The sea level had risen, partially due to pre-Shift global warming and partially due to magic issues nobody fully understood. Now parts of the city looked like Venice with bridges, sometimes solid, sometimes cobbled together with whatever was handy at the time, spawning canals, ponds, and marshes.
Thomas and I rode across one of those bridges now, the hoofbeats of our mounts thudding on the worn wood. He rode an old bay mare. I rode Cuddles. When Thomas first saw Cuddles, he gave her a side-eye. She stood ten feet tall, including the two-foot ears, and was splattered with random spots of black and white. She was also a donkey, a mammoth jenny, to be exact.
Horses had their advantages, but most of them spooked easily. I once rode Cuddles across a rickety bridge infested with magical snakes, and she stomped right over the hissing serpents like they weren’t even there and then pranced when we reached the solid ground.
Unfortunately, Cuddles failed to reassure Thomas of my badassness. Getting information out of him was like pulling teeth. He didn’t trust me at all, and as he rode next to me, his entire body communicated that he thought coming on this adventure with me was a very bad idea.
I’d met Thomas’ type before. He kept things in. In the chaos of the magic and tech mad dance, Thomas was a calm rock on which his family could always rely. He handled his problems on his own, without any fanfare. Except now his son was taken, and he couldn’t solve this problem on his own. A lot of people would be frantic, with their emotions spilling over, but Thomas went even deeper inward, all the way down. He was a hair above catatonic. Sooner or later, he would explode. It would be better if that happened sooner, before we got to where we were going.
I had run across all sorts of human scum, but traffickers were at the very top of my shit list.
“How did it happen?”
“They came in a car and took him off the street,” Thomas said.
“What was he doing at the time?”
“He was playing soccer with his friends.”
“And they only took him? Not any of his friends?”
Thomas nodded.
This smelled like a targeted grab.
“Is Darin special in any way?”
“No.”
“Does he have any enemies?”
“No.”
“Is he handsome? Is anybody obsessed with him?”
“No.”
“Does he have any magic?”
There was a small pause before Thomas answered. “No.”
Right. We would have to work on the trust bit.
“Have you tried the Order?” I asked.
Thomas sighed.
The Order of Merciful Aid was a knight order that functioned as a private law enforcement organization. They took petitions from the public and charged on a sliding scale. Their services were reasonable. Their definition of “aid,” not so much. Their definition of “human” was also rather narrow.
“We have a small chapter in Wilmington,” Thomas said. “There are only three knights. They are busy.”
True, but the kidnapping of a child would be a priority even for the overworked knights. There was something about Darin that Thomas wanted to keep hidden. Pushing him about it would get me nowhere.
That was fine. The day was still young.
“What kind of person is Darin?”
Thomas turned and looked at me as if I’d punched him.
“What sort of kid is he?” I asked.
“You want to know what kind of person my son is? I’ll tell you. Jason has a friend who comes down here during the summer to visit his grandma and grandpa. Last summer they went down to the beach after a storm. Jason told him not to go into the water, but the boy thought he was a good swimmer and the boy’s grandfather said it was fine as long as they didn’t go out too far.”
That did not sound good.
“The boy got caught by a riptide, and it pulled him out into the ocean. Jason ran to get Darin and by the time they made it back to the beach, you couldn’t even see him anymore. Nothing but ocean. Darin went in after him. Somehow, he found the boy. They washed up three miles down the shore in the marsh, and then Darin carried that exhausted child all the way home through the marsh filled with leeches and God knows what. That’s the kind of person my son is.”
Thomas looked me straight in the eye. “But even if he was a lazy, terrible kid, I would still be out here, looking for him, because he is my son. My child. I don’t know why you’re doing this. Maybe it’s a power trip for you, maybe you can actually help. But if you can’t, don’t waste my time. Don’t waste my son’s time, because I don’t know how much he has left.”
My eight-year-old son hoisted an entire pallet of lumber with a look that asked if it was enough.
Beside him, Jason looked slightly shocked. He was gamely struggling with smaller individual boards.
“Yes, very impressive. Carry it inside the big gate and then meet out here by the doors. Jason, you’re doing fine. I’m just going to borrow Conlan for a minute.”
Conlan deposited his burden, trotted back, and stood a respectful distance from me. Waiting. He was my son, but he was also a shapeshifter standing before his alpha.
“Well?”
“Jason is my friend, and his brother was taken. Right off the street. Nobody will help them. Everybody is afraid of those guys.”
“Did you ask your mother to find him?”
He hesitated. “Not exactly.”
“No. But you knew if you brought Jason to her and mentioned it, she would drop what she was doing and go fix it.”
“Yes.”
“You manipulated her. I wonder where you learned that?”
Conlan’s face turned slightly defiant. “He likes you. He says you’re powerful.”
“I’m sure he does. Your grandfather says a lot of things.”
“He’s very old. He knows about a lot of things. He was a king.”
“He was that.”
“He wanted Mom to be a queen, to rule with him.”
No, he didn’t. “Do you think he means it?”
Conlan seemed to think it over. “No. He wouldn’t share his power. Ever. With anyone.”
“Good. That’s the most important thing to understand about him.”
He frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Your grandfather will never sacrifice anything for your sake. Your mother is his only living child. All the rest, and there were many, are long dead.”
“He says he loved them all.”
“I’m sure he did in his way. At least until he didn’t anymore. Then, he destroyed them.”
“Except for Mom.”
“Not for a lack of trying,” I told him. “Your mom is not like the others. She survived, and she beat him.”
“Is she stronger? Is that why she beat him?”
“Your mother is very strong, but that’s not why she won. She beat him because she’s not like him. He didn’t raise her. As young as you are, you’ve spent more time with him than she ever did.”
He squinted at me. “That’s what this is about? You don’t like me visiting him.”
“Yes and no. No, I don’t like it, but I don’t have to. He’s your grandfather. His blood runs through your veins. I can’t change that. Learn from him, listen to his stories, but don’t ever buy into his bullshit.”
“Dad!”
“Have I ever forbidden you to see him?”
“No, but…”
Roland was a wound that wouldn’t heal. Trying to keep Conlan away from him would only backfire. The last thing we needed was for our son to discover his magical grandfather when he was 25, because then Roland would be a forbidden secret we had hidden from him. No, we let him visit, and when he came back spouting dangerous nonsense, we dealt with it right then and there. As I was about to do now.