A Glint of Shadoewynne: Book 1 of the Shadoewynne Series Read online

  They were all staring at me. David spoke first. “Sugar, that was… weird.”

  That made me laugh. “Weird does not describe it. Bizarre, out of character, alarming, and frightening are the words that come to my mind. That abrupt change at the end, as well as her hanging up on me bother me. Anybody else ever watch the cop shows where they are tracking a call, then when they get it narrowed down, the person on the phone yells at the kidnapper and they all rush off to arrest him? Yeah, that’s what that reminded me of, and everything in me is telling me to run. Don’t know where to, but we need to go, now.”

  They all nodded at me. Travis tapped me on the arm. “Did you give your mom David’s full name?”

  I stared at him. Oh shit. “No, I don’t think I did. I still don’t know how she found him. Kait, can you please take my phone back to my old apartment? I don’t think I want to carry it around, even with the battery and SIM card out.”

  He nodded, and took the phone from me.

  Sarah snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it. Travis, we have that safe house in the country. It’s got wards against magical trackers as well as mundane safety precautions.”

  Kait smiled. “That’s a great idea. I will meet you there.” I gave him the address to my apartment as well as the key, and he left quickly.

  We packed up food and clothes for David and Travis. Janelle was going to go back out to a store for clothes and a new phone for me. We couldn’t risk anyone going back to David’s house, so picking up my stuff was out of the question. In about fifteen minutes, we had everything we would need for several days at the safe house. Janelle, Sarah, David, Travis and I all loaded into a Suburban. I was grateful Travis’ family had a vehicle large enough to fit us all comfortably. Not only did I not know where we were going, I didn’t want to be split up right now, either. The other problem was, I was exhausted. It had been a long day.

  We weren’t in the car long before I fell asleep. Sometime later, I woke briefly as strong arms lifted me out of the car. A scent very much like freshly turned dirt mixed with cut grass enveloped me as I was gently cradled to a solid chest. I made small noise and snuggled in. A deep chuckle from the chest I had my cheek pressed to reverberated through me. I was happy here. I wound my arms around his neck and drifted back into a deep sleep.

  The birds chirping right outside my window in the morning woke me. My eyes were gritty from sleeping with my contacts in again. I sighed, and got up. Oh shit. I didn’t have my contact stuff, or my glasses. I blinked, trying to work moisture back into my eyes. Looking around, the room was cutely decorated with bears and a log cabin theme. The lamp by the bed was made to look like wood carved into a bear climbing a tree, with the shade painted to look like a tree canopy. It reminded me of a cabin I stayed in once in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I glanced out the window. Yep, it was a log cabin. I could see the edges of the cut logs around the window.

  I gathered some of the new clothes that had been put in the room for me and left the room, looking for the bathroom. It was just down the hall from me. I rummaged around in the medicine cabinet, and under the sink, looking for a hair brush and hoping there was contact solution. Ah ha! Pushed back behind the drain, I found an old bottle. I took out one contact at a time, and rinsed them in my palm and put them back in. Someone was going to have to get my glasses from David’s house. I took a quick shower, then, using my new-found powers, I pulled the moisture from my hair as I ran a brush through it. When I was done, my hair was dry and straight. That was freaking awesome! What normally would have taken my almost an hour took less than 5 minutes! There were perks to this.

  I followed the sound of voices to the living room. It was also decorated in the bear/log cabin theme. All in all, it was pretty cute for a safe house.

  Janelle saw me first and gestured to a small box on the end table. “There’s your new phone. I hope you don’t mind android.”

  “It’s fine.” It was a generic phone, but it would work. I turned it on, and started setting it up, including getting a new email. I might be overreacting, but I didn’t want anything my mom knew about to be on this phone. While I was distracted by my phone, they continued their conversation.

  “We need to talk about you mother, Evalia.”

  “Hmm?” I had only heard my name, and not the rest of the statement. I blinked up at everyone. “Oh, by the way, someone is going to have to go to David’s house. I need my contact stuff and glasses.”

