“I’ll try,” said Lissa. “But you know how they are.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “I certainly do. Good luck—and thanks.”
“Nothing to thank me for. Jill’s my sister.”
I disconnected and was just in time to see Sydney drive right past the apartment complex Marcus had indicated. “Hey,” I said, recognizing it from my Carlton days. “You missed it.”
Her expression had darkened. “I didn’t miss the guys in suits snooping around the side of the building.” Her eyes lifted to the rearview mirror, and she sighed. “Or the black car that just peeled out of the building’s lot and is now following us.”
“Damn it,” said Marcus. “They found out I came to town. I thought that place was secure.”
I turned in my seat, craning my neck to see what Sydney had. Sure enough, a black Escalade was doing some pretty aggressive maneuvering to get into our lane. Sydney made an abrupt turn that caused me to grip the door, and the Escalade followed suit. The precious, fragile sense of freedom I’d allowed myself to enjoy since leaving Court dissipated like smoke on the wind.
“Sorry, you guys,” said Marcus. “They must have spotted me when I came in this morning.”
Sydney made another surprise turn, one that the Escalade got honked at for copying. Her face was filled with tension, and I knew she had to be working hard to remain as calm as she looked. This was the nightmare she’d lived with for so long: the Alchemists finding her again. “Don’t feel so bad,” she told Marcus. “After everything that’s gone down in Palm Springs, they probably keep eyes and ears here regularly. For all we know, you weren’t even spotted. Someone could’ve seen Eddie and decided to do some snooping. He’s a person of interest to them too.” She shook her head. “The real issue is how to lose them.”
“Get back on the highway and take the first downtown exit,” Marcus said.
Going back into a congested area makes no sense, hissed Aunt Tatiana. They’ll take Sydney again!
“Shouldn’t we get on the open highway and try to outrun them?” I asked.
“We’d never be able to do it,” he said. “Besides, they’d probably get backup, and we’d find a few more of those coming after us.”
Sydney exited as directed, pointing us toward the city center. Ahead of us, I could see some of the most crowded corridors of downtown, narrow streets packed with cars while pedestrians and outdoor tables filled the sidewalks.
“I’m guessing you’re playing on the fact that the Alchemists don’t like to make a scene,” Sydney remarked. “But remember, they did chase us—quite openly—down the Strip in Las Vegas.” She’d been in a wedding dress at the time, making us stand out that much more. “They’ll do what they’ve got to do.”
Marcus nodded. “I know. But they’ll still avoid too much of a show if they can. Really, my main goal is getting to my escape car.”
“Your escape car?” I stared, dumbfounded. “You have an escape car?”
He flashed me a smile. “I’m Marcus Finch. Of course I have an escape car. It’s accessed by an underground tunnel that comes out of Miguel’s Taqueria.”
“Underground—” Sydney shook her head. “Never mind. That’s six blocks from here, and we’re about to get stuck because of lights and slow cars.” The cars in front of us came to a stop as the traffic signal turned red.
“Correction,” said Marcus, suddenly unbuckling his seat belt. “They’re about to get stuck because of lights and a stopped car. Everyone get out.” Immediately, I realized what was about to happen, and he confirmed it when he put his hand on the door’s handle. “You guys know how to be evasive. Meet me at Miguel’s—but don’t let them follow you there.”
He was out of the car in a flash, and a couple of seconds later, so were we, once Sydney had shifted the car into park. He tore off down one side of the street, losing himself in the crowds of tourists and lunchgoers without looking back. Some might have considered it abandonment, but Marcus knew us well enough by now to trust we knew what to do in situations like this. Be unpredictable. Hide among crowds and businesses. Meet back up when we’d lost them.
That was assuming, of course, that they even followed us. There’d been two cars between them and us on the road, so there was a chance they might not have seen us ditch our car. When the light turned green and traffic didn’t move, they would figure out that something had gone wrong. The question was how far Sydney and I could get before then and whether they’d follow Marcus or us.
