Suddenly, the spark cut to the right, forcing us to swerve and drive inland. The radio dipped in and out of a country music channel, a mournful voice singing through the speakers about lost love and futile hopes.
“Where the hell is this thing going?” Wade muttered, clinging to the door handle for dear life.
“Who knows,” I replied. “Texas, Alaska, Timbuktu?”
“Let’s hope not.”
A short while later, we passed the perimeter of McClellan-Palomar Airport, red lights blinking from the air-traffic control towers. No planes seemed to be taking off in this weather. Speeding along Airport Road, we turned in to the small settlement of Bressi Ranch, a sleepy little village bordering the airport. I’d never been here before, and it looked kind of creepy in the driving rain.
The spark hovered for a moment at the intersection of Poinsettia Lane before darting across and leading up a dirt track. With no traffic on the road, I shot through a red light and followed it up and over a shrub-covered hill, desperate to keep the rusty light in our line of sight. If we lost it, we’d be screwed.
After five minutes, the spark stopped again, right in front of a solitary house. Whitewashed walls surrounded a quaint house with a Spanish villa feel. A dim glow shone from the front window, though the rest of the building was steeped in darkness.
“This has to be it.” I killed the engine, hoping they hadn’t heard us approach. If they ran, I was going to be pissed.
We got out and hurried for the porch, both of us soaked to the skin by the time we reached it. Not again… At this rate, I’m going to need a week to thaw out.
I knocked on the door, following the disappearing tail of the glimmering spark. A shout of alarm rose up from inside. I guessed the spark had found its mark, singeing poor Jacob the way it had done with Finch.
I knocked again. “Isadora? Jacob? If you’re in there, please don’t run! It’s Harley.”
Everything fell silent.
A few moments later, the door creaked open. Jacob stood on the other side, rubbing a burn mark on his forehead. A lopsided, slightly pained grin turned up the corner of his lips. “What was that?” he asked, a streak of soot smearing onto his fingertips.
“Tracer spell,” I replied. “It was the only way we could track you down. Anyone would think the two of you were trying to hide from something.” I flashed him a grin.
“Are you going to leave us out here in the rain, or will you let us come inside?” Wade chimed in, shaking out the edge of his sodden jacket.
Jacob stepped back. “Sure, come in. I managed to stop Isadora from jumping through a portal—you scared the living daylights out of us.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” Isadora said, stepping out of the shadows of the small living room. “Why have you come? I told you not to follow us. I told you I needed to keep Jacob and myself safe, which would mean staying away from you for a while.”
I looked at her, trying not to feel too disappointed by her dismissive tone. “I know, I know, but things have changed. We need you to come back to the coven.”
“No chance.” Jacob shook his head vehemently.
“We need your help,” I urged.
“It’s not safe for us, Harley,” Isadora replied. “I told you it wasn’t safe. What were you thinking, using a tracer spell to track us down? Anyone might have followed it. Speaking of which, anyone might have followed you. Did you make sure nobody was on your tail?”
I pushed down the bristle of irritation that stemmed from both my aunt and me. The two of us had our reasons for feeling annoyed, but it wasn’t going to help anyone. I had my orders. They needed to come back with us.
“Nobody followed us,” Wade assured her. “I kept an eye on the rearview the entire way, and we made sure to put the tracer spell together in total secrecy. The rest of our group knows that Alton wants you back at the coven, but only Harley and I took part in tracking you. No one else knows we’ve come here. They’re still twiddling their thumbs over how to find you.”
“How did you find us?” Jacob asked.
“You left a bracelet back at the Smiths’ house. I found it under the bed,” I replied. I’d been wondering if he’d left it there on purpose, for me to discover. Guess not.
He bit his lip. “Sorry, Isadora.”
“Don’t worry, it’s not your fault,” she said. “Accidents happen.”
I looked to my aunt for some sense that she was happy to see me. All I got were stony, sky-blue eyes and an ashen expression. Anxiety twirled around her in barbed coils. I felt the sting of every single one, the sensation setting my own nerves on edge.
Wade broke the tense beat of silence. “Alton will make sure you’re kept hidden. He’ll make your presence at the coven a need-to-know kind of deal. He doesn’t want Katherine getting her hands on you any more than we do.”
“You realize the danger you’re putting us in by even standing here right now, don’t you?” Isadora sighed and sat down on the armrest of the nearby sofa.
