Lindsay nodded. His own manifestation hadn’t been much different from what she was describing.
“Noah’s right. What happened wasn’t your fault.”
Zoey didn’t look like she entirely believed them. “Um. Ylli said... He said some people got lost when you guys got me out of that place, that the, um, Cyrus, he wasn’t the only one who got hurt. I’m really sorry. If there’s anything I can do...”
Lindsay swallowed hard and looked down at Noah. No, Cyrus wasn’t the only one who’d gotten hurt.
The loss of Cyrus was awful, and Lindsay kept shoving it out of his mind. He didn’t have time to deal with it right now. But Dane...and Noah.
Noah reached back and found one of Lindsay’s hands with his, tangling their fingers together. The touch soothed him. At times like this, Lindsay missed Dane so intensely it felt like the only thing keeping him sane was knowing Noah understood him and wouldn’t let him lose Dane completely.
“That wasn’t your fault either.” Lindsay met her eyes. “We knew what we were doing when we went to help you. I wouldn’t have let her keep you.”
“You’re not the first one she’s tried to add to her collection of experiments,” Noah said without looking up. The coins were all laid out in front of him now, waiting to be permanently marked. “We have more to do before we can rest. I’m sorry we can’t take the time to let you get your bearings. You’ve been feeling all right, other than the problems associated with living in a tree?”
That phrasing prompted a little laugh from Zoey, and she nodded. “Yeah. I’m okay. Even with the whole ‘living in a tree’ thing.” She tilted her head, dark hair spilling over her shoulder and gathering in the bunched-up hood of her faded varsity sweatshirt, yet another thing Kristan had dug up from a thrift shop somewhere. “More to do?”
Anah Crow and Dianne Fox
Lindsay squeezed Noah’s fingers and drew them up to his mouth to kiss them, then let them go so Noah could turn his attention back to his runes. This time, Zoey seemed unfazed by the display. “We lost Dane the night we took you away from Moore—the doctor. She has him, and we have to get him back.”
“Who is—?” Zoey’s eyes widened and she looked around the room. “The big guy. I remember him now. I guess I thought he’d show up. Is he the one— Ylli said somebody didn’t come back and that’s why we had to leave with Cyrus and then...”
And then the Hounds had found them anyway, Lindsay knew. “Yes. He’s my... My mentor, I suppose.” And much, much more. But he didn’t need to share that with a stranger, even one he’d risked everything to help.
“Dane comes first.” There was a little flare, that of two dozen matches striking at once, and the light was gone. Noah looked over his shoulder at Lindsay. “Yes?”
“Yes.” Lindsay couldn’t imagine doing anything else. “Now that you and Ylli are safe, we need to focus on finding Dane.” They didn’t have a damn clue where to start, and Lindsay had been trying not to think on that too hard.
“Can I—” Zoey picked at her nails again, seemingly unconcerned by the line of red forming between the chipped pink paint and her brown skin. “Can I help? I mean. I’ve got this magic stuff, right? Is there anything I can do with it that would help you guys find him?”
“Moore and her creatures seem fixed in the new ways.” Noah scooped up the runes and jingled them in his hands. “I see few alternatives, especially since our magic has been matched by her followers. Your magic might prove useful, if we can see where to direct it.”
Lourdes and Jonas had certainly kicked their asses, but Lindsay knew there were ways for him to deal with them. They could use stealth and strategy, as well as the sheer force of Noah’s magic, to deal with being overpowered. It was how Cyrus had managed, with the help of his precognition. There was nothing Lindsay could do about their lack of information now—that was the real problem. Moore had so many resources at her disposal, and they had so little.
“Oh, Cyrus gave Ylli some stuff before— Before we left.” Zoey looked down at her hands and seemed to notice the damage she had done, and tucked her hands into her lap. “A bracelet, stuff like that. I think he still has all of it. If that will help anything?”
A bracelet. Lindsay gave a moment of thanks for Cyrus’s foresight. He hadn’t let the barre fall into Moore’s hands. And in the process he’d given Lindsay a way to track down Moore.
When Moore held Lindsay prisoner, back in New York, she’d been using artifacts. The kuni studs in her ears to identify mages, the runes she’d copied from the Shackles of Tehut etched into the walls. She’d need more than copied runes to control Dane, especially after Lindsay had shown her those runes weren’t
worth more than the cement they’d been drawn into.
“She’s going to need artifacts to control Dane, something strong.” Dane and Jonas both, from what Lourdes had said. “She must be using something magical to help her make those Hounds too.”
“She’s probably getting what she needs from humans.” Noah sounded sour about that. “It’s one thing for a mage to work for her, it’s another to sell her things she could use against mages. She couldn’t just acquire things like the Shackles of Tehut without bringing a lot of attention to herself from more than just Cyrus.”
Lindsay watched Zoey for a long moment, trying to figure out how they could use that to their advantage. Zoey squirmed and Lindsay realized he was making her nervous. He started to apologize, but one of the newspapers caught his eye.
Exhibition Brings Stolen Art Back to Detroit
“There are a lot of museums around here. They must try to track black-market deals. An artifact is an artifact.” Lindsay looked at Zoey. She seemed like a mind mage who could influence computers instead of the human brain. “Would you be able to use a museum’s computers to track who’s buying a lot of artifacts?”
“I—” Zoey’s eyes widened. “I think so. They’d have the information in a database, right? We used things like that at work. I remember how it felt to talk to the computer when it lost my hours—before I knew I was actually talking to it. I think I can do it again. I’d like to try.”
“I should be able tell what things are more likely to be magical artifacts instead of mundane things.”
Noah was polishing the new runes on the hem of his T-shirt. “I know what sources and eras produced most of what we would own or use now. It’s a start.”
“What’s a start?” Kristan came in with a handful of fresh newspapers and tossed them by Lindsay’s chair.
“Tracking down the artifacts Moore’s got to be using.” Noah answered before Lindsay could open his mouth. “The black market has moved online.”
“That’s a good idea.” Kristan snapped her fingers at Noah and he threw her the coin he was inspecting. “I haven’t heard from Vivian but I’ll drop another message. She’ll get it when she can.”
“Where is she?” Lindsay couldn’t imagine that Vivian didn’t know what had happened to Cyrus by now. She had been the one to tell them about Dane. Vivian always knew more than any of them.
“Busy. If she surfaces, she’ll blow her cover.” Kristan passed the coin back to Noah. “Make me some.”
“In time.” Noah leaned back against Lindsay’s chair and Lindsay found himself petting the back of Noah’s neck, to settle himself more than Noah.
“Who’s Vivian?” Zoey looked lost. “Did she—I mean, is it my fault she’s not here?”
“None of it is your fault.” Lindsay surprised himself with how forcefully the words came out.
“Kristan and Ylli belong to Vivian. She and Dane and Cyrus were...”
“Family.” Kristan finished the sentence for him. “So, where do we start looking for Moore?”