Phoenix in My Fortune (A Monster Haven Story Book 6) (7 page)

Even if I died and couldn’t be with them anymore.

Gravel crunched under the tires as we rolled to a stop near the house. I hopped out of the car, and Riley held the front door open for me.

Despite how many people we had buzzing in and out lately, the house was silent. I made my way through to the kitchen and out the other side to check the backyard.

Sure enough, that was where almost everyone was. I didn’t see Sara anywhere, so I assumed she was working in the back bedroom. The group huddled around a central figure. Dread flooded through me, and I hurried over.

Mom kneeled in the grass. An enormous, iridescent feather lay on the ground next to her. She looked up and gave a weak smile as we approached, pointing at the feather in my hand. “You, too?”

I nodded. “Yep. She was opaque as usual.”

She struggled to her feet. “What was your message?”

“Same as yours. ‘In one, there’s hope. In two, there’s tragedy.’ That’s what you got, right?”

A shadow crossed her face and she looked away. “We always get the same message, Zoey.” She held out the feather. “Here. This was caught in my hair after the vision was over.”

I took it from her. “I’ll add it to the collection.” I had no idea where Maurice was keeping them, or if they meant anything other than as a calling card from the First Hidden. Knowing Maurice, he was probably using them as a craft project. I smirked, thinking how big the dreamcatcher would have to be for feathers this big.

We’d had visions from the Simurgh three times before, each accompanied by these ridiculously oversized rainbow feathers. And each time, our visions had been identical to each other. Something about the expression on Mom’s face troubled me, though. She was being evasive.

I touched her sleeve. “Did you get something more in your vision? Something you’re not telling me?”

She covered my hand with hers and gave me a stern look. “If I had more information, why wouldn’t I tell you?”

Well,
that
didn’t exactly answer the question, did it?

“I had a little more,” I said. “Since the message didn’t make sense, I asked for clarification. She said the answers were in the book.”

Mom scowled and dropped her hand. “The book is blank.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “That’s what I said.”

“I hate to interrupt.” Maurice squinted up at the sky, noting the position of the sun. “But I’ve got a pot roast that needs attention. I’m going in.”

Kam looped her arm through mine. “
Wheel of Fortune
will be on soon. I want to see what Vanna’s wearing. She’s not usually as fancy as she was back in the eighties, but I still like to see what she’s got on.”

I strolled arm-in-arm with Kam toward the back door behind Maurice, with Riley and Darius following us, talking in low voices—no doubt discussing the visions Mom and I had seen.

I’d assumed Mom was right behind us.

She screamed, the sound chilling me and sending a spike of adrenaline through my gut. I whirled around and found her still standing where we’d left her and facing the direction of the path down to the beach.

Darius was the first to reach her, and she buried her face against his massive chest. He made soft, comforting sounds and stroked her hair while her body shook. After a moment, she calmed enough to raise her head.

“I saw him.” She choked on the words and had to clear her throat. “I saw Shadow Man standing over by the cliff. He was watching us.”

Kam and Riley took off in the direction of the beach, while I stayed with Darius to help calm Mom.

Maurice, caught between an emergency outside and the possibility of a ruined pot roast inside, looked stricken.

I waved at him to go inside. “We’ll call if we need you.”

He moved up one step, then paused. “I’ll send Sara out. She’ll want to take a look, too.” He disappeared into the house.

Mom sniffled and pulled away from Darius. “I’m sorry. I thought I’d be prepared once I saw him, but I guess I wasn’t.” She stood straighter. “I’ll be ready next time.”

I so hoped there’d be no next time.

Kam jogged back to us, barely out of breath. “He’s not there. I don’t even see where he could have gone that fast.”

Mom stiffened. “I didn’t imagine it.”

Kam gave her a look like she was crazy. “Well, of course you didn’t. His footprints are right there outside the fairy ring.”

I frowned. “How do you know they’re his?”

Riley joined us and put a protective arm around my waist. “Because the footprints are filled with crickets.”

Chapter Seven

Our heavy hitters—Sara, Darius, Kam and Riley—spent the next hour and a half searching the perimeter of the fairy ring, the beach cove below the house and the area around the cottage. The only sign of Shadow Man was that single set of cricket-filled footprints and Mom’s word that she’d seen him.

