Rituals (Cainsville 5)

"Something's happened."

"How shocking. I swear, you two should use that as your standard telephone greeting. Not 'Hello' but 'Something's gone horribly awry.' "

Pepper chuckled under her breath.

"My mother escaped from prison," I said. "She came to Cainsville and tried to murder Seanna Walsh." Silence. More silence.

"You're not dreaming, Ida," I said.

"Of course not," she snapped. "Fae don't dream. I didn't respond because I'm wondering if you're inebriated."

"Then so is Gabriel," Ricky said. "And me. And Pepper. Patrick, Grace, Walter..."

"Walter?" she said.

"He's not there with you, is he?" I said.

"We don't always share a bed, Olivia. After a certain age, one understands that there is comfort both in sleeping with someone and in sleeping alone. He must be in the other room."

"He's not," I said. "Go and check, but be careful walking. I think your tea was dosed."

"Dosed? As in drugged? Why can't you say that, then? Humans and their slang. It's understandable if you don't have a word for a thing, but why invent another one if you do? And yes, I'm walking while I'm speaking to you. I am focused, Olivia."

"Walter won't be there," Gabriel said. "We were with him

less than an hour ago, and he was taking Seanna to a safer place. Do you know where that would be?"

"Walter?" she said.

"Yes, Walter," I said. "He insisted on moving Seanna. We don't know why, but I was too distracted at the time to argue. I'm calling to see where he took her."

Silence.

"Ida?"

"Yes, I'm sorry, Olivia. I was just checking the spare room, and you're quite correct that Walter is not there. Evidently, he's handling this situation by himself, which I am pleased to see."

"Do you know where--?"

"There's no need for you to worry, Olivia. We have this under control. You should all get some rest. If Gabriel wishes to see his mother in the morning, I'm sure that can be arranged. Until then, I'll ask that you stay in your house. You're all there, I presume?"

"Yes, but--"

"Excellent. Stay there until further notice, please. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get a little more sleep myself, and leave this in Walter's hands. Good night, Olivia. And you as well, Gabriel."

She hung up. I stood there, holding the phone.

"She's been drugged, hasn't she?" Pepper said. "She wasn't understanding what you're saying."

"Oh, she got it," Ricky said. "She's not going back to bed. She's going to find out what the hell Walter is up to."

"And if she finds out," I said, "we can't trust her to ever tell us the truth. We need to get to him first."

--

It didn't matter that Helia still wasn't picking up. We could find her using the phone. When we'd bought it for Pepper, I'd suggested adding the same tracking app Ricky put in ours. With Pepper's condition, that had seemed wise.

We took Pepper back to Veronica's and asked her to tell Veronica everything. Then we set off tracking Pepper's phone.