He didn’t spare us another thought before prowling across the road in pursuit of the trail.
Asa and I exchanged a look then trotted after him. I let Asa guide me as I texted Clay a warning. If we were still out with Dad when he arrived, I didn’t want him to get Colby anywhere near us. Not until I was certain I could trust Dad. With the pendant heating against my skin, I had more than a few doubts.
Dark artifacts want to be used for their intended purpose, they crave it, and Saint was all potential. If the grimoire was to be believed, Saint contributed to its pages. Above any other, it would long for its original masters. Any one of them would do, but it falling into Dad’s hands would mean the book hit the jackpot.
As much as I wanted to believe Dad possessed a daughter-seeking radar, I couldn’t discount the possibility it was the grimoire’s power signature he traced to me. The choker, assuming the pendant/grimoire hadn’t destroyed its intent, protected me from Stavros. Not him.
With punishing strides, Dad devoured the ground between the motel and where we found the note. He located the animal den and stuck his hand in without hesitation. Tension strung him tight when he withdrew, and he showed us a delicate finger bone on his palm. A distal phalange, if I wasn’t mistaken.
“My love,” he breathed across the fragment, closing his fist, “they will pay for this in blood.”
Agony streaked his features as he pocketed the bone, but I couldn’t shake its miraculous appearance.
“That wasn’t here earlier.” I turned to Asa. “You would have scented it.”
“A distraction.” He cut his eyes toward Dad. “Lacky wants to slow Rue down.”
Again, I heard Finch in my head, and again I couldn’t shake the sensation of a target on my back.
“Parish gave us a heads-up you were on your way.”
“My team, you mean.”
Finch delighted in correcting me. “I mean you.”
Why had Parish specified me?
Had he known about Mom? Had he hoped Dad would intervene? Was I working a case or acting as bait?
“We lost the spell,” I realized as the area grew darker. “Can we get it back?”
“No,” Saint rasped, “but I can catch it.”
Faster than I could ask how, he vanished into shadow, leaping from dark pool to dark pool in pursuit.
“I have it,” a cold voice whirled around me. “Follow the spark.”
A sizzling pop ignited in front of me, and the spastic glitter of a floating orb shot off in the direction Dad had gone. The whole thing reminded me of tales from those who followed will-o’-the-wisps into midnight forests and were led to their doom, but I had brought Dad here. He was my responsibility.
Asa and I rushed again, almost losing sight of the spark, but its explosion as it returned to Dad lit the way to him. The burnt-black magic from earlier fluttered onward, and he tracked it with purpose. Its edges glowed red, as if igniting, and then extinguished in a huff of smoke.
“We’re here.” Dad reached for his wand. “Be on your guard.”
As usual, Colby’s reports were correct. This was a barren tract of land that might have once been a homestead, but all reminders of it had been reclaimed by tangled vines and thorny bushes. There were plenty of places to hide, if you didn’t mind getting poison oak or ivy, but I doubted our summoner was hiding under one of the wild blackberry bushes, where his hands would be limited in their motions.
Entering the woods from this direction, I couldn’t decide if this was where Old Man Fang attacked Derry. Then again, it didn’t have to be. I could have checked the pin I set earlier, but his bones had been relocated. The summoner couldn’t have moved them far, but he owned several acres. Needle in a haystack, anyone? Thank the goddess for Dad’s quick spell.
A frantic buzz in my pocket left me certain things had somehow managed to get worse.
Asa touched my arm to reassure me he would watch my back while I checked my cell.
>>Answer your phone.
The number was unfamiliar, but there were teams in every city with three to five agents in each.
>In the field.
>>Fine.
>>Check your email.
A beat later, I had my answer as to the identity of the mystery texter.
Parish.
We had another case.