Fred’s eyes widened, looking like glowing lanterns in the dim light. “Who would be fool enough to call a fallen angel to this side? To destroy us? Not a human!”
Part of his charm was his belief in the humans, as if they were innocent children and not capable of making the same mistakes as an abnormal.
“I don’t think anyone called them out of the ether. I think they fell, Fred, they fell from grace.” His jaw dropped and I gave a slow nod, then took another sip of my tea. “I have a tablet from the facility I was in. I need to crack it. Is Harden still around?”
Fred blew out a slow breath. “If he is, Rio would know.”
How was I not surprised? I was being pushed toward Rio on all fronts, it seemed.
He looked down. “I tried to help at first, but it was chaos in the early months. So many of ours went missing and I didn’t know . . . I just didn’t know what to do.”
I reached over and put a hand on his trembling fingers. “Fred, Killian told me once that he believes that people are put into play every second of the day. Even if we don’t understand how the things we do will spool out or where the ripples will land. There’s a pattern to it. Maybe you hid because I would need you now. Because I need Cowboy and you saved him. I don’t know if Killian was right, but I also don’t think he was wrong.”
Fred gripped my fingers. “He chose well in you, Nix.”
I smiled. “I miss him.”
Those words fell from my lips, and then they trembled and I caught myself fighting tears. I did miss him. I missed him like I had cut off an arm and tossed it away. Only I hadn’t been the one to toss it. Part of me knew he thought I was dead. He wouldn’t have let them take me otherwise. The other part of me said to stop being stupid, that anyone was capable of breaking trust.
“Do you . . .” I had to stop and catch myself. Ruby laid her head on my lap and I dropped a hand to her, needing her comfort. “Do you know what happened? How was he taken?”
Fred blew out a breath. “We all thought you were dead, you understand? He said you died delivering your girl, and he was taking the children to Ireland—”
I put up a hand to stop him, staring at him as if I were not sure I wasn’t dreaming. “What did you say?”
He blinked a couple times. “Ah, well, that you died delivering—”
“No. You said . . . children. Plural.” I couldn’t breathe while he reached for me and took my hands in his.
“Your daughter . . . she survived, Nix. Killian took her and Bear and ran for Europe as the purge hit.”
Hot and cold, I couldn’t understand how I could be both at the same time, but the two sensations roared through me, his words burning into my mind.
My daughter had survived.
19
I clutched at Fred’s fingers as tightly as I could without hurting him. “Say it again. Please.”
He smiled at me, his face wrinkling. “Good news is worth hearing twice, I agree. Your daughter survived. Killian took her and Bear and fled to Europe. I don’t even know her name. He kept it all as hushed as he could.”
I couldn’t move. I lowered my head to the table and let the tears flow. My baby . . . I hadn’t been allowed to grieve her, so I had pushed all thoughts of her down deep, and now she was alive? She’d be a year old.
Maybe she’d be walking? Had she said her first word? “She won’t know me,” I whimpered. I fucking whimpered but I didn’t care. Pain lanced through me. Bad enough that I’d been taken from Bear again, another year together swept away on the tides of fate. But he’d known I would come for him. He believed in me.
What did my girl have of me? Nothing, no memory, no connection.
Rage began to boil through my blood, tempering the grief, hardening it into a killing steel.
I slowly raised my head as the tears dried on my cheeks.
Fred gave me a tight smile. “That is the Phoenix we have all feared. You will destroy them now?”
“Every last one of those feathered motherfuckers.” I stood and paced the room. “Is there another way out of here?”
Change of plans. I would go to the Empire State Building now.
He watched me. “There is. Are you going to Rio first? He’s the only one left with connections.”
I nodded. “Not first. But I’ll go to him. Then I’ll be back for Cowboy. Either to bury him or take him with me.”
Fred sighed. “I wish you wouldn’t leave me with an injured half-demon. They can be . . . difficult when they wake up in an unfamiliar place.”
He went to his medicine cabinet and dug through it. “Here, take these with you. Rio asked for them, last I heard. You can be my delivery girl.”
I arched my eyebrows at the three small stones. “What are they?”
He grinned. “Ah, I’ll let you ask him. That would be worth seeing from a distance.” He plucked a piece of paper from a drawer and scribbled down an address. “Here. He has an ability with the dead, so be careful. He is not strong like the others, but he has numbers now that he is the only one left.”
“Is he a dick?”
Fred tipped his head and let out a breath. “Yes. And no. He will see reason, I think.”
And if Rio didn’t see reason, I would find someone who did. He would either play by my rules or he’d be
