The Rebel Queen (Outlaw 1)

I was in front of Lee. His bigger body draped the cloak over me and he could still see, though “seeing” in the cloak was an odd thing. It was like looking at the world through a filter. Everything seemed muffled and slightly distorted. I opened the door as slowly as I could, not wanting to make a sound.

That was the moment I realized we weren’t even close to being alone.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Zoey?” The woman who stood in the hallway kept her voice low. “It’s okay. This floor is empty for now, but we need to hurry.”

I went completely still for a moment. Christine stood in front of the door I’d opened. I’d seen her just days before, but she’d changed. She would be fifty now, and it struck me that I’d known her for half her life. Or rather she’d known me and had to take my family into consideration. According to my father, she’d been good to him, but there was a part of me that still wondered.

Christine hesitated, staring into the stairwell as though she should be able to catch a glimpse of something. She wore khaki slacks and a button-down blouse. Her hair was shorter than it had been years ago, and there were fine lines on her face where before had been only the smooth perfection of youth.

“Please, Zoey. I’m worried something is wrong,” she whispered. “I know you’ve still got the cloak. Harry told me Lee got it out of the building. There aren’t cameras anymore. Myrddin got rid of them. You can come out.”

“She’s been with us the whole way, Mom. She’s been one hundred percent true,” Lee said quietly.

I had to make a decision one way or another. I either trusted the woman my father had loved or I had to take her out so I could do the job. I went on instinct, or rather I chose to honor my father’s. I nodded and Lee lowered the cloak.

Christine’s blue eyes went wide, and a sheen of tears covered them. “It’s really you. Oh, Zoey, it’s really you.”

She reached out for my hand, and I wasn’t sure I could tell her what I needed to tell her.

“Lee, you look so much like your dad.” Tears fell on her cheeks. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you all. Being here… I needed to do it, but I’ve missed you.”

She’d seemed like such a silly thing when I’d first met her. She’d been far too young for my father, but somehow she’d been his soul’s mate.

“Christine, I have to…”

She nodded and squeezed my hand. “It’s okay. I know he’s gone. Shy contacted me a couple of hours ago. We have a safe way to communicate. She let me know that Harry moved on and that he loved me. I lost him a long time ago. I’ve always known that. We have to do this now because it’s too quiet around here.”

“How did you know we’d be here?” Lee asked. “Did Sasha send you a note? Or did Shy tell you?”

“Shy would never say a word, even though we’re close. And Sasha’s far too paranoid.” She sniffled but her eyes rolled slightly. “As if I haven’t been doing this long enough to know when something’s going down. I know that Myrddin is meeting with the king and Olivia is off doing something at his behest, as usual. She took three of our most powerful witches with her days ago. I’m trying to find out where she went. Anyway, I knew when he set up that meeting that you would take the time to try to get into Sarah’s place. Is that where you hid the grimoire?”

I nodded, trying to suck up my emotions. “It might be. Sarah had it that last day.”

Christine’s brows rose. “You’ve seen Sarah?”

“No, but I have intel from a trusted source that puts the bag of holding in her hands before she disappeared.” I wasn’t sure what Christine knew about Nimue, and now wasn’t the time to go into it. This was the time for me to let Sasha decide how he wanted to roll out information.

“If you do find her, she needs to be careful. Myrddin hates her. Her heart’s blood has kept him out of places he wants to go. She warded this whole building in it. It’s wrapped up so tight sometimes it can be hard for demons who leave to get back in,” Christine said. “Those wards of hers do some crazy things. Did you know if you break a window from the inside, the glass shatters back?”

“She wanted the building to be as insular as possible,” I explained. “She was still working on it when everything went down. It’s a weird function of the spell she used.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s still fucking with Myrddin,” Lee admitted.