Roland rested his chin on the back of my seat. “He’s gonna lose it, isn’t he?”
I didn’t have to ask who “he” was. “Probably.”
His hand touched my shoulder. “It’s not too late to turn back.”
“No. I have to do this, but I understand if any of you have changed your mind.”
“We go where you go,” Roland stated with finality, and Jordan and Peter agreed.
“Salt Lake City, here we come.” Jordan put the car in drive and pulled away from the church.
Roland settled back in his seat. “So how did you girls manage to sneak away?”
Jordan and I exchanged smiles. Then she glanced over her shoulder at Roland. “It wasn’t easy. After you guys left, Sara acquired two personal bodyguards who wouldn’t let her out of their sight. Not hard to guess who gave them that job.”
“I’m surprised Nikolas was willing to let someone else watch you,” Roland said.
I looked down at my hands. “We weren’t exactly talking before I left.”
“Since when has that ever stopped him?”
Peter snorted. “You girls are here, so your bodyguards couldn’t have been that good.”
“You don’t know Seamus and Niall,” I said.
“Once we realized they were going to follow Sara everywhere, we had to get a little creative. Actually, it was all Sara’s idea.” Jordan chuckled. “She set a little trap for them, and they fell right into it.”
I took up the story. “Sahir takes care of the menagerie, but he was hurt during the attack and he has to stay in the medical ward for a few days. I went to the menagerie during dinner to feed Hugo, Woolf, and Minuet, and Jordan came along to help.”
“Of course. I’m such a good friend.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Seamus and Niall waited by the door while I fed everyone, and Jordan went into Sahir’s office where she could see us on the security monitors. I gave her a signal and she turned out the lights.”
“But can’t warriors see pretty well in the dark?” Roland asked.
“Yep. And the twins went right for Sara, which is what we wanted them to do.” Jordan snickered. “Then she zapped their Irish asses.”
Roland guffawed. “You didn’t.”
“It wasn’t much. I just needed to freeze them long enough for us to take their radios and lock them in Alex’s cage. They were already swearing up a storm by the time Jordan and I left the building. I figured no one would go to the menagerie looking for us for at least an hour. It’s not like Seamus and Niall will have to spend the night there.”
“Now comes the best part,” Jordan said. “Bet you’re thinking we snuck away through the woods, right? Not us. We jumped in the river.”
“Sure you did.” Peter scoffed. “Seriously, how did you get away?”
“We rode the river. I used my power to keep us warm and to get the water to take us where we wanted to go.” I’d gotten the idea from the night of the attack when Jordan and I had ridden the river to the stronghold to escape vampires.
Peter’s mouth fell open and Roland yelled, “Are you insane? You could have died!”
“I’m really good at controlling water. We were perfectly safe. Besides, Feeorin and Fiannar were with us the whole time.”
“What?” Jordan jerked the steering wheel and the car swerved a little before she corrected it. “What do you mean they were with us?”
“I think they like to watch over me. I saw them a few times along the way. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to freak out. Kelpies don’t have the best reputation.”
“With good reason! You couldn’t tell me after we left the river?”
“I was kind of preoccupied, trying not to freeze to death, and to get out of town. I guess it didn’t seem important compared to everything else.” I told Roland and Peter about meeting Derek and Wes and buying the car. “And here we are.”
“And here we are.” Roland looked excited and nervous at the same time.
“You have our stuff, right?” I asked, and he nodded. I’d known there was no way to sneak out with backpacks, so Jordan and I had given the boys our things to stuff inside their larger packs. Once we got to Salt Lake City, she and I could buy backpacks for ourselves.
“Jordan, you might want to step on it,” Roland said. “I have no desire to run into a Mohiri warrior after hearing about the stunt you two pulled. Something tells me they aren’t going to take it well.”
“Way ahead of you, Wolf Boy.”
I glanced at the speedometer and saw we were doing ninety. “Just don’t get pulled over.” She didn’t have a driver’s license or insurance. All we needed was some state trooper poking around and asking questions.
Once we hit the interstate, talk turned to Albuquerque and the chances of finding Madeline. Or more importantly, what I was going to do when I found her. Now that I was getting closer to confronting her, I didn’t know what I was going to say. It wasn’t going to be a sweet mother-daughter reunion. Madeline was a stranger to me, one with information I needed to keep the people I loved safe.
The conversation quieted after an hour or so, and I retreated into my thoughts. Now that we were safely away, guilt settled in. I hated to think of what Tristan and Nate would go through when they discovered what I’d done. Tristan was almost as protective as Nikolas. I promised myself I would call them as often as I could, though I knew that wasn’t going to alleviate their fears. I thought about calling Nikolas and swallowed hard. Already his absence was a hollow pain in my chest.
“Sara, wake up!”
“Huh?” I opened my eyes and sat up straight. “Sorry, didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
Roland leaned away from me. “You can sleep all you want as long as you don’t start glowing again.”
“What?”
“You were lit up like a giant glow stick,” Jordan said, not taking her eyes off the road. “It’s kind of hard to remain inconspicuous when they can see you from the space station. Does that happen a lot?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think so.” I held up my hands, but they looked normal. “A month ago I was having little episodes where my power acted up. I thought I was done with them once I learned to control my power. It must be starting again.”
Roland whistled. “If that was a little episode, I don’t want to see a big one.”
“I didn’t glow before, so this must be something new.” My teeth worried my lower lip. I was pretty sure glowing wasn’t normal even for an undine. Aine had said my power would grow, but not when it would stop, and I had no idea what to expect next.
Roland’s hand squeezed my shoulder. “We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.”
It was well after midnight when we reached Salt Lake City. I wasn’t the only one who let out a big sigh. It had been a long day for all of us, and a five-hour car ride would tire anyone.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m beat.” Roland yawned loudly. “What do you say we find a motel and catch some Zs?”
Peter stretched. “Sounds good to me.”