Chapter 25 #3
They ran down the path toward the ornamental lake and the pavilion. Give some of those old lady visitors a scare that would have them wetting themselves. Yeah. They were the Doggs! Savage and wild. They could do whatever they wanted. Kill whatever they wanted.
Something stepped out of the trees just ahead of them. Butch stopped so fast one of the other guys ran over him before tripping.
The…thing…looked like that man-horse deal from mythology, except it was a man mixed with a deer—who was aiming a slingshot at them.
Butch snarled at the deer-thing. Four to one. Good odds in their favor.
Then Stick leaped forward. The deer-thing released the stone, and Stick was running away on three legs.
Before Butch thought to react, the deer-thing already had another stone in the sling, aimed right at him—and he realized he was alone, the other three dogs already running away.
Not knowing what else to do, Butch turned and ran to catch up to them.
Colin wasn’t sure how long he’d been riding the bus.
Other passengers had gotten on and gotten off.
He’d checked his backpack to confirm he had a bottle of water and a couple of chocolate bars.
Not what Mom would call a healthy snack, but it was better than nothing, especially when he had no idea what he would find when he got off the bus.
“Next stop, Llamalidia,” the bus conductor called. He stopped at Colin’s seat. “That’s your stop. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Thank you.”
The conductor smiled and walked toward the back of the bus.
Colin closed his eyes and focused on breathing. Ever since he got on the bus, his cell phone had been searching for a signal. With any luck, the Llamalidia place would have cell phone service or a landline that could connect him to somewhere he could reach Dad.
A few more minutes. Just a few more minutes.
4
Lucas Frost patrolled the area of Destiny Park usually frequented by visitors, looking for the two human males who had made a fuss around the food stands.
Arguing with the vendors and with each other about nothing.
Either purchase the food for the stated price or don’t eat.
Simple enough. Except something had felt off about those males, as if they were performing to draw attention away from the dock just as the ferry arrived.
The ferry was heading back to the other side of the river to pick up the last visitors of the day, so he would wait to ask the Ferryman if anyone unusual had boarded this afternoon around the same time as that…ruckus.
Rahele and Faulkner weren’t the only vulnerable humans living on Wyrd, and vengeance didn’t have a shelf life—even among humans.
*Lucas, we have a problem.*
Lucas stopped at the far end of the ornamental lake. *Deerman?*
*Four wild dogs were heading toward the visitors’ area of the park. I encouraged them to run in another direction.* An amused pause. *Slingshot and stone, aimed at the hindquarters of one of the dogs. Bruised a bone.* Another pause. *Maybe broke a bone.*
Lucas felt anger wash through him. *Wild dogs. Are you sure?* Almost an insult to ask Deerman that question. Fortunately, the other Arcana didn’t take offense.
*No kind of dog I’ve seen before. And nothing that comes from Wyrd.*
*Anything else?*
*Mia Skov told me she saw seven young males following a path that would lead to one of the moon gates. They seemed aggressive, so she remained hidden.*
Mia Skov was from a branch of the Arcana that had an affinity for woodlands. She tended those areas of Destiny Park and kept an eye on visitors when they wandered toward the wilder areas of the park.
Seven young males. Four wild dogs. Where were the other three?
*Ask your people to keep watch along the paths that would lead back to the pavilion and main visitor areas,* Lucas said. *I’ll fetch Jack, and we’ll check the moon gate.*
*Good hunting,* Deerman replied.
One way or another there would be a hunt. He just didn’t know what kind it would be.
After summoning his brother to meet him at the pavilion, Lucas stepped into the room where Justine and her sisters revealed the choices of fate that came with a price—and found Katherine Rose, one of the card readers, in a hushed discussion with the Ladies Three.
“Lucas, we may have a problem,” Justine said.
“Deerman already told me about the wild dogs,” Lucas replied. “What can you tell me?”
Justine moved her scales to make room at the front of the table, then nodded to Katherine Rose. The seer laid out four cards.
Seven males. Six with weapons; one standing alone.
A male on his knees; a hooded man with an ax; a woman weeping.
A moon gate.
A pack of dogs surrounding a kill.
“I was waiting for a customer when I felt compelled to turn the cards,” Katherine Rose said. “The first three cards match a reading I did a few months ago for a boy. The fourth card is new.”