Considering I’d had a similar experience, I couldn’t sustain my doubt in his existence—though it hadn’t been strong to begin with. I couldn’t explain how he’d disappeared from the news photo, but I knew he’d been there. And now he was appearing to Mom.

The thought of him being that close to her—to all of us—gave me shivers.

Kam came back first from the hunt and plopped into a folding chair next to me in the backyard. “My feet are killing me.” She kicked off a pair of gold sandals and wiggled her pedicured toes in the dirt. “Probably should have changed first before I scaled the side of the cliff.” She plucked at the shoulder of her white toga, adjusting the gold brooch holding it together.

Suggesting to Kam that she change had crossed my mind, but Kam always wore what she wanted, whether it was appropriate or not. Now that she had less magic to create her outfits, I suspected she had most of the clothes in her luggage, but she was using magic to pull the accessories out of the air. Goosebumps appeared on her arms with every breeze, yet she refused to acknowledge that she was cold. I didn’t know if all djinn were stubborn that way, but ours certainly was.

I scooted my butt to the edge of the seat and sank back, getting as comfortable as possible in the folding chair. “Better than those platform shoes you wore the other day. You could have broken an ankle.”

A blob of green whirred past us, accompanied by shouts, whoops and giggles. A second, lighter green blob blew past, more tiny voices shouting in the wind. Kam did a comical double-take. “What the...Aliens late for dinner?”

Despite the fear threatening to choke me moments before, I laughed. “Brownie kids racing dragons.” One of the beautiful things about my little family was that, no matter how dark and terrifying things got, there was always joy to be found.

Kam stood so fast her chair fell over backward. Her bare feet made little puffs of dirt as she jumped up and down, pumping her fist in the air. “Come on, Simone! Go, go, go!”

Not to be outdone, I leaped to my feet and waved my arms in the air. “Woo! Bruce! You can do it!”

The green blurs whipped past again, slowing enough for me to see Molly’s kids clinging to the dragons’ backs. The oldest kid, Fred, rode Bruce, while Aaron and a giggling Abby held tight to a galloping Simone.

They came around a third time. Apparently, the finish line was directly in front of us, because Aaron, Abby and Simone crossed some invisible line to victory and halted, panting. A second later, Bruce and Fred pulled in behind, breathing hard and smiling.

The dragon grins were especially delightful, since they looked so much like happy collies.

Aaron whooped and slid to the ground. “Fred does the dishes for a week!” He helped little Abby down and patted Simone’s neck. “That was crazy fast, Simone. Are you thirsty?”

Simone snorted, and tiny sparks blew out her nostrils.

Fred hopped off Bruce, laughing. “Fair and square. You guys won.” He scratched Bruce behind the ear. “You did your best, buddy. We just couldn’t beat them this time. Next time, though.”

From where I was sitting, I was at the right angle to see Bruce and Fred wink at each other. I suppressed a smile.

When I first met Abby, she’d been a sweetly shy thumb-sucker clinging to her mother’s skirt. She was still every bit as sweet, but her shyness had been on the decline ever since her little sister Susannah had been born. Abby was no longer the baby now, and that made all the difference.

“In your face, Fweddy!” She danced in a circle like a tiny cavorting nymph.

Kam and I exchanged squishy
aww
faces. The kid had been cute when she was little, but now that she’d begun to grow into her own little person, she was absolutely adorable.

From the far side of the yard, Molly’s voice caught on the wind, calling her small tribe home for dinner. Abby’s smile faded. The end of playtime was the most tragic moment of the day for someone her age.

Fred got a wicked gleam in his eye. “I’ll race you guys home,” he said.

Bruce snorted sparks, and both dog-sized dragons belly-flopped in the grass to make it easier for their young charges to climb them. All three kids scrambled up, then waved goodbye as the dragon couple galumphed out of sight at top speed.

Kam sighed. The sound seemed to come from somewhere deep within her, someplace sad and a little lonely. “You ever thought about having kids someday?”

“How can I not with all the cuties running around here lately?” As if to emphasize my words, a flash of yeti-white wove through the trees to the left, then vanished. “Next thing you know, we’ll have baby dragons running around, I bet.”

