I could only nod and point to the Jeep. The windows next to the front seats were down, two painfully familiar backpacks still in the back seat and both cell phones connected to the charger. I jogged around the car, not knowing what I was looking for, when Wes called out.
“Calli, c’mere.” He crouched near a back tire and pointed. “Look. The leather bands we made. Cut off. Same with their amulets. And the portal stones are crushed.” He squinted up at me. “Either whoever took the boys sliced off the bands, or your sons left them deliberately.”
“If Harp and Thatch cut them off, what does that mean? Why would they do that? They could have used the stones to get home.”
“And whoever took the boys could use the stones to bypass the wards and get to your house.” Wes poked through the broken bits with the tip of his knife then lifted the leather strips.
“It was Doug,” I said. “Doug took them. The kid in there said he saw their father pull up, argue with the boys, and then they all drove away in the same white truck.” I spun around, surveying the packed dirt of the parking area. “What the hell do I do now?”
Wes had the Jeep’s driver’s-side door open. “Let’s take their things and leave a note. I’ll tell the kid in there you had a family emergency and ask if we can leave the Jeep here.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding and jangling my keychain. “I’ve got a spare key. And I need a minute to think.”
Chapter 19
Standing still might work for meditation, but it sure as shit wasn’t working for problem-solving of this magnitude. Wes jogged back to me.
“Can you call Rowan?” I asked. “I don’t think there’s anything she can do, but—”
“Already done. I’m calling the Pearmain house now.” Wes had his phone to his ear.
I mimed him hanging up. “Before you do that, can you call Ro again? Ask her if Lolly Brooks is human or Magical.”
“Lolly who?” he asked, stepping into the shaded side of the car and tapping his phone.
“Brooks. Lolly Brooks. Her family owns the farm where Harper and Thatcher work, and she’s a patient of Rowan’s.”
Who to call next?
“Kerry. It’s Calli. Something’s come up with my kiddos.” And I can’t explain it to you right now. Maybe not ever. “Forget about taking those soil samples to Dr. Rowan’s clinic. I need you to keep the office open. I’ll send over someone else to pick up the kit.”
I was desperate to know if the soil samples could be tested using magical means. I called Rose, knowing I was making a big ask to someone I barely knew. “Rose. It’s Calliope. The Fae have my sons. And I need a favor. Do you know if L’Runa or any other Magical on the island has the ability to test soil samples for blood and DNA and memories?”
Oh my Goddess, what I was asking for was impossible. I wanted to know if dirt could hold memories.
“Of course she can,” Rose said, in her implacable way. “As can I. Although separating memories takes about as long as unpacking the DNA. Where are the samples, and when do you need the results?”
“They’re in a canvas bag at my office in Ganges. My assistant is there now. Her name is Kerry Pippin, and she works until four. I need the results yesterday, but what I really need to know is what’s in the sample on top.”
“I will go myself and call you as soon as I have any information.”
“Thank you, Rose.”
“Did you say Kerry Pippin was your assistant?”
“Yes,” I answered, that familiar sensation of waiting at the edge of cliff rocking bringing me onto my toes. “Why?”
“Could be nothing. I’ll speak more about the Pippins, depending on what I find when I meet this Kerry.”
Fuck. What if Kerry was like Jack, able to hide her Magical status behind a wall of scent?
I was adding a mumbled “Thank you” as Rose disconnected our call.
“Rowan says as far as she knows, the Brooks family is human, though unseen Magicals could be working the farm, much like the hidden folk work with the orchards. She also emphasized Lolly was a new patient and all Ro did was help deliver her baby.” Wes opened the passenger’s-side door, withdrew his backpack, and held out my gauntlets and wand. “I grabbed these before I left,” he said. “Christoph should be here any minute.”
“He’s up there in broad daylight?” I was two steps behind following Wes’s report and trying to recall if Kerry smelled like anything memorable. “Wes, I…”
I took my wand and gauntlets and made no move to pocket the one or don the other. Wes then offered me an energy snack ball, the ones made from seeds and dates and I didn’t know what else.
But I didn’t eat raw snacks. They gave me a stomachache. “No, thanks. Not hungry.”
“Calli, it’s not edible. This is a pelote, made from soil taken from the base of your crabapple tree. We made extra. I texted our coordinates to Christoph, and he’s using one to get to me—us.”
Sure. I believed a little ball studded with seeds could transport a one-hundred-seventy pound man, one-eighty-five with wings. Until the suction of the insta-portal pressed my workday uniform of short-sleeved shirt and cargo pants to my body. Wes’s clothes were doing the same.
Christoph blinked into being next to Wes, bumping his knee on the car door.
“Ouch.” He bent to rub his leg and stared at me. “Short of hitchhiking, I had no other way to get to you.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” I said, stroking the ruffled feathers poking out in odd directions from one wing. Having Christoph with us meant there was no one at the house. I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea.
“Calliope, I didn’t have a chance to explain how your father’s rings work.” He showed
