“Okay,” I said, shrugging. “At this point, I’m willing to listen to any plan.”
“If the Fae have your sons, I have a suggestion.” Kaz’s usually mischievous expression was serious. “Get Doug to come to us. If we go on the offensive, they will have every advantage, especially if we pursue them to their home turf. If we could get them to come here and let them imagine they have the stronger hand, we stand a much better chance of getting Harper and Thatcher home.”
“Call everyone you know,” added Wes.
“I started to do that,” I said, as we turned and headed to the farmhouse. I paused with my foot on the lowest step. “I asked my friend, Jack, to help. He’s an officer in the RCMP. He’s also a shifter.”
“Where’s Christoph?” asked Wes.
“He flew to the burial mounds to portal back to my house.” I explained my reasoning as I opened the screen door.
“Who else could we call?”
I shrugged. “Not sure, but I’m relieved you’re on board with the idea. I texted James, but I think speaking with him would be helpful. The Brodeurs should be able to keep Leilani and Sallie safe. I’ll ask Rowan to alert Shamaha, in case Sallie needs more help.”
“Let me call James,” said Wes.
Walking around the druid and into the house, I surveyed what I could see of the shadowed interior. The kitchen table was too small for all of us to gather. The sitting room was stuffed with formal furniture dating from the nineteen-hundreds. The room was spacious, however, and the floor was covered with rectangular hooked rugs. We could move the furniture against the walls. Perfect.
“Let’s work from here,” I said, pointing past the hallway and entering the room on the right. I stepped around the rugs on my way to opening the curtains. “I have another call to make. I’d like to see if Alabastair’s available. He’s a Portal Keeper. He could move people out quickly or…” Remembering how he’d whisked me away from Doug and Roger reminded me of Alabastair’s physical strength.
My musings were met by silence. I was the only one in the room. The rest were clustered in the doorway and into the hall.
“What?” I asked.
Peasgood wiggled through to the front, took one step into the sitting room, and raised an arm. “If I might speak?”
“I’ll take any input right now. Anything at all.”
He cleared his throat. “Peasgood and I know this property better than anyone, aside from Gramp and Grams, and we have some ideas about how to utilize that knowledge.”
My stomach gurgled, letting me know the sandwich the guys had ordered for me was still in its wrapper, in my bag. “Okay.” This time around, we wouldn’t have Tanner or his ability to smash rocks or his wolf. “How about we meet here in fifteen minutes? Can you two contact your parents while they’re in transit?” I pointed to the sisters. “And can they even get here today?”
“Portals,” Wes said. “We can get them here through the portals. Kaz?”
Kaz squeezed through the crowd.
“Go check the status of the known tree and locate other possibilities,” said Wes. “Belle? With your connection to the LaFleur clan, I’d like for you to stay close to Néne and Sil. Is that acceptable?”
They all nodded. Sil spoke up, “The Fae took our jewelry, which is what allows us to contact our parents. But we phoned our cousins this morning. They can get another message out.”
“It would help if your parents were not coming in and expecting a fight with us,” I said. “And why are all of you standing in the hallway?”
That broke the tension. Kaz peeled away. Belle, Néne, and Sil converged on the couch and hovered over a cell phone. Wes caught my gaze then beckoned me into the hall and out the front door.
“Do you want me to try to reach Tanner?” he asked.
“You know he’s on his own search-and-rescue mission in France,” I said.
“Then I need to survey what each of us can do and figure out how our skills can work together. Kaz and I have been a team for as long as I’ve known him. River too. We have to get this group battle-ready within the next few hours.” Wrinkles mapped Wes’s forehead and the outer corners of his eyes. My predicament was responsible for at least half of them.
“I’m terrified, Wes,” I admitted. “The night of my party? What we pulled off feels like a fluke, and if Meribah comes for us again, she’ll come pre-loaded to combat whatever we can throw at her. At them.”
“Then it’s our job to fight smarter, fight with our heads.” He put his hands on his hips, looked at the trees crowding the sides of the long driveway, the cloudless sky, scuffed his toes in the dirt under our boots. “People we love are our blind spots. Meribah—and Doug—will count on you to lead with your heart. Instead, I want you to use your heart. Connect with every natural element on this land that responds to you. You’re Calliope Jones, Earth Witch. Pull on your Blood Blessing, pull on the vines that do your bidding. Use your connection to the very ground we are standing on.”
Wes’s observation struck a chord that resonated into my marrow. It was incumbent upon me to embrace what I was becoming. I was playing the part of the frantic mother, but I was more than that, more than who I used to be.
He scratched at his head. “These Fae, the Flechettes, they’re after land. They want access to the portals. If they take this orchard and the one near Brooks Farm, they’ll have access to the tunnels, more natural resources, more commerce, more Magicals. River, Kaz, Tanner, and I have been watching the earth’s magic get drained away—if not destroyed—at the hands of those who don’t understand or choose to ignore that when you take without putting back something of equal or greater value, resources dwindle. We’ve