“I bet you won’t be far behind.” She scratched her bare shoulder.

“We haven’t even set a wedding date yet,” I said. “Kids are a someday thing. A lot of other things have to happen first.”

“I wonder if I’ll ever get a someday.” She rubbed her fingers across the scar on her wrist, where one of her three magic gems had been ripped from her. Without all three, she’d never be able to charge enough magic to open a portal home to the djinn people.

Her sorrow squeezed at my chest and made it hard for me to breathe. Or maybe it was my own sorrow. Sometimes it was hard to tell which emotion belonged to which person when that person was someone I loved. I reached over and put my hand over hers. “I bet there are plenty of djinn around. We’ll find them. And somebody will get you home.” I squeezed. “It’ll be all right.”

She gave me a half smile and shrugged. “Unless the world ends. That’s a different problem.”

I cringed. “One problem at a time.”

She nodded. “One problem at a time.”

* * *

The rest of the team wandered in for dinner, having found nothing more than that single site of cricket-infested footprints by the cliff.

Maurice’s pot roast wasn’t ruined. In fact, the meat was tender and delicious, smothered in thick, rich gravy and accompanied by carrots, potatoes and homemade biscuits that melted in the mouth. Maurice’s cooking never failed to achieve perfection, whether it was a gourmet feast or simple comfort foods.

It was exactly what we all needed.

My phone chirped as we were clearing the table. I glanced at the display and nearly dropped it. Brad.

Brad and I had been a huge mistake—a mistake that had only lasted less than a year, legally, but had dogged me for years after. One of the last times I’d seen him, he’d been pounding on the restaurant window where Riley and I had been having one of our disastrous first dates.

Having my ex-husband peering at us through the window while we ate was one of the most mortifying experiences I’d ever had. That was before someone dropped dead a few tables over, leading to a huge misunderstanding about Riley’s job as a reaper and my storming out in a huff. So, Brad probably hadn’t been the worst part of that date, as it turned out.

He wasn’t a bad guy. Annoying, clingy and always in need of a loan to cover his rent, but not a bad person. During the biggest wedding Sara and I had ever done, Riley, Andrew and I had been too busy saving Sara from an incubus to keep the wedding running smoothly. The Press had been there, the mother of the bride had been head of the city council and the venue coordinator already hated me.

Without knowing exactly what was going on, Brad had stepped in and saved the wedding and Happily Ever After’s reputation.

After that, he’d decided he wanted to work for us permanently—which we definitely did not want—and he’d gone off to take some hospitality courses.

Happy to have him gone, I’d loaned him the money for school, though I knew I’d never see it again. Loaning money to Brad was like loaning tuna casserole wrapped in gym socks to a swamp bogey. It’s not coming back, and that’s okay.

And now he was calling me. I groaned and tapped the phone to answer.

“Zoey girl! How’s tricks?”

I took a deep breath and tried to be civil. “Hey, Brad. How’s school going?”

“I’m done! That’s why I called. I’m ready for work. Just say when and where.”

A spike of guilt stabbed through me. “I’m really sorry, but we’re not really doing that anymore.”

He was silent so long, I thought he’d hung up.

“Brad? Hello?”

“I’m here.” He sounded deflated. “What do you mean? What happened? I was only gone a few semesters.”

“Things have been crazy here. It’s hard to explain. We just don’t have time for the business anymore.”

“You can’t close it down. What are you doing instead? Zoey, are you okay? What’s going on? You can tell me anything. I hope you know that.”

Honestly, I probably could tell him what was going on. The law said the Hidden had to remain hidden. That’s why they were called that. But I’d told Sara and Andrew. And Andrew had brought Daniel into it. Those were all people who needed to know, though. They were part of this whole thing. Brad? Well, I preferred Brad not to be a part of anything I was involved in. It was easier that way.

“Everything’s fine. We’ve decided to go a different direction is all. Sara’s going to travel.” I glanced at my left hand at the diamond nestled against my finger. “And I’m engaged.”

He made a sound like the wind had been knocked out of him. “I see.” He paused. “Are you happy?”

“I am.”

