"I'm still trying to figure it all out for myself." I pulled her in for a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay. I'm so glad you're still here."
"I know!" Goldie had told me once before that she wasn't sure if she would go back to the way she had been before she was cursed or if she would cease to exist. Being human, she wasn't granted immortality like the supernatural creatures she'd been living with for so long. I couldn't imagine celebrating this moment without her.
Since I hadn't seen Gia, I hoped she was with my brother, keeping him safely away from here. Which meant there was one more person I needed to see to make the moment perfect. "Where's Joe?"
Goldie spun around, looking at the crowd. "He was right behind me."
I turned from her to where Brenon had been standing. He was no longer there, and when I looked back to the crowd, I saw him in the middle of a group hug.
Scanning the people gathered, I wondered if Joe had been pulled into the middle of it. I glanced over to where Terra had been standing when Joe and Goldie had pushed her down. "Goldie, was he with you after you took down Terra?"
She nodded. "He was right behind me after that, then everyone started to cheer, and I came to find you."
I tensed. "Goldie, where are the twins? The Sayges that were with Terra?"
Goldie's face grew pale. "I don't know. I was so caught up after we killed Terra that I didn't think about them."
This time, when I looked back to the crowd, I wasn't searching for a friend, I was looking for the one person that I didn't think would be celebrating. As expected, I found Tristan standing away from the group. He was staring at me. Had he been watching me the whole time?
The eye contact was like a silent invitation, and he bypassed the Circus members to walk to where I was standing, then stopped in front of me. "I wasn't sure if you still wanted to talk to me."
"Of course I want to talk to you." Watching him help defeat Terra had gone a long way to giving him a second chance.
"Your brother's fine if that's what you're wondering. Gia wiped his memory and took him back to school. He won't remember any of it."
"She can do that?" I asked, too stunned to consider the ethics of the memory wipe.
"Gia has a lot of gifts that the Sayges find controversial. Let's just say her running away to join the circus isn't the only dark spot in her past," Tristan said.
When this was all said and done, I had an awful lot of questions. But right now, I needed to find Joe and help my aunt. An annoying tugging deep inside was telling me that the missing twins were connected to both Joe's location and my aunt's house arrest, but I didn't want to listen to my gut.
"Have you seen my friend, Joe?" I asked. "Or the twins? Did anyone stop them?"
"Your human friend?" Tristan asked.
"What's going on over here?" Brenon said as he joined our group, Evangeline at his heels.
Tristan turned to them as they approached. "Ara's human friend is missing."
Evangeline turned around and walked away.
"Where's she going?" Goldie asked.
Before I could say anything, Evangeline whistled, instantly silencing the celebration. "Anyone seen Joe? Human. Ara's friend. Was following Goldie around like a lost puppy. Anyone?"
Her question was met with silence.
My heart pounded in my ears. If he were here, he would have said something. I couldn't ignore the strange feeling I was having. "Brenon, I think the twins took him. And I think it has something to do with my Aunt Kay."
"Why do you say that?" Tristan asked.
I shook my head. "I don't know. Just a feeling."
Brenon looked at Tristan. "That's one of your things, isn't it?"
"What are you talking about?" I said.
"It's more than a feeling, isn't it, Ara?" Tristan asked. "Like a tugging. Something pulling you there."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"It's a Dark Fae thing. Pay attention to it. You've got a deep connection with Joe so you can sense him in a way that humans can't. But as long as you can sense him, he's still alive," Tristan said.
Tristan's words caused both comfort and concern. Knowing that I could sense Joe was reassuring, but I didn't want to find out what it would feel like to not sense him. Trying to find that same tugging sensation over the knots in my stomach, I focused on Joe. The same thought as before entered my mind. Somehow, Joe and Aunt Kay were connected. "I'm still sensing that he's with my aunt. But that doesn't make any sense."
Evangeline rejoined our group. "Yvette thinks she saw him leave with the twins."
"Why didn't anyone stop them?" I asked.
Brenon grabbed hold of my hand. "Ara, we're going to get him back, and we're going to finish them off. Don't worry."
"Okay." I nodded. "Tell me what you need me to do."
"You realize what this could mean," Tristan said, looking at Brenon and Evangeline.
"There's no way they can get that gate open," Evangeline said.
"What does this have to do with the gate?" I asked.
"Your aunt, she's important to the Sayges. To this whole realm, really." Evangeline shrugged.
I looked at the three Fae in front of me. The whole not knowing thing was getting frustrating. "Someone just explain it to me."
"It's part of why Terra was so interested in your mother," Tristan said.
"Just spit it out."
"Your aunt is the guardian of the gate," Brenon said. "She's the one who monitors it to see if there are any changes. Someone from your family has done that since the gate was sealed after the curse. In the early years, it was a place of constant battle as various groups tried to get back in. But once they found out there was no way to enter without me breaking the curse, they stopped and they started chasing us down instead. That's when we started traveling and using Sayge magic to create the blue pills."
"The town you destroyed." I turned to Tristan. "Did that have something to do with the pills?"
He nodded.
It was all connected. Every piece. "It wasn't Terra who wanted it gone, was it?"
I didn't need the answer. I knew the twins were the ones who had been giving Terra the information. They were connected to the Sayge community and could blend in easier than Terra or her wolves with supernaturals in general. "We have to stop them, whatever they're planning to do."
Chapter 32
There were no lights on inside my aunt's house when Tristan's birds flew away from my view. I shuddered, recalling the feel of their wings against me while he teleported us from the rooftop.
A moment later, smoke rose nearby and Brenon and Evangeline appeared. Part of the magic that had been suppressed was their ability to travel through teleportation. Tristan's Dark Fae magic looked very different than the other's smokey entrance. Now that the curse was broken, I had a feeling I was going to see a lot more magic from my companions.
"No car," I said. "Maybe they aren't even here." Last time the elders had come to visit my aunt, there'd been a car in the gravel driveway. This time, it was just us and the assorted children's toys I'd never asked about. I wondered if it was part of a rouse for any humans that might wonder about a house in the middle of nowhere.