“Wait, what? Garrett, shut the—”
Garrett chuckled as he interrupted Wade again. “Give it a rest, Crowley. You’re mad because you care.”
“I agree with Garrett on this one,” Santana chimed in from the backseat. “He gets intense when he’s emotionally invested.”
Even so, it still hurt me deeply. I couldn’t stand the thought of Wade being angry with me, though I knew I’d brought it on myself. I was already going through sheer emotional torture as I prayed to find Jacob at the Smiths’ place, alive and in one piece. Feeling Wade’s wrath and disappointment on top of that was too much.
I decided, then and there, to put all those thoughts aside, choosing to focus exclusively on Jacob and the Ryders. I was ready to haul those twins to hell if they so much as touched a hair on the kid’s or the Smiths’ heads.
Good people didn’t deserve to get dragged into this mess.
Thirty-Six
Tatyana
I was in the front passenger seat, with a full view of a grumpy Wade.
If not for the dreadful situation at hand, I would’ve found this situation amusing. We all knew he had a soft spot for Harley, and that her choice to withhold knowledge of Jacob from the coven had hit him hard. However, I also agreed with Garrett—which was quite astonishing, considering that, up until a few days ago, I would’ve rather chewed glass than work with him.
Wade turned his Bluetooth earpiece off, prompting us to do the same. We were just a couple of blocks away from the Smiths’ place now, and the tension was high, keeping my pulse racing.
“You know Harley had good intentions, right?” I asked him.
He exhaled sharply. “It doesn’t excuse her actions.”
Astrid reached out from the backseat and smacked him on the shoulder.
“Wade Crowley!” she said, sounding like a very angry mom. “After everything we’ve all been through, and especially Harley, you choose to be a jerk! Enough with the drama, already! Either tone it down or ask the girl out on a date. This is getting ridiculous.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Wade asked, visibly annoyed.
“Puh-lease! You know damn well what I’m talking about,” Astrid replied, leaning back into her seat.
“You’re wrong,” Wade insisted. “This isn’t about me lashing out due to some… unresolved feelings or whatever. This is about trust. Which she broke. I trusted her. She made a mistake, and she needs to stew in it, at least for a little while.”
“Oh. So, it’s not enough that she’s got this horrible family history to deal with, along with these missing kids. You want to pile on this crap and make it worse. Got it,” Astrid said. “I thought you were more mature than this.”
“She needs to understand that there are consequences to her actions,” Wade replied, gritting his teeth.
“Harley is already going through hell right now, not knowing what happened to Jacob and her foster parents—if they’re even okay!” Astrid said, holding her ground. “Wade, I get why this whole thing about Jacob upset you, but you have to move past it, and quickly. We don’t have time for grudges. Not now. Not with everything that’s on the line here.”
Dylan cleared his throat. “You should also try to understand Harley’s point of view. I totally get why she’d be reluctant to bring Jacob in. The entire magical world would pounce on the poor boy.”
“As for your feelings regarding Harley, pardon me, but the jury is still out on that one,” I chimed in, stifling a smirk.
Wade sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. “Why are you all ganging up on me?”
Astrid giggled. “You deserve it. Now, let the attitude go, and be a good friend to the Merlin girl if you want her to stay.”
Our fleeting moment was already over as we pulled up outside the Smiths’ house. Something was definitely off, starting with the exterior aspect of the property. Runes had been spray-painted across the brick walls, and the front door was open.
As we tumbled out of the car, the silence pouring out of the house was downright deafening. I dry-swallowed, hoping to get rid of the lump in my throat. Wade motioned for us to turn our Bluetooth pieces back on.
“This isn’t good,” Astrid whispered.
“Stay in the car,” Wade replied. “You’re banged up enough as it is. Call for any available magical security units, too. See who’s closest to our location.”
Astrid nodded, then unlocked the screen on her tablet and got back inside the Jeep, while Wade, Dylan, and I moved closer to each other, unable to take our eyes off the Smiths’ house. Harley’s Mustang reached us, and she pulled up behind Wade’s Jeep.
Something was awfully wrong with this picture, and, judging by the look on Harley’s face, she knew it, too.
Thirty-Seven
Harley
Fear curled up in the pit of my stomach, scratching at my insides.
