“Uh-huh.”
A moment passed in awkward silence.
“You’re not going to tell me anything about what you’ve seen or heard about Isadora, are you?” I asked.
“Nope.”
“All right…” I muttered, sinking farther into the backseat.
I knew a zipped mouth when I saw one, and I wasn’t good at drawing blood from stone. Dicky was clearly under instructions: don’t tell the girl anything, just drive her to the coven.
By the time we reached Fleet Science Center, nightfall stretched its starry sky over the city in deep shades of indigo. There were barely any souls out—a couple of late-night joggers doing their usual routes around the museum, and the nighttime security guards.
“How much do I owe you?” I asked Dicky, who waved me away.
“It’s paid for. Don’t worry about it, kiddo.”
There was an affectionate familiarity in his voice. As if we’d met before… or better yet, as if he knew me. “Have we met?” I asked, narrowing my eyes as I tried to get a better look through the passenger window.
“Go on, go in,” he said. “It’s not safe out here.”
“You don’t seem scared,” I remarked.
“I’m not the one being hunted by Shapeshifters, tootsie-roll. Have a good evening!”
He drove off, leaving me outside the Center with a baffled expression.
“What in the world is happening?” I breathed, as if hoping the universe would answer.
Nothing made sense when taken apart. However, when I put it all together, there seemed to be a narrative I hadn’t thought about before. Of course, without a confirmation that the Ryders and Katherine Shipton were, indeed, connected, I wouldn’t have been able to generate a clear picture of what was going on.
After failing to sabotage the Bestiary with Finch’s help, Katherine was looking for new ways to screw with us. We’d captured Finch before he released the heavyweight monsters. We’d only had a swarm of gargoyles to deal with, which, in hindsight, seemed easier than, say, any of the Gorgon sisters, Leviathan, or Echidna. The Bestiary was riddled with ill-intended creatures of raw Chaos, and some had been loose for long enough to become the stuff of human legends. Some, like Quetzalcoatl, had been worshiped as gods. Others, like the changelings, had scared the daylights out of the Middle Ages.
But we’d gotten that under control. The Bestiary was safe, and Finch was in Purgatory.
Katherine had recruited the Ryders to help her as well, and they struck me as much more evil and vicious than Finch. Heck, the Ryders made Finch sound like an angry teenager. They’d been circling around the rogue magicals in the city, grooming the parents or the kids… or both, in some cases, so they could get them out of their homes.
They’d left cards for us to see, to taunt us.
Then, they’d killed the human parents and stolen the kids. Some, like Kenneth Willow, had joined them willingly. Others, like Marjorie Phillips, had run away from them. Either way, they seemed central to Katherine’s plot. She was planning something against the covens, and she needed these kids for some reason.
It hit me then that maybe we had overlooked something about the children’s abilities. There had to be a method to this madness. A reason for Katherine to want specific young magicals. She definitely got her intel from inside our coven, and that further confirmed that we still had a spy in our midst.
Jacob, for the time being, was safe. But for how long?
The Ryders had tailed me extremely close to the Smiths’ place. What were the odds that they’d find them next and use them to get at me? I couldn’t bear the thought of losing them or Jacob, so I decided to talk to Alton and Wade about all this. They needed to know.
My stomach churned as I thought of Wade. I wondered whether he hated me, and whether he would ever forgive me for my insistence on keeping the magical kids with their parents. I was mad at myself, but, in retrospect, I knew there wasn’t much else I could’ve done to prevent the tragedy. I had a feeling that the Ryder twins would’ve found a way to get to the kids even if we’d brought them to the coven.
Looking at the whole picture, the pattern of a well-designed plan came fully to light in my mind. Katherine had calculated everything, down to the last detail—including our movements, coven protocols, and reactions. They knew what we were going to do and when. That mattered for counterintelligence operations, which was our next step. We had to stop the leaks from endangering other kids.
A twig broke as I walked toward the staff entrance of Fleet Science Center, prompting me to shoot a glance to my left.
Standing by the water fountain in Balboa Park was Jacob, wearing a concerned look on his face. I gasped, understanding that my evening had not yet run out of surprises.
“Jake, what… what are you doing here?” I whispered, checking our surroundings to make sure nobody saw us.
He motioned for me to follow him, then darted off behind a line of trees on the edge of the park.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I cursed under my breath and ran after him.
