Even after the other two were quiet, Lindsay’s unease lingered. Trying to relax himself with reminders of how much they had going for them didn’t help. The strange feeling only built until he felt like
he was going to crawl out of his skin, and he had to bite his lip not to ask the others if they felt anything. He took a slow breath and pushed out an illusion to cover them, just to give himself some comfort.
Another highway shift led them farther from Lake Erie, but according to the map, they were now going straight south. With his illusion in place, Lindsay’s tension faded away. He got some more coffee into Noah, a few sips at a time, and tucked himself closer to Noah’s side in the process.
The longer they drove, the more Noah relaxed, until he was willing to let go of the wheel and put his hand on Lindsay’s thigh. Since Rajan had healed him, Noah was more comfortable with touching and being close. Not just comfortable—he needed it. Lindsay remembered the first time he’d offered Noah his hand and Noah had refused. The pain of being comforted had been too much, but that part of him had healed along with his body. Or started to heal—Lindsay could feel the little tremors in him now and even more when he fumbled to find Lindsay’s hand.
“Is she still sleeping?”
“I think so.” Lindsay glanced over his shoulder to confirm. “Sound asleep.” He rested his other hand on Noah’s, hoping that would soothe the wave of melancholy coloring Noah’s expression in the occasional headlights from oncoming traffic.
As far as Lindsay knew, this was the first time Noah had been behind the wheel since the accident that had killed his wife. The anxiety that had come with simply driving again had been enough to keep the sadness at bay before. Now that he’d relaxed, Lindsay could see that those half-memories of what should be were surfacing.
Early in the drive, Lindsay’d had the same problem, glancing over and expecting to see Dane behind the wheel. It left an ache inside him that he had to force himself to ignore. One step at a time. Ylli and Zoey first, because he’d need their help to find Dane and free him from Moore. If Dane’s absence was bothering Lindsay, he couldn’t imagine how Noah felt. The person Noah was looking for was never coming back, no matter what they did now.
“Do you need a break?” There was bound to be a rest stop somewhere up ahead that Noah could pull off at to rest while Lindsay kept watch.
“Sure. Tell me where to turn.” Noah was holding on to Lindsay’s hand as tightly as he’d been gripping the steering wheel. “It’s getting easier. Everything except the rearview mirror.”
Unbidden, Noah’s memories came back to Lindsay and he remembered the glare of headlights looming large in a rearview mirror. He shook the vision off before the impact came and put his free hand over Noah’s. Noah was so strong—that made Lindsay’s role of mentoring him even more important.
Lindsay watched the signs at the side of the road, pointing when one of them finally said REST
AREA AHEAD in big, white letters. “We should stop here. There’s a landmark coming up on the map, and there probably won’t be another rest stop until after that. You need a break.”
“Thanks.” Noah exhaled slowly and let go of Lindsay’s hand to make the lane change that would take them off the highway. “I keep telling myself that if I can somehow pull this off, find this girl, get Dane back for you, stop Moore, it would justify—somehow—that I’m here and she’s not. I used to say that the way people tried to make something good out of a tragedy was meaningless because death was inevitable.”
“Life gives it meaning,” Lindsay said softly. When Dane had died in Ezqel’s forest, it was Dane’s life—
everything Lindsay knew about him and everything he’d done for Lindsay—that had pushed Lindsay to keep going. That Ezqel and Izia had brought Dane back hadn’t changed Lindsay’s conviction that some risks were worth taking.
“I’m glad you’re here.” Noah slid his arm around Lindsay’s shoulders and pressed his hot cheek to Lindsay’s hair for a moment. “I knew life owed me a break somewhere.”
Lindsay didn’t know how to answer that. He found Noah’s hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently.
“Thank you,” he said finally. “I’m glad you’re here too.”
He was. He had no idea what he would’ve done these past few days if Noah hadn’t pulled through and Lindsay hadn’t had him to focus on while they worked out how to find the others. While Noah worked out how to find the others. The thought made anxiety surge up in him again—he was already so dependent on Noah.
“If there’s any kissing going on, I’m gonna puke.” With a grumble and groan, Kristan pushed herself to sit up. “Time for the little girls’ room.”
Lindsay waited until he was watching her walk away in the glow of the headlights, then turned to Noah. Focusing on Noah helped distract him from the pressure on his mind. “Are you all right?”
“Not great.” Noah let his head fall back and exhaled slowly. “I won’t let you down. There’s nothing wrong with me. It’s just hard. I’ll manage.” He looked over at Lindsay and mustered up a smile.
“I know.” Lindsay gave him a soft kiss on the mouth as a reward.
Once they got back on the road, the rest of the drive went quickly, and when they exited the highway, they found their way into the parking lot of a museum that was closed for the night. The sign outside read The Great Circle Museum . Lindsay looked around, then back at the map. The snake flickered and faded away.
“This is that landmark I mentioned earlier,” Lindsay said. “It’s a Native American structure, a mound.
There are a lot of them in this part of Ohio.” That made sense, though Lindsay didn’t know nearly enough about magic. A site like this would be easy for someone like Noah to track down.
Noah let the car drift as far to the back of the parking lot as it would go, where the drooping branches of an untended tree scraped across the hood as he parked. He turned off the car and exhaled slowly.
“The confluence is here. No more river to follow, so to speak.”
“I love it when he speaks in tongues.” Kristan popped open her door and dragged herself out of the car with a groan.
“Will you need the map for this part?” Lindsay couldn’t make any more sense of Noah’s words than Kristan, but he was learning as fast as he could.
“No, it won’t do us any good. I need the plastic bag that’s on the floor there, though.” Now that Noah wasn’t paying attention to Kristan, he looked tense again.
“Got it.” Lindsay passed it to Noah. “Anything else? Anything I can do to help?”
“Make sure no one knows we’re here? That’s all.” The trunk banged shut and Noah got moving.
“Okay, Kristan has some other stuff I need back there. I hope I remember the way all of this goes.”
Lindsay stayed in the dark car. The moment he was alone, he had a name for the pressure on his mind, and he grabbed the door handle, expecting to be sick. They were being hunted. The nausea didn’t come, though, just a surge of anger.
The illusion he’d already cast would keep their little party hidden from human sight, but he didn’t know if it would deceive whatever hunted them. He pushed back, enough to know that the mind—no, the minds—that kept brushing his didn’t belong to Lourdes. Lourdes had seen through his illusions before—as far as Lindsay knew, only she and Dane and Jonas could best him—and Lindsay was certain that Moore held no better players in reserve. He knew her arrogance.
Telling Noah and Kristan what was going on would distract them from finding Ylli and Zoey, and with no benefit. There wasn’t anything either of them could do to stop the hunters, not until the hunters found them. Lindsay wouldn’t let it get to that point when they were so badly outnumbered.