  Kait waved his hand at me. “I already got everything you need. I stopped at David’s on the way back from your old apartment. We need to talk about your mother. I think she was waiting at David’s house. What does she look like?”

  I sighed. “I figured she would. I didn’t think she bought the story that we were going out of town. She’s my height, black hair, hazel eyes. We’ve been mistaken for sisters, so I’d say she looks a lot like me. Did she see you?”

  Kait nodded. “Yep, it was her, then. No, she didn’t see me.” I looked at him in disbelief. “Believe me, she didn’t know I was there. I can be very inconspicuous when I want to be.”

  I shrugged. “Okay, then.”

  “We need to figure out how she knew where David lived. If you didn’t give her his full name, she shouldn’t have been able to just web search him. How much have you told her about him?”

  “Hardly anything. We don’t talk much, and when we do, it’s usually about work. She doesn’t know anything about my friends because I deliberately don’t tell her much about any of them. She had to be tracking my phone somehow, but I don’t know how she did. I thought I had taken all the precautions I needed to. However, I don’t know a lot about those kinds of things, and I had just done a web search to see what I needed to do. My old phone had that find my friends thing, but I thought I turned that off as well.” I rubbed my eyes.

  “So, it may just be that you didn’t take enough precautions with the phone. Or it may be more than that. Janelle said she removed a tracking spell from you after you were abducted. Let’s have her check again to see if there’s anything else still attached to you.”

  “Um, okay.” I couldn’t see how that related to my mother, but it didn’t hurt to check, I guess. Janelle came over to me and put her hands on my arms. As usual, a warmth spread. Pretty soon, there was a burning sensation in my pocket. “Oww! Hold up, something is burning me.” I got up, dug into my pocket and pulled out my keys. My car key was glowing red. I stared at it, wondering what was causing it to do that. Janelle plucked them out of my hand. She stared at them for a moment, a frown of concentration furrowing her brow. After a moment, the glow faded and she handed them back.

  “There was a spell on them. It wasn’t a normal tracking spell, though. It seemed to have some characteristics of a tracker, but there were other, odd elements thrown in as well.”

  “Like what?” This came from Kait, with a sharp edge to his voice.

  “It almost seemed like a listening spell and a compulsion spell as well but it was all woven together and into the electronics. I couldn’t decipher all the elements, but it was definitely a hodgepodge of a bunch of different kinds of magic. I’ve never seen anything like it.” She sounded just as baffled as she looked.

  “Who had access to your keys?” The sharpness was worse in Kait’s voice. He was just barking his questions.

  “Um, I keep them in my pocket, so just me and my mom and dad, of course. They helped me buy it. I’ve had the car for about two and a half years. I used to lose my house keys all the time, so I make sure I put them in my pocket and I don’t just leave them laying around.”

  Kait was pacing, a finger tapping his lips. He may be over two hundred years old, but he only looked to be in his late twenties. I couldn’t help but compare him to David and Travis. He looked just as good. It must be nice to not worry about aging. I shook my head. I really need to keep my thoughts on the subject at hand. But then, I started worrying about my keys and who had put the spell on it.

  Eventually, Kait spoke. “We need to
check all her belongings that I brought from David’s house.” Shit. Did that mean he thought there were more spells?

  Janelle stood up. “Where did you put them?”

  Kait gestured to the back of the house. “I put them in the room next to where she was sleeping. I didn’t want to disturb her.”

  Janelle nodded and walked down the hallway. David and Travis followed her, leaving just Kait and me. He sat down in front of me. “Okay, so you will definitely need someone with you at all times. We are only about an hour away from the college, so we can stay here and go back and forth to your classes. I can attend them with you, that way Travis and David don’t have to miss their classes.” I nodded. “Don’t give out your new phone number to anyone. In fact, don’t even get your phone out of your bag at school. Only check it once you are in the car. I will go back tonight and bring you a car from Travis’ for you to use. Your car may have a tracker on it, and your mother will definitely know your car and your license plate number.”