He waited for me beneath a sturdy oak tree, one of the park’s newest additions, an import from a nearby nature reserve and part of the mayor’s initiative to “green up this city.” Jacob was nervous, and he was giving me the jitters.
“Are you okay?” he asked me, genuinely concerned.
While it warmed my heart to see and feel him worried about me, there were still some gaps he needed to fill. I gave him a brief nod. “I’m fine,” I said. “Why do you ask? And what are you doing here?”
“I saw what happened,” he replied, his voice low.
A couple of seconds passed before I registered that particular morsel of information. “Wait. What? You were out by the bus stop?” I asked, and he nodded, guilt adding a reddish pink to his cheeks. “You were following me, weren’t you? You were following me at the Hamms’ place, too. What’s up with you? Seriously!”
He sighed. “I just wanted to see what you were doing… what you’re like,” he mumbled. “I’m good at hiding my tracks, in general, so I can just look at people without them knowing I’m watching.”
“Like a professional stalker.” I scoffed.
“Sort of.” He chuckled nervously. “I’m sorry. I was… I don’t know, I had a bad feeling when I saw you leave earlier. I just wanted to make sure you got home safe.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “And here I am, worrying about your safety and wellbeing,” I said. Then I frowned. “So, you saw the Ryder twins attack me.”
The color drained from his face. Dread clutched my throat—all his. “Those were the Ryders,” he gasped. It was my turn to nod as I carefully analyzed his reaction. “I’d heard about them, but I’ve never met them.”
“What? You made it seem like you’d never heard of them before!” I snapped.
Jacob shrugged. “It takes a while for me to trust people. I decide what information I give, and whether it’s a risk for me. Right now, I’m taking a chance on you, Harley.”
I stared at him for a long moment, not sure whether to stay angry or accept his reply as a compliment. Finally, I breathed out and muttered, “Thank you, I guess. Better late than never. So, about the Ryders. What have you heard?” I pressed.
“The other unregistered rogues are terrified of the twins. Some are considering joining the coven just to get away from them.”
“What about you?” I asked, making a mental note of his relationship with unidentified magicals. It could come in handy later if I persuaded him to join our coven. A boy with his knowledge was valuable and could be used to do good—provided he was in the right hands. But I couldn’t bring myself to tell Alton or Wade about him, because I knew that once word got out about Jacob, the SDC might not be able to keep him. Strings could be pulled, and I didn’t want Jacob to be taken away from me. Or the Smiths, for that matter. He deserved a home and a family, dammit.
“I’m keeping a low profile, I told you,” he replied.
Well, it wasn’t too low of a profile, in my opinion. Isadora knew what he was. That, too, could help us later, where Jacob’s protection was concerned.
“Jake, you saw what happened. You know what the twins are capable—”
“Which is why I didn’t come out to help you,” he cut me off, hurting deeply. “I’m so sorry for that. I wanted to help you, I did, but I couldn’t let them see me and… well, they’re way too powerful for me.”
I let out a heavy sigh. “I get it. You did the right thing. It’s better they don’t know you, trust me. Is that why you came all the way here? Because you wanted to—what, apologize for not getting involved in my encounter with the Ryder twins? Do the Smiths know you’re out? Did you take a bus here?”
He shook his head. “I snuck out the window and hailed a cab.”
“Hold on, that doesn’t make sense. How’d you know to come here?” I asked. “I basically vanished into thin air back at the bus stop.”
Jacob pressed his lips in a thin line. “Isadora has a message for you,” he said.
My knees were ready to give out. Yet another piece of the puzzle was falling on top of me, and I had no idea where to place it in this enormous mess. I ran a hand through my hair, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly in an attempt to keep my cool.
“You know Isadora Merlin,” I said in a low tone.
“I didn’t know you were acquainted,” Jacob replied with a shrug.
“We have the same last name. You knew that. I told you tonight! Didn’t the thought occur to you? How many Merlins can there be, in this day and age, in the same city at the same time?!” I snapped. “Jeez, kid. Come on, you’ve got to be more open with me here!”
“She helped me keep my head down, okay?” Jacob said, visibly frustrated. “She taught me how to keep certain abilities under control. I owe her a lot. She’s part of the reason why I’ve been off the coven’s radar for so long, Harley. I only realized you were connected when you told me about your family and what happened to them. But I also promised Isadora I’d keep my mouth shut about her.”