“There are people who need your help,” I replied. “Kids who need your help.”
Jacob stiffened. “You still haven’t found them?”
“Nope. I know it’ll come as a shocker, but Katherine seems to want them kept out of the way, somewhere only she knows about,” I said sarcastically. “Our leads are pretty much dry. Marjorie is the only one that got away, but even she’s managing to evade us.”
“I know you’ll think me cruel for saying it, Harley, but a handful of lives isn’t important in the grand scheme of things,” Isadora said. “If Katherine captures us, there’s a lot more at stake.”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand. Those children are important to Katherine. They are the grand scheme of things. We don’t know how Katherine is going to use them, but she targeted them for some reason—an important, unknown reason. That alone should be enough to get you to come back and help us.”
“I don’t see how we can help.”
“Jacob is a Sensate. He can help us pick up the trail again, in a way the rest of us can’t. And you—your portal powers can be used to create an escape route, if the worst happens at the coven. Alton needs you both.” Tension gripped my muscles in a vise. “Come on, Isadora! We can’t let Katherine destroy the lives of these kids. We can’t let her use them. If we don’t lift a finger to save them, we seal their fate. We might as well fire the shot ourselves!”
In front of me, Jacob’s fear and anxiety morphed into defiance.
“It could have been you, Jacob,” I said, putting on the pressure. “The only reason you’re not wherever those kids are now is because you’re a Portal Opener, too. If you hadn’t been able to jump through a wormhole to freedom, who knows where you’d be. I know I’m partially responsible for them finding you in the first place, but I’m trying to make amends for that.”
“Maybe… maybe we could go back for a little bit?” Jacob said, turning to Isadora. “If what Wade says is right, then no one would even know we were at the coven. We could even ask for certain things beforehand, to make sure we stay under the radar.”
Isadora heaved out a sharp breath. “I know you want to help, Jacob. I can understand your reasoning. I feel the same way.” She paused, looking at me sadly. “But we can’t risk it. If we go back, you’ll never be free. The coven will use you as a commodity for the rest of your life. Say yes now, and they will forever pressure you into doing their bidding. This time it’s the kids. Next time, they’ll find something else to guilt you into helping them. They’ll use Harley against you, they’ll use me against you, they’ll use anything they can to get you to do what they want. Believe me, I know how these places work. I spent enough time as a pawn in one.”
“No offense, but nobody is going to use anyone against me, or me against anyone,” I said firmly.
She smiled. “I know you wouldn’t allow it deliberately, but you may not even know they’re doing it. People can be very devious when they want something, and you can’t always be around to protect Jacob. You have other duties and responsibilities now. I’m able to protect him in a way you logistically can’t at the moment.”
“Still… I’d try.”
“I know you would.”
I wondered what she meant about being a pawn, but this wasn’t the time to ask. Jacob’s emotions fluctuated rapidly, revealing the heartbreaking truth—he was just a confused teenager who had no idea what to do. Having been through the wringer of foster families myself, just like him, I knew that all he wanted to do was please the people around him. That fear of rejection never went away. All of this was bigger than him, yet he stood in the middle of it, trying to figure out which side to take.
“This is my choice, Isadora,” he said quietly. Atta boy.
“And I can understand the temptation,” Isadora replied gently. “But here’s a bit of tough love for you: the reason I’ve stayed alive and undetected for so long is because I’ve kept my number of contacts low. I’ve kept myself to myself. The more people you know, and the more people you let in, the greater the risk of betrayal. There are so few people you can trust in this world as it is, but put a power like ours into the mix and that number dwindles away to almost zero.”
“Then come with us,” I urged. “Protect him at the coven.”
Isadora sighed. “I stand by what I’ve said. If we go there, we’ll be beholden to Alton and the Mage Council. I’m not going to put Jacob through that, and I’m not going to put myself through that.”
“Please, Isadora.”
“Don’t ask me for something I can’t give, Harley.” Sadness glistened in her eyes.
“We need you.”
As she opened her mouth to speak, the front door burst open behind us. A slew of rain and icy wind whistled in, bringing a shadow with it. I barely had time to move out of the way as a figure barreled into me, knocking me to the side. A bolt of fire surged forward, hitting Isadora. She fell to the ground with a heavy thump as the assailant whirled around to deal with the rest of us.