We regrouped just outside the Smiths’ house, all of us confused by the symbols painted on its exterior walls. The open door wasn’t a good sign, either.
“What are those runes?” Tatyana asked. “I don’t recognize any of them.”
“Me neither,” Wade said, frowning.
Garrett breathed out. “They can’t be good.” Then he looked at me. “Unless your Auntie Isadora painted them? I’m guessing she’s much more versed in magic than we are, given her years of experience.”
I shook my head. “I doubt it. She had small runes painted in the corners. These… These give me a bad vibe.”
I checked my phone. No messages. No missed calls. I tried calling Jacob again. Still no answer.
“Chances are there may be hostiles inside,” Wade said. “We should learn from what we’ve seen so far. It could be a trap.”
“Okay, so, how do we do this? We have to get Jacob and the Smiths to safety,” I answered.
He looked at me, and I was instantly filled with his fear and determination—equal quantities, rippling through me like a bad fever. We were all scared, but we had to keep moving. If dark forces were at work here, we had to stop them. There was no other choice.
“You and I go through the back,” Wade said. “The rest of the team takes the front. If anyone’s waiting in there and they’re not friendly, it’ll be up to you and me to take them down. Can I count on you, Harley?”
I smirked. “You know damn well that’s a yes.”
“Good,” he replied, the corner of his mouth twitching. I figured that was our way of making peace. It gave me a sense of direction. “Earpieces on.”
We split up. Garrett led Santana, Raffe, Tatyana, and Dylan in through the front door, while Wade and I snuck through the back. The large spray-painted symbols weren’t the only new additions to the Smiths’ house. The backyard was riddled with animal bones, positioned in the shape of a symbol—a circle surrounding a triangle, with a small green fire burning in the middle.
“That’s weird. What’s that?” I asked, keeping my voice down.
“It’s a Gaelic Battery,” he replied, then walked toward it. “Astrid, whoever you’ve got coming from security, tell them to be on high alert. Hostiles have been draining energy from nearby residents using a Gaelic Battery.”
“Roger that,” Astrid replied, her voice audible in our open channel.
“What does it do?” I whispered.
Wade kicked some of the bones away with his shoes. The green fire in the middle began to shrink, releasing white sparks. “It hijacks the energy produced by humans within a three-mile radius,” he whispered. “Whoever is around it gets tapped into. Magicals can use their energy to increase the power of their spells,” he added, then stomped the fire out completely.
Suddenly, I felt like I could breathe a little easier. “Did the battery tap into us, too?”
“For a couple of minutes, yes,” he replied. “Garrett? What’s it looking like in there?”
There was no answer from Garrett. Wade took a deep breath, his Esprit rings glowing white.
He mumbled a spell under his breath, closing his eyes in the process. A bright blue pulse shot out of him, flitting through the air. The sound reminded me of a swarm of birds flying at once. I instantly recognized the magic at work here—a time lapse. It spread outward and settled in the shape of a giant globe that swallowed the entire property. But it didn’t last. It crackled and flashed white before it vanished into thin air.
“What the…” I said.
“It’s not working,” Wade concluded. “I can’t put out a time lapse. I think it may have something to do with those symbols,” he said, nodding at the house. “Garrett? Santana? Anyone?”
Still, no one replied. That made me feel uneasy. But I couldn’t stay out here for another second. If something was going down inside, I had to be there. Wade seemed to read my mind. He joined me as we slipped through the kitchen’s back door. Thankfully, the sliding mechanism was quiet. I was careful to close the door behind me. If any hostile thought of escaping, I certainly wasn’t going to make it easy on them.
Everything looked fine in the kitchen. Nothing out of place. No sign of struggle. But the air felt thick and heavy. Fear rumbled through me… It wasn’t mine, though.
I looked at Wade, and he brought his index finger up to his lips. We were going to do this quietly. We made our way through the narrow hallway leading into the living room on the right and the den on the left, which the Smiths had recently converted into a game and reading room.
I saw Garrett and the others slowly advancing through the front corridor. We were all going to meet in the middle, where the two double archways awaited, on both sides. As parts of the living room came into view, my heart skipped a beat. I moved to get there faster, but Wade put his arm out and held me back. I gave him a questioning glance, to which he responded with a sullen glare. His nerves were stretched to their limits, but I could feel his anticipation. He’d noticed something that drove him to keep me from going farther.