jaw tensed to granite.
She knew what he meant. The gray, lonely asylum where many Arcanes had been confined…those thought to be seditious and deemed a danger to Mage society. Locked away behind bars…
Never. I’ll die first.
“Your team can save them, Sam. Talk to your commander, have him send a team of SEALs to rescue the children.”
His expression shuttered. “He’d have to go through proper channels and first determine Elemental children are missing.”
Red tape, delays. “It would take too long.”
“There are rules. We have to work within the system.” Sam lightly gripped her shoulders. “I’m more concerned about you.”
She was alone. Kelly’s throat tightened.
“I don’t need you to take care of me. I need you to convince your superiors of the truth.”
Someone banged hard on the front door. Kelly jumped. Blue and red lights flashed outside, stroking over the bushes and the house next door. He muttered a curse.
“I knew Tom wouldn’t let this go.”
Another hard pounding. “Chief Shaymore, open up,” a deep voice called out. “I’m with the security division of the Council of Mages. We need to question you about Kelly Denning.”
Sam snagged a set of keys from a peg in the kitchen. “I’ll hold them off. Take the trail in the woods out back. It leads to a side road. We have a car stashed for emergencies. Get on the interstate and don’t stop. Stay at a friend’s house and stay low until the political burn wears off.”
She took the keys, her fingers brushing his. “Thanks, Sam. But you know I can’t stay low. If you won’t help me, I’ll go it alone to Honduras. If there’s a chance they’re still alive, I’ll take it.”
He turned away, his broad shoulders a brick wall. “Don’t leave the country, Kelly. Because if they send me after you, I will be forced to do what I must.”
A man filled with resolve, his deep voice stating every word with hard conviction. Kelly drew in a breath.
“Stay safe, Sam.” The knife in her heart twisted hard. “Don’t come after me unless you plan to help. Because I will be forced to do what I must.”
As he went to the front door, she slipped out the back, heading into the cover of night. Putting distance between the man she’d once loved fiercely, and feeling the aching regret that they’d lost something precious and wonderful. She wouldn’t make that mistake twice.
Never again.
Chapter 5
Leaving the country when you were a suspected kidnapper was easy enough, if you were a Mage who could shape-shift.
Homeland Security took a look at her fake passport, glanced at the gray-haired woman with the sour face, and nodded her through. No Mages stalked her. The flight was uneventful, aside from the landing. Years of travel to Honduras had conditioned her to the wild corkscrew landings the skilled pilots executed to avoid the rugged mountains ringing Tegucigalpa.
After getting her luggage from the crowded carousel, she headed for the restroom and used magick to change back her appearance.
Kelly inserted the international SIM card she’d bought into her cell phone and made a call to the Council of Mages. A bored man answered.
“This is Kelly Denning. I’m in Honduras. Tell those stuffed shirts if they want me, they’ll have to get off their fat butts and find me.”
Envisioning his stunned look, she laughed and thumbed off the connection.
When Sam’s team arrived, she’d convince them to find the missing children. The SEALs stood as the only neutral force able to stop a full-scale war between Elementals and Arcanes.
Risking her life was worth it to save those of her people, and Sam’s.
Weighing the cell in her palm, she considered the gamble. What if they simply chose to haul her back to the States? Brought her into Mage custody, where she’d suffer an “accident?” Oops, didn’t mean to discharge enough power to fry a city block.
Sam wouldn’t allow it. Another gamble.
Nausea boiled in her throat. Once he’d been insouciant and spontaneous. Now he’d turned into a man she no longer recognized.
A blast of humid air encased her as she went outside. The warm breeze ruffled her turquoise silk shirt and teased tendrils of hair escaping her ponytail. Kelly flagged down a cab and gave precise directions in Spanish.
The black-haired driver looked at her. “Señorita? You sure you want that house, that neighborhood?”
“Positive.”
As he pulled into traffic, he glanced in the mirror, his dark gaze somber. “It is dangerous there. Even for one filled with magick.”
Kelly went still. The driver pulled down his shirt collar. His skin had been branded with a dark red circle with a slash through it.
The mark of an Arcane branded for subversion.
“You’re one of us,” the driver whispered. “I sensed it when you asked to visit that neighborhood. Many Arcanes live there.”
Not letting down her guard, she shrugged. “I know someone there. A friend.”
“You are one of us.”
At a red light, he turned. “You need not be afraid. Are you here to find refuge? Many of our people have moved here to hide.”
“I’m here to visit a friend,” she repeated.
The man’s mouth flattened. “Elementals have pushed our people into dark and dangerous corners. No place is safe from their influence. One day we will be free from their kind, and they will know the same suffering they forced upon us.”
Seditious talk, the type that landed Arcanes in prison. She hesitated.
“It’s misguided to judge an entire race by the actions of a few and ignore the ones who are kind, good and courageous.”
The driver snorted. “All Elementals are bloodsucking scum who think themselves superior. They demean us because we have no power. But they are fools, for some of us are more powerful than they realize.”
True. Kelly fingered the triskele, feeling the metal warm beneath her touch.
Buildings passed by in a blur as her heart pounded hard against her chest. Headed into heartache again. She knew what she’d find. Rubbing a spot on the window, she stared outside, seeing nothing.
The taxi jerked to a halt midway down a steep hill. Kelly started. Gray water gushed down a gutter before an aging brick building.
“I can wait for