A chill went through Lucas. Fate could be cruel. “What boy?”
“He came with a man you know.”
Forrester.
Jack Frost walked into the room. “Something happening?”
Lucas nodded. “We need to check the moon gate.” There was more than one moon gate in the park, but only one close enough to the pavilion for a visitor to stumble upon.
Even that one required some effort to find.
The others required a need—or the Arcana’s assistance—to find them.
“I’ll ask Ethan to patrol the pavilion and grounds around the lake.
” He walked toward the dark archway that led to Ethan’s armory, then stopped and looked at his brother. “Do you need a weapon?”
Jack gave him a sharp smile. “Not from Ethan.”
Of course. Jack’s abilities could freeze the edge of a leaf and make it sharp enough to slit a throat. He had no need for conventional weapons, although he usually carried a few of those too.
After confirming that Ethan would patrol the grounds, Lucas and Jack headed for the moon gate.
“Seven human males, but four wild dogs,” Jack said after Lucas explained why they were going to look at the moon gate. “Three males unaccounted for. Best case scenario is we find them wounded around the gate and send them back across the river to their own healers.”
“Best case,” Lucas agreed. “The other possibilities could mean that Forrester never hears from his son again.”
“Forrester. You like him.”
“I do. He understands more of the truth about us and Wyrd than most of the humans who live around the Fate River, and he still has the courage to come here and deal with us. If he loses his son…”
Fate. Choices. It wasn’t the Arcana’s task to make a choice for a human, only facilitate that choice—if asked.
They approached the moon gate and spotted the torn clothing.
Jack swore softly. “They chose the form.”
“Probably not intentionally.” Lucas studied the clothing. “Fools.”
“I’ll go back to the pavilion and get a box.”
“There’s no time. Grab what you can. We’ll take it to the Ladies Three and see what answers they can draw from the males’ possessions.”
Lucas gathered four pairs of jeans while Jack gathered the shirts and a couple of cell phones that had fallen out of pockets. They left the footwear for whoever might have a use for it and returned to the pavilion.
An empty cardboard box was waiting for them in front of Justine’s table. Lucas and Jack dropped the clothes and phones into the box.
“I need whatever you can tell me about the possible lines of fate,” Lucas said.
“There were seven,” Zerah said. “You brought possessions belonging to four.”
“That’s all we have.”
Justine studied him. “Did you look?”
Meaning, had he looked for identification that would confirm that one of the wild dogs that Deerman had seen was Forrester’s son? “No.”
“It’s getting late,” Jack said. “The sun will be going down soon, and the ferry will be making its last run across the river. I’ll keep watch at the dock in case the other three boys find their way back there.”
Lucas nodded, then went outside and around the part of the pavilion open to visitors. When he entered his office, he considered what he needed to do—and how he could do it without wounding Forrester.
He picked up his phone and made the call.
Beth Fahey was tidying her desk at the end of her shift when her phone rang. “Detective Fahey.”
“Can you be overheard?”
Her breath caught. “Mr. Frost?”
“Can you be overheard?”
She heard temper in his voice. Something was wrong. She looked around just to be sure no one else had entered the team’s area. “No. I’m alone right now.”
“Captain Forrester. What is his son’s name?”
Beth braced herself against her desk. “Colin. His name is Colin. Has something happened to him?” Of course something had happened. Frost wouldn’t be calling the 13th precinct if nothing had happened.
“We don’t know yet.” A beat of silence. “Can you obtain a picture of the boy?”
Oh, God. “I should call Captain Forrester. He’s gone for the day.”
“No, you should not.”
The words were a command. Later, she’d think about why she didn’t question that he could give her orders. “There is a photo of his wife and children on his desk. I could take a picture of it with my cell phone and e-mail it to you.”
He gave her an e-mail address.
“Will you let us know when you find out anything?” she asked.
“I’ll call you.”
She heard the emphasis on you. Her. Not Forrester. “I’ll take that picture now and get it to you in a few minutes.”
“I’ll wait for it.”
Beth ended the call and looked around. Still no one in this area of the precinct. She hurried into Forrester’s office and almost dropped the photo in her haste to remove it from the frame so that she could take the clearest picture.
The first picture was Aisha Forrester and the two children. Then she tightened her focus to take a picture that was mostly Colin.