They followed us, of course.
“Faster,” I said, clutching her hand as we tore off down the sidewalk.
A series of honks let me know when the light turned green, as angry drivers found themselves unable to get around our abandoned car. Shouts behind us were a tip-off that something else was awry, and when I glanced back, I saw a man and woman in beige suits barreling down the sidewalk toward us, oblivious to the pedestrians in their way. So much for not making a scene.
Ahead of us, the sidewalk looked even more packed than usual as people clustered around something. Great. Not the slowdown we needed. Another quick look behind me showed the Alchemist man—who was nearly as tall as me—gaining ground. I approached the crowd and saw they had stopped to admire displays of clothing that a shop had set out on the sidewalk as part of some sort of promotion. Dresses, gauzy scarves, and more created a brightly colored display that made even the most indifferent passerby stop and admire it. Sydney and I squeezed our way into a group of women admiring a purple silk dress and saw the Alchemists mere feet behind me.
Sydney glanced around, and a smile unexpectedly crossed her lips. She spoke a magical incantation that was lost in the noise of the street, but the power it invoked had an immediate effect. All of that beautiful clothing around us exploded into rainbow-colored wisps of fabric. It rained down around us, making it nearly impossible to see. Chaos ensued as people cried out in wonder, unsure if it was an attack or some sort of publicity stunt.
“Come on,” she said, picking up the pace again.
As we ran away, I also heard an especially loud cry of dismay from someone I recognized—Lia DiStefano. This was her shop, which explained Sydney’s sly smile. I felt a little bad . . . but also kind of not. Lia had made a gorgeous dress for Sydney once, a red gown inspired by ancient Greek styles. Sydney had been so beautiful in it, I’d thought I was dreaming. I had to give Lia credit for that. On the other hand, Lia had been so desperate to have Jill model for her that she’d covertly published an ad with Jill—the one that Alicia had included in the box Jackie had brought to Sydney. I didn’t entirely know the relationship between Alicia, the Warriors, and how that ad had connected them to Jill, but there was no question that the ad had put Jill at risk.
“Sorry, Lia,” I muttered as I raced past her shop. “Next time, don’t recruit models you aren’t supposed to use.”
A block away was a florist’s shop I’d been in once before. Without checking to see if we’d been followed, we quickly darted in through its door, which was propped open to enjoy the afternoon heat. Immediately, the overwhelming fragrance of roses and lilies surrounded us. Bouquets of every color filled the shop, but I looked past all of that for what I’d remembered seeing the last time I was here: a back door. The shop had two entrances, one that faced the main thoroughfare out front and this second one that led to parking in the alley behind the businesses. I nodded and smiled at the surprised florist, then hurried Sydney through to the back door as though what we were doing was perfectly normal.
In the alley, I paused and dared a peek through the door’s window, waiting to see if an Alchemist came bursting into the shop. No one did, so I crossed my fingers that destroying Lia’s display had caused enough confusion to cover the rest of our journey. Sydney and I ran down the back alley, past the doors of more businesses, some of which were public and some weren’t. When we reached the back door for Miguel’s Taqueria, it read D
ELIVERIES ONLY. I knocked anyway, wondering how we would explain my presence to whoever answered.
The guy who opened the door, however, didn’t seem surprised at all to see us. He waved us inside. “You must be Marcus’s friends.”
We entered and found ourselves in the entryway to the kitchen, which smelled delicious. A cook flipping a quesadilla glanced up, nodded like our presence was totally normal, and returned to his work. Meanwhile, our guide led us to a nearby storage room lined with shelves of food. There was a bona fide trapdoor in the floor. He opened it up, and down below, holding a flashlight, was Marcus. He waved up at us.
“How do you know Marcus?” I asked as I started to climb the rungs down.
My guide shrugged. “He did me a favor once.”
