Chapter 30
Zaos
It had been nearly three weeks since the whole Anithea interview thing, and the BCA still hadn’t been able to locate Beatrix or the rest of the Egawa clan.
It was pissing me off.
Not only because it meant my Hugo wasn’t safe, and in fact, none of my family was safe. But because Hugo and I had offered, again, to call her up or text her and ask to meet up.
But my uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents—all my family members that worked for the BCA—decided against that.
Which was so stupid. There was little risk to me calling her, for fuck’s sake. It wasn’t like she could reach through the phone and hurt me.
But noooooo. We weren’t agents in the BCA, so we weren’t allowed to help.
Psh. They were all asshats.
Hugo grinned at me and knocked my shoulder with his, likely in agreement if he overheard my thoughts.
We were sitting on the couch. I was doing homework since my last semester just started, and he was doing a word search or something.
He’d bought an activity book and a few fantasy books just so he’d have something quiet to do beside me while I studied or did homework.
It was such a sweet gesture that it’d melted my heart and made me a little less angry at the world for a little while.
I knocked his shoulder back and refocused on my school book.
About an hour later, I felt that nudge I always got when someone walked too close or touched our wards. Hugo flinched and sat up straight, obviously feeling it too.
In a whisper, he asked, “What was that?”
I shrugged. He was still getting used to it, so I wasn’t surprised he freaked out a little. But it wasn’t uncommon for people walking on the sidewalk to accidentally brush by the wards or for the mailman to touch them when he put the mail in our mailbox right outside the wards.
As long as no one was knocking on them, we had nothing to worry about.
As if hearing my own thoughts, I felt another jolt from the wards, followed by another and another.
Well… someone was fucking knocking on them after all. Lovely.
I jumped to my feet, and Hugo didn’t hesitate to follow. We both slipped our shoes on as I reached out to the wards with my magic, trying to get a sense of who was on the other side.
The second I recognized her signature, I froze. “It’s Beatrix.”
Hugo froze too. “What do we do?” He was still whispering as if he was afraid she’d hear us. But the wards around the house wouldn’t allow that. They kept our noises inside so passersby wouldn’t hear. Although, if we were outside, there was a chance she could hear us.
I understood the inclination to whisper. I kinda felt like whispering too.
I pulled out my phone without answering him and called my granddad.
When Hugo saw what I was doing, he nodded in agreement and released a relieved sigh.
We’d both learned our lesson the hard way about doing things like this alone. I knew better than to go out there without telling Granddad what we were doing. I put the phone on speaker so Hugo could hear him too.
“Hey, kiddo, what’s—”
“Beatrix is banging on my wards.”
His tone changed immediately. “We’re on our way. Can you… I hate asking this of you, but can you go out there and stall her? Don’t you dare step a single toe outside the wards, okay? I’ll kick your ass if you do.”
“I won’t. Promise.”
“Good. We’ll be there in about two minutes. Keep her there.”
“We will.” I hung up, grabbed Hugo’s hand, and pulled him with me.
I saw her standing on the other side of the wards, and I couldn’t help but notice how terrible she looked.
She looked like she hadn’t slept since the last time I saw her weeks ago.
Her hair was a mess, she had bags under her eyes, her clothes were disheveled, and I was pretty sure she had a bruise on her cheek.
What the hell?
When we got closer, I could see with the way she was holding her arm that it was hurt… possibly broken.
But I had no sympathy for someone who was okay with hurting my family, with someone whose actions caused harm to my viramore. Hugo almost died because of her and her family.
It didn’t matter if she didn’t want to do it. She still did. She pretended to be my friend and put us all in harm’s way, and I didn’t think I could ever forgive her for it.
“What do you want, Beatrix?” I asked.
And of course my viramore had to be all nice, asking, “What happened to you? Are you alright?”
“They found me,” she whispered, looking over her shoulder.
“Who found you?”
The BCA? They wouldn’t have hurt her like that. No way.
They definitely wouldn’t have released her either.
“Theroli and the rest of the clan… a lot of us left when he killed Phia, but he still has at least eleven with him—maybe more. They… they found me.”
“And you decided to lead them straight to me and my viramore?” I asked, pissed.
She met my gaze, and her eyes filled with tears, pulling at my heartstrings despite myself.