  She had panicked me the night before, but now I was beginning to think we were overreacting. Plus, I was going to have to see her at some point. “Do you think we are going overboard here? I mean, she’s my mom. It’s not like she is going to hurt me, and I’m going to have to meet her at some point.”

  Kait put his hands on my shoulders and rubbed them. “Evalia, listen to me. Every instinct I have is screaming to keep you safe, and that she is not safe. I don’t know why, but you can’t see her right now, and we need to take precautions. It seems like overreacting, but my gut tells me we are still not doing enough.”

  His little speech brought a lump to my throat. I didn’t know what I had done to deserve these wonderful men in my life, who had become such good friends as well as my protectors. It surprised me that I was already so comfortable with Kait, since I had just met him yesterday and I hadn’t trusted him then, but the truth was, today it felt like I had known him forever. I just smiled at him. He pulled me into a quick hug. I leaned my head on his hard chest, and breathed in his scent. It was an odd mixture that I really couldn’t define, but it tugged on my heart. It reminded me of Christmas in that weird way that smells could. I pulled away first.

  He smiled down at me as he rubbed my hair back away from my face. “You mean a lot to me. It’s hard to explain, but trust that I will do everything in my power to make sure you make it through this.” He rested his forehead on mine as he spoke, and his voice was so quiet by the end I could barely hear him.

  “I believe you. I was just thinking that its amazing that I am already so comfortable with you. It’s like I’ve know you forever. Are you sure we’ve never met before?”

  He pulled back a little and looked guilty for a split second. “Well, we have met before. As I said before, your father meant a great deal to me. I couldn’t just walk away like he asked me to. Once, when you were very young, maybe three years-old, you got lost in a store at Christmas. I had happened to be there, checking in on your father, and saw you wander off. You went down an escalator while your parents were shopping on the top floor of the store. Once you reached the bottom, you couldn’t find your way back up. It was one of those stores where the up escalator is on the opposite side. You were crying, and screaming for your mom. I picked you up and carried you back to the top, and left you near your parents. You wouldn’t let go of me. I had to pry your fingers off, and your crying when I left drew your parents to you.”

  Oh shit. I remembered that. I had just turned four. The mall had just set up for Christmas, and my parents had told me we were going to see Santa. They had been shopping for themselves all afternoon, and I was afraid Santa was going to go home before they remembered why we were supposed to be there. I had decided to go find Santa myself, but got scared when I got to the bottom and didn’t know where I was. The nice man had been so kind, like no one had ever been to me before. I hadn’t wanted him to leave. Tears welled in my eyes as I thought about it.

  I choked up as I said, “You know why I cried when you left? No one had ever been as nice to me as you were in that brief time. I was an afterthought at my house.”

  He nodded as he smoothed my hair down my back. “I know.”

  Kait let go and moved away right before David and Travis walked back in the room. David glanced between us for a second, with an indecipherable look, before saying, “Janelle is going through the rest of the stuff. It looks like there was another mixed spell on your glasses as well.

  Well, shit. That pretty much left my mom, David or Janelle as the culprits. I never wore my glasses out of the house if I could help it, and I hadn’t done so since I started college. Wait. Those were new, I got them here. My mom had never seen them. I quickly checked my mental block as I eyed David. This wasn’t good.

  Chapter 18

  How was I going to address this? David couldn’t have set those spells, could he? I thought about it. It had seemed weird to me when we met. I mean, I am not very outgoing, so anybody who is an extrovert seems weird to me, but I remember how odd it was. I had been getting dinner in the cafeteria the day before the term started, and he had brushed up against me accidentally. He had looked surprised, then started up a conversation, immediately hitting on me. He hadn’t left me alone the rest of the time I was there. I had to leave so he would quit trying to talk to me.