That seemed to be the story of Marcus’s life. We thanked the guy and then made our way down. Just as Marcus had said, there really was a tunnel. We hurried through it with little conversation, emerging into a utility shed in a park a few blocks away. We saw no signs of pursuit in the tunnel or up above, and Marcus felt secure enough to lead us to a parked blue Chevy. He produced some keys from his pocket and unlocked the door.
It wasn’t until we were on the road that he finally spoke. “Well,” he said. “I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that you don’t have to keep making the Alchemists think you’re at Court. The bad news is, the Alchemists know you aren’t there anymore.”
CHAPTER 14
ADRIAN . . . AGAIN
ONCE I KNEW WE WERE MOMENTARILY SAFE from the Alchemists, the first thing I had to do was secure Declan and my mom.
“Where are you?” I asked her when she answered the phone. I was sitting in the backseat while Marcus drove us to what he swore really was a safe house. Sydney was in the passenger seat, sending text updates to pretty much everyone we knew.
“I’m at Clarence’s,” replied my mother. “Where else would I be?”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. You need to stay there for a while—do not leave. Do you have enough supplies for Declan?” I thought she’d gone overboard in her initial shopping. Now I was grateful.
“Well, yes, I suppose, though he doesn’t seem terribly fond of those pacifiers I bought. I might need to find a different—”
“Do not leave,” I repeated. “The house is almost certainly being watched. The Alchemists know we’re here.”
Immediately, my mother grasped the severity of the situation. “Are you all right?”
“We’re fine—we got away. But they’ll watch all our hangouts now to see if we go there. They’ll know we aren’t back at Clarence’s, and that’s fine. But they also probably don’t know you and Declan are there, and we need to keep it that way. Stay inside.”
She fell silent for several moments. “Adrian, there’s something . . . unusual about Declan, isn’t there?”
“Special,” I corrected. “He’s very, very special. And for now, it’s best if the Alchemists don’t know he exists. If they want to chase after Sydney and me, fine. But he needs to stay off their radar.”
“I understand,” she said. “If we need anything, I’ll either have it shipped here or send Rose and Dimitri for it, assuming they can leave?”
I hesitated. “Yes. The Alchemists have no interest in them. They might be curious about why they’re in town, but they won’t break into Clarence’s house or anything to find out, not without some other provocation. Other Moroi and dhampirs have stayed with him before. Can I talk to one of them?”
After some shuffling, Rose answered. “I can tell by your mom’s face that something went wrong.”
“The Alchemists know Sydney and I are here,” I told her. “They managed to track Marcus when he came to town and stumbled into us in the process.”
I couldn’t be certain, but I think Rose swore in Russian. “So what’s the plan?”
“We’re on our way to an allegedly safe place,” I told her. “From there, Sydney’s going to investigate the Warriors, and I’ll eventually interrogate Alicia.”
“I want to be in on that,” Rose said promptly.
“I know, but I really, really need you guys to stay with my mom and Declan. I was just telling her that she can’t leave the house. I don’t think the Alchemists know she’s in town, and I’m hoping it stays that way. But if something weird happens, I need you guys to protect them.”
“What do you mean, ‘something weird’? Why would anyone care about them?” Rose, like my mom, was beginning to suspect something odd was happening.
“I can’t tell you,” I said. “Just trust me—it’s important. At least one of you needs to stay with them at all times. If there’s a way you can safely meet me when I talk to Alicia, we’ll make it happen. But in the meantime, promise me you’ll take care of them.”
A long silence followed, and I could guess why. Rose, like everyone else, wanted to find Jill. With so many potential leads, it was understandable that she’d much rather be involved with that mission than literal babysitting. But Rose had seen enough at the commune—and was enough of my friend—to finally accede. “Okay. We’ll keep an eye on them. But if there’s anything we can do to find Jill—anything at all—”
“I’ll let you know,” I promised. I disconnected and looked around. “Is this it?”
We’d left the urban sprawl of Palm Springs, going off into the desert to a place that made Wolfe’s compound look downright civilized. A small, lone cabin sat alone on a scrubby landscape, and the car’s tires kicked up clouds of dust as we turned toward it on a sandy dirt road.
