Then, as if a princess in a Disney cartoon, Sami slowly opened her eyes. She glanced between her parents, taking everything in. I expected tears, wails even. I thought she would curl into her father and demand he share his warmth.
She bolted to a sitting position and let loose a string of curses that would’ve been fine coming out of the mouth of the most crass sailor on Lake Michigan. From a fourteen-year-old girl, it was quite the jolt.
“Who taught you to swear like that?” Aric shoved Sami’s hair away from her forehead and gave her face a long onceover. “Is that how a young lady is supposed to talk?”
Sami narrowed her eyes to dangerous slits. “They took him! And Mom says much worse whenever she’s watching sports on television and you know it.”
Aric glowered at his wife. “I told you she was listening.”
“Hey, the refs blow. It’s not my fault we’re stuck with the Lions and bad refs. Suck it up.” Zoe turned her full attention to Sami. “Are you talking about Rafael?”
Sami nodded, her small features pinched with fury. “They came right after you left. I tried to call to you but ... it was weird. It was like there was an invisible wall separating us.”
Zoe pressed her hand to her forehead and I could practically hear the gears in her mind working. To save time, I offered up the obvious explanation.
“It’s the wards. I tried to strengthen them a bit this morning because ... well, I had a late-night visitor last night. I must’ve overdone it.”
Zoe nodded. “That could be it. They could’ve done something, too.”
Sami made a disgusted sound deep in her throat. “How can it not matter? Rafael is gone. We’ll never get married if they kill him.”
“Then maybe we’ll let them keep him,” Aric suggested, although there was no “oomph” behind the statement.
“Dad!” Sami’s shriek was ear-splitting, causing Gunner and I to shift away from the child we were only moments before praying would be okay.
“Makes parenthood look fun, doesn’t she?” Zoe replied dryly.
“It’s not funny,” Sami shot back. “They came at us fast. They hit us with a bunch of magic. Rafael made me hide under the bed with the kitten.”
My spine stiffened. “Did they take the kitten?”
Sami shook her head. “He’s probably still under the bed. I left him there when I crawled out. I heard ... I heard them doing stuff to Rafael.”
Zoe looked conflicted. “What did we tell you about stuff like this?”
“That I have to worry about myself first, but I can’t always do that.”
“You have to, Sami,” Aric chided. “You’re the most important thing.”
“No.” She fervently shook her head. “It can’t always be about me. I’m supposed to be like Mom. That’s what you want. She’s strong, and she wouldn’t have hidden under the bed while they were hurting Rafael.”
Aric and Zoe exchanged a look and I knew exactly what they were thinking. I also thought it likely that they might be derailed on a tangent and I wanted to make certain that didn’t happen.
“Tell us the rest of it, Sami,” I instructed, taking charge. “You’re okay. Whether mistakes were made, the most important thing is that you’re okay. We need information if we’re going to find Rafael.”
“I don’t know.” Sami looked helpless. She balled her hand into a small fist. She clearly wanted to bash someone – magic, words or hands would do – but that wasn’t currently an option. “They called to him, yelled stuff at him. They called him the world’s best babysitter.”
Zoe’s frown deepened. “Did they act as if they knew him?”
Sami tilted her head and popped her lips, clearly thinking hard. “Maybe. If they did know him, I don’t think it was all that good.”
“Well,” Zoe corrected absently. “They didn’t know him all that well.”
Sami flashed a “you’ve got to be kidding me” look. “Is now really the time for an English lesson?”
“Grammar,” Zoe corrected again. “It’s a grammar lesson but go back to what you were telling us. Did he call anyone by name?”
“I don’t think so. He wouldn’t let me see. He told me to hide under the bed. I didn’t want to. I thought it was best to use the fire that was still burning and set all their asses on fire, but you told me to do what he said.”
“We also told you that swearing isn’t allowed,” Aric pointed out.
Sami stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry. “Mom does it all the time!”
“Well, Mom is going to stop.”
Zoe shook her head. “No, Mom isn’t.” She’d adopted a practical tone that I figured she whipped out whenever the mood struck. “Mom can’t always control what her mouth does. It is what it is.” She lightly knocked her knuckles against Sami’s forehead. “Tell me what happened. Tell me everything you can remember.”
Sami sobered. “There was a lot of talking. They said they wanted the mage. I thought they meant you but—”
“It was you,” Zoe surmised. “It’s okay. We’ve already figured that out. They used Gunner and your dad as fodder to draw us out. I think they believed we would be gone longer than we were. They told Gunner he was going to die, which means he was meant to serve as a distraction.”
“They said Daddy wasn’t coming back at all,” Sami said, her eyes drifting to her father. “I didn’t believe them. I knew Mom would find you.”
Aric shot her an encouraging smile. “She always does. We’re sorry you were left alone. We didn’t think they would make a move like that.”
“I should’ve just burned them all,” Sami muttered darkly. “If I had, Rafael would be okay. Now he’s probably dead.”
“Don’t say that,” Zoe cut in quickly. “We don’t know that. Besides, their initial plan failed. They thought they would kill your dad and Gunner and that would allow them to