His voice was soft. “All right then. That’s all that matters, I guess.”

“Thank you.” I mentally crossed my fingers that this was a closure kind of conversation and Sheila’s prediction of unresolved man-past had just wrapped itself up.

“Well, I have some news of my own, and if you’re closing the business, I have something else I’d like to propose.”

Mom shouted something I missed from the living room, and Kam and Maurice ran out of the kitchen to join her. I craned my neck around the corner and saw everyone crowding around the television.

“Brad, I’m sorry. Can we talk about this later? I have to go.”

“Wait. Hear me out.”

“I can’t right now. My mom’s calling me.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I’ll call you soon.”

“Wait! What do you mean your mom’s calling you? I thought your mom was dead.”

“Seriously, I have an emergency. I’ll catch you up on everything later. I promise.”

“Wait!”

“Talk to you soon!”

I hung up and raced for the television.

The same newscaster who’d broken the story of the missing kids on the beach stared at the camera now with her dark eyes, telling us about a new case of missing children.

This time, the kidnapping was closer. Two kids were missing from our own tiny town of Bolinas. In fact, Ashley Perkins and Miles Montgomery lived next door to each other, two streets over from where we were standing. My knees buckled, and I dropped into the chair behind me, wrapping my arms around myself for comfort. I’d seen those kids in the neighborhood. I bought candy bars from them once when they were doing a school fundraiser.

“Maybe they’re not lost.” Mom’s voice shook and was a higher pitch than usual. She was grasping for another answer, but it was obvious she didn’t believe her own solution. “Maybe they’re just playing in a field somewhere. Remember when you did that, Zoey? You were five when you got it into your head to dig a hole to China. You went into the woods with a stick to dig. I searched for you for hours. I was frantic.”

I didn’t remember what she was talking about, though I suspected it was something I would have done when I was little. Moving closer, I gave her a hug. “I hope you’re right, but I doubt it.”

She flinched, as if I’d stepped on her toe. “Why couldn’t it be that way?”

Darius wrapped her in his arms. “Because you saw him first, the same as Zoey saw him before he kidnapped the school kids.”

Her eyes grew wide. “Oh.” Her voice was quiet.

I’d been so absorbed by the news, I didn’t hear a car pull into the driveway or footsteps climb the porch steps. I froze at the knock on the door.

Maurice and Sara moved down the hall, out of sight. I glanced at the clock on the mantel—nearly sunset. Darius nodded and let go of my mother so he could join them in the hallway. He still appeared human, but in a few minutes, that would change.

With our non-human members out of eyesight, I opened the door.

A police officer—the human kind, not the O.G.R.E. kind—stood on the porch. “Good evening, ma’am. We’re canvassing the area, looking for a couple of missing children.” He held out a pair of photographs. “Have you seen either of these kids?”

I examined the photos, although I knew they’d be the same ones we’d seen on the news. Two kids, a boy and a girl, smiled from their school pictures. They looked to be around fifth or sixth grade, the boy blond and the girl brunette. My breath caught in my throat. Seeing their pictures in person made it so much worse. More real.

“I recognize them, but I haven’t seen them lately. I’m sorry.” I passed the photos to Riley, who examined them and passed them to Kam.

Mom held them last and shook her head. “Their parents must be so worried.” Her voice shook. “We were watching the news about this when you got here.” She handed the pictures back to him. “We’ll keep an eye out for them.”

“I appreciate it.” He gave Mom a card. “Please call that number if you see anything at all.”

“Of course. Thank you.”

We watched him walk down the driveway to the street to go to the next house.

A thought filled me with dread and worry. “What do we do if they want to search the property? How do we explain the sea of tents out back? Or the giant mushroom filled with furniture and a brownie family?” My breath caught as panic hit. “How do we hide a yeti? Or the fact that everything they’ll see in the backyard was invisible until they crossed through the bubble?”

Hiding a demon, closet monster and mothman were a piece of cake compared to all the stuff on my property I simply could not explain.

I’d turned my house into a sanctuary for the Hidden, and that bastard Shadow Man was threatening to expose the whole thing. But none of that really mattered if two kids who weren’t even involved in the Hidden world got hurt or killed.