at my own words. Eirlys screamed at me. Dylan gave me the death glare that promised so much pain, but it wasn’t about what they wanted or even what I wanted. This was about Kiora.
She knew I’d use the tracker. She knew I’d follow. She hoped I’d do what she wanted me to do. I couldn’t let her down.