“No. Of course not. I… I’m so sorry, Zay.
I didn’t know what to do. He was… he kept threatening me, and he had my little brother and our mom.
I couldn’t go against him. Not when he could hurt them.
They… they got away from him last week, but then he found me, and he hu—no.
It doesn’t matter. I just… I wanted to warn you. ”
“Warn me about what?”
She took a deep breath and glanced over her shoulder again.
“I’m supposed to convince you to let me through your wards so I can disable them from the inside.
They think they’ll be able to get through and then use the portal you told me about in your yard or whatever.
They want to get to the rest of your family.
He’s so stupid. I can’t disable your wards, for crying out loud, and how he thinks he’ll be able to take on your grandfather is laughable.
He’s gone insane, Zay. He’s seriously lost his mind. It’s ridiculous, all of it.”
My grandparents chose that moment to walk around the house so she could see them. I’d known they were there, listening in.
Granddad said, “Where are they, Beatrix?”
She began to shake, but to my surprise, she answered him without hesitation. “They’re staying in those trees behind the houses across the street. Mainly behind the one with the for-sale sign in front.”
“Have they been there this whole time?”
She shook her head. “No. They just chose that spot this morning. They were in another house with a for-sale sign on it before then, but I don’t think they’d been there long.
Before that, I’m not sure because I was hiding from them.
I think… I think he might’ve made friends with a realtor or something, but I don’t know who. ”
“Thank you, Beatrix.”
To my surprise, Granddad walked over, reached through the wards, and grabbed her hand. She looked like she might bolt, but she let him hold onto her for a long time. His green magic swirled around them both.
I had no idea what he was doing until Grandpa whispered to Hugo and me, “He’s using his magic to get a sense of her soul. He’s good at picking up on people who’re good at the heart of it, and he thinks she might be worth saving.”
“She could’ve come to us at any time,” I said angrily.
“Maybe. But you heard her. What would you be willing to do to save your family?”
I sighed, and Hugo whispered, “Anything. I’d do anything to save any of you.”
I glanced at him and saw Grandpa reach over to hug him from the side and kiss his temple as he spoke so quietly I almost didn’t hear him. “And any one of us would do anything and everything to save you too, sweetie.”
Hugo leaned into the hug for a moment before we all straightened and watched my other grandfather’s green magic swirling around.
After a few more seconds, his magic dissipated, almost floating away on the wind. He stared at her, asked her something I missed, and when she nodded, my eyes widened. My grandfather pulled Beatrix through the wards into my front yard.
What. The. Hell.
She started crying, and he actually gave her a hug before passing her off to his viramore and turning to me.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked him.
Other grandfathers may’ve been angry if I spoke to them that way, but Granddad didn’t even seem to notice. “She has a good soul, Zay. None of this is her fault.”
“What the hell am I hearing? You never forgive people.”
He scowled. “I do too.”
“You really don’t!”
He shook his head and waved me off. “Listen. I’m going to let Uncle Jor drive her back to the BCA and reunite her with Anithea and hopefully find her mother and brother too.
They’ll all get new identities, and we’ll make sure no one from their old clan ever finds them.
She’s not going through our portal, but I also don’t want one of Theroli’s people to hurt her before we get her to a safe place, so she’s staying right here until your uncle gets here to take her. ”
I nodded, surprised by his understanding and kindness. Sure, he was one of the most generous people in the world. But he wasn’t usually the forgiving type. I had a feeling my grandpa had more to do with this decision than Granddad actually did.
Maybe that wasn’t fair to him, though. He could be forgiving… sometimes. Especially when it came to kids, and in his eyes, Beatrix was definitely a kid.
We walked behind the house where people couldn’t see us. Hopefully, Beatrix’s clan thought she was still doing their bidding and weren’t suspicious that we were actually planning on capturing them and throwing them in prison.
It wasn’t long before Uncle Jor and Uncle Laiken came through the portal.
They both said hello to us, with hugs, before focusing on Beatrix.
They couldn’t take her to a car yet because we didn’t want her clan catching on—we had two official BCA SUVs in our driveway since that was the only thing my family would let us ride in while there was a threat.
Part of me wanted to go over and say my goodbyes while I could because I’d never see her again after this, but I was just… done. Done with her. Done with this entire thing.