“Yup,” said Marcus.
“Well, it’s certainly remote,” noted Sydney. “But is it safe?”
“Safe as we’ll get for now,” Marcus assured us, pulling the car up to a stop outside the house. “No one followed us here. No one knows of my connection to these people.”
We got out of the car and followed Marcus to the door. He had to knock three times—getting progressively louder—before the door finally opened. A fifty-something guy with scraggly hair and round-lensed glasses peered up at us, squinting at the sunlight like a Moroi might have. His face brightened with recognition. “Marcus, man, been a while!”
“Good to see you too, Howie,” Marcus replied. “My friends and I need a place to stay. Is it okay if we crash here?”
“Totally, totally.” Howie stepped aside so we could enter. “Come on in, man.”
“Howie and his wife, Patty, grow and sell all sorts of herbs,” explained Marcus.
I inhaled deeply as I walked around the living room, which could have come straight out of 1971. “Especially one herb in particular,” I added.
“Don’t worry,” said Marcus, his lips quirking into a smile. “They’re good people.”
Sydney wrinkled her nose. “Not going to do us any good to evade the Alchemists if we then get arrested in a drug raid.”
Marcus was unconcerned. “That’s the least of our worries. They’ll give us a place to stay. And their kitchen’s always well stocked.”
That was true, at least. So long as we could survive on junk food, we’d be in no danger of going hungry anytime soon. I’d never seen so many boxes of Twinkies in my life. Patty was as dazedly friendly as her husband, assuring us we could make ourselves at home and stay as long we liked. The two of them probably spent most of their time in the basement or in the garden outside, growing the various plants they then consumed or sold. Once we were settled, they disappeared downstairs, leaving us to make plans. I learned then that while I’d talked to Rose and my mom, Marcus and Sydney had been gathering other info.
“Sabrina got back to Marcus. She’s going to take Eddie and me to the Warriors late tonight,” Sydney said. “Very late. We apparently have to arrive at dawn. Ms. Terwilliger’s going to come out beforehand with Eddie to help with some spells and prepare us.”
“I hope it goes without
saying that Eddie will be careful in coming here,” said Marcus. “By now, the Alchemists probably have eyes on everyone you know in the area.”
“He’ll be careful,” she said confidently. “He knows how to avoid being followed.” She turned back to me. “Ms. Terwilliger will then take you with her, for when the witches unfreeze Alicia. Promise me you’ll be careful, Adrian. Go easy on her. Only use as little compulsion as necessary. Remember, the odds are good she may not even know where the Alchemists are holding Jill.”
Go easy on her? Even though I knew Sydney had meant that as a way of looking out for me, it was impossible to imagine. How could I go easy on the woman who’d kidnapped Jill? Who was the reason Jill might very well be suffering at the hands of those madmen? Sonya had been in bad shape when she’d been rescued from the Warriors, and they’d had Jill much, much longer.
Alicia will pay, Aunt Tatiana promised in my head.
To Sydney, I said, “I’ll see what I can do.”
My phone rang, and I felt a dry sort of amusement at the display. “Not many people can claim to talk to the Moroi queen twice in one day. Hello?”
“Adrian?” came Lissa’s voice. “What have you done?”
“Why do you assume I’ve done anything?” I asked.
Lissa sighed. “Because an angry Alchemist bureaucrat just called, pretty worked up about how you and Sydney are at large in Palm Springs! They made it very clear they aren’t going to pull any punches in trying to get her back. I thought you guys were lying low.”
“We were, we were,” I said. “It was kind of an accident. But we’re safe for the time being.”
“Well, try to stay that way. On the bright side, I was able to get through to someone to ask about the Alchemists possibly putting pressure on the Warriors.”
Hope filled me. It would save Sydney from infiltrating the Warriors and me from interrogating Alicia if the Alchemists could just rescue Jill for us. “And?” I asked.