  I had thought it was because he liked me, but now I wasn’t so sure. Maybe it was because he had recognized me as Shadoewynne and had thought I recognized him as well. Travis said he had pretty much done the same to him, but there could have been ulterior motives to that as well. I mean, Travis was a prince.

  David had seemed so obsessed at first. Every time I turned around the first couple of days, he was behind me. I had chalked it up to many of his classes being in the same wing, since he was still taking a lot of pre-reqs, like me. We were even in one class together. He was always asking for my phone number, asking me out, wanting to spend time with me. It had been very overwhelming since I wasn’t used to that, but he had eventually won me over, mainly just because he was so persistent. Nobody ever wanted to spend time with me, so it was nice to feel wanted for a change.

  How could I tell? Maybe I could ask Kait. It seemed he has known David for a long time, and I trusted Kait more than anyone, other than Travis. I wanted to trust David, my gut was telling me to trust him, but I just couldn’t see who else could have set all these trackers on me. My mind was running in circles and I wasn’t getting anywhere.

  I realized suddenly that Travis was rubbing one shoulder, and Kait was at the other. David was rubbing my knee, and Janelle was talking to me. I had no idea when Janelle had even come into the room, and no clue what she was talking about. “I’m sorry, can you start over? I was a little preoccupied.”

  She smiled. “I didn’t really think you were paying attention. David said he told you about the spell on your glasses. There was another on your purse. I removed them all, and I also put a bounce spell on the things you carry with you, like your purse and glasses, so that if anyone tries that again, it will bounce off. I need to do the same with your new phone. Kait told me that he will be going to school with you. You will have to avoid going places he can’t go.”

  Kait moved in front of me and spoke up. “We will not be hanging around campus after your classes, either. So, you don’t need to take anything besides what you need for class. You can do your research and studying here.” His voice said not to argue, but I couldn’t help myself.

  “There will be times I need to do research at the college. Their computers have access to research materials that I can’t get to on my own.” He opened his mouth to argue, so I kept talking. “I understand your reasoning, but I will not pass my classes if I can’t access the school research library.” He reluctantly nodded his head. “Thank you, Kait.”

  “Sugar, who had access to your keys, purse, and glasses.” David asked earnestly.

  Shit. I was a horrible liar, so I guess I would have to be honest. “Keys - parents, me, you, Janelle, Sara
h, Sibhre and Travis. They went everywhere with me, but I typically keep them in my pocket, so they are not just laying around. Purse - went everywhere with me, so everyone. Glasses - me, you, Janelle, Sarah, Sibhre and Travis. I got those after moving here, and they never left the apartment until they went to your house.”

  Everyone looked at each other. Janelle spoke first. “That’s a pretty short list for the glasses, are you sure there was no one else that could have had access?”

  “I thought about it when David told me. That was what I was preoccupied with when you walked in. No one else had access to them. I hate glasses, and never wear them out of the house if I can help it. I have worn them more this week than I have in months.”

  “Well, I removed all traces of the magic. The good thing is, this safe house is warded against those kinds of spells, and there are redirecting wards set up miles from here, just to confuse anybody that tries to pull a stunt like that. They send the signal from the tracking spells bouncing all over, so they can’t get a fix on what direction we were moving.”

  “That’s a relief. We still need to figure out who set those spells, though.”

  “We will worry about that later, Sugar. Right now, we need to decide what we are doing about your mom. From the sound of it, she isn’t going to leave until you see her.” David seemed really eager to change the subject. Or was that just because I was watching for signs he’s guilty? I shook my head. I needed to get a grip.

  “You’re probably right. I should call her and set up seeing her in the morning at campus. She won’t pull any of her shit in public. Is there a way we can set it up to look like I am calling her from my old phone number?“

  David answered. “Yeah, there are apps that do that.”

  We did a quick web search, found one, and installed it on the new phone. I followed the directions and called Travis’ phone just to make sure it worked. It did, so I called my mom.