I was tired and done with it.
Before I knew it, both my dads, Uncle Thay, Uncle Toby, Uncle Bas, Uncle Hiro, and Kian were all here and ready to go across the street. However, Granddad told Kian he had to stay behind.
Hugo and I were also ordered to stay behind, but I was going whether they all liked it or not. I wanted to see the man behind this. I wanted to see this done.
Kian felt the same, and without a word to each other, with only a look, I knew we’d follow our BCA agent family members over as soon as they were far enough away that they couldn’t stop us.
Unfortunately for us, our dads knew us well, and Dad walked over with a sigh. “You guys are going to follow us over no matter what we do, aren’t you?”
I grimaced, and Kian just shrugged.
Dad sighed again and called over his shoulder, “Tal? Come here.”
Pops walked over, stared at us for a moment, and let out his own sigh. “Really? You really need to come see this? What if it’s bloody?”
Kian shrugged. “You know I don’t care about that.”
“Maybe not, but your brother sure does.”
I held in my own disgust at the thought, but seriously, what did they think I did for a living? I worked in the emergency department. I’d seen a lot of gruesome things these past few years. “I’ve seen worse at the hospital, I’m sure.”
Pops looked at Hugo. “And you?”
“I’ve seen some things… I’ll be fine.”
My eyes widened when Pops randomly pulled a gigantic battle ax out of nowhere—some kind of fae pocket dimension thing I didn’t understand. He held it in one hand and sort of tapped it against his other, looking menacing. “You sure about that?”
Hugo’s eyes were absolutely humungous. Pops did kind of look unhinged with that giant thing. So I stepped in front of my viramore, saying, “He’ll be fine. Can you put your weapon away now? I think you’ve sufficiently scared him.”
To my surprise, Pops laughed, and the battle ax moved back into that pocket dimension thing, no longer in sight, although my pops could pull it out with just a thought at any time.
Literally at any time. Anywhere. Always.
Hopefully Hugo wouldn’t be scared of him now.
I checked our bond, and while he felt nervous, it wasn’t aimed at Pops. He seemed more shocked than anything else, and who could blame him for that?
Pops shook his head, gave my shoulder a pat, and said, “Come on, then. We’ll keep you in a shield, so you won’t be fighting—yes, Kian, you too. We’re not letting you out so you can get in trouble for hurting or killing this Theroli guy.”
“He’s the one who ordered Phia’s—”
“I know. I know, son. That’s why you’re staying in the shield with your brother and Hugo. Okay? Otherwise, I’ll put you in a shield right here, right now, and you won’t get to see anything.”
Kian blew out a breath. “Fine.”
With a nod, he led us over to the rest of the group, telling Granddad the new plan. He was not happy. At all. But after he got Pops to agree to put us in a shield created with a mix of both their magics—to make it even stronger—he finally agreed as well.
That meant there was no chance of us breaking it either.
But that was probably a good thing.
Finally, we were ready to see what the hell this Theroli guy had in store for our family.
Granddad and Grandpa were giving their Bonded Ones—Seraphina and Zammerra—instructions.
We knew where the nymph clan was, and we didn’t want any stragglers getting away.
So they were going to fly high up in the sky to disguise themselves as birds and patrol the small wooded area and beyond… picking up any escaping nymph.
I gave Beatrix one last look, then let out a sigh.
I walked over to her with Hugo and Kian flanking me. When I reached her, I surprised us both by pulling her into a hug. I whispered, “Take care of yourself, Bea. Be careful, yeah? Go live an amazing life and make a lot of friends… just don’t lie to them.”
“I won’t. Promise. Thank you, Zay. I wish… I wish I didn’t have to leave because you’ve been the best friend I’ve ever had. I hope you and Hugo have a wonderful, peaceful, lovely life together.”
The fact that I was the best friend she’d ever had made me a little sad for her since our friendship had been… partially fake. Hopefully she’d make a ton of new friends in her new life.
“We will.” I released her. “Take care of yourself, Bea.”
“You too. And… thank you.”
I offered a wave and turned around. Hugo gave her a wave as well, then wrapped his arm around my back and kissed my shoulder as we walked back to the raiding party.
There. Now I was ready.