"Yep. I think that they've put her in playset jail twice now. It was for cattle rustling last time, I think, Jake had his Cowboy Walk on. I wonder what he's come up with now?” Marc grinned and tossed the towel on the counter, and headed out the door. Faith watched him go and stared at the empty doorway for a long moment after she heard the door close.
Today her life took a significant left turn into the weird and scary. She knew that the world had more things in it than were commonly accepted as 'real'– she herself was a perfect example of that.
"What about Crissy? Where's my sister?" Faith whipped her head back to look at Aldric, who, she just realized, had sat there, patiently waiting for her to return to the moment.
His face fell and he shook his head slowly. "We did not find her, though she did make it as far as returning to the cabin. We went back there when we failed to find her in town and tracked the scents of your sister and three strange wolves as far as the road, but they must have had a car waiting because we lost them there, though we did find Mia, limping back from trying to chase the vehicle so we know what direction they went in. We will keep searching, I promise you. Oh!" Aldric reached into his pocket and leaned to the side to let him pull something out of his pocket. "I packed all of your belongings, as well as Kaylee's. I thought you might want this as soon as possible."
"My phone!" Faith reached out and took it from his hand. Thumbing it awake, she hit the speed dial and called Crissy, impatiently listening to the ringing. "Come on, sis. Answer your phone!"
"Hello, you've reached the phone of Crissy Lath–" Faith hung up and growled as she hit redial. A few minutes later she slumped in her chair, her forehead coming to rest on the cool wood surface of the table. A moment after that, she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.
“As I said, we will keep searching," Aldric said. "We're not giving up."
"Thank you," Faith said without moving her face off the table. "I don't know what to do without Crissy around. Just... just knowing I can call her or whatever. And Kaylee.” She sat up straight and felt that her stare was slightly wild-eyed. “Oh God, how am I going to tell her we can't find her mom?"
Aldric didn't answer her. It was a rhetorical question really, anyway, since it wasn't his problem. It was nice, though, that he sat with her, silently letting her freak out a bit. He left his hand on her shoulder, lending her support and strength.
Faith tried to swallow past the tightness in her throat. Ice crawled through her veins and for a moment it felt like the only place she was at all warm was where Aldric's hand rested on her shoulder.
"I still don't really understand what those things were, or why they were so determined to get us. I mean, I know that mindless monsters and violence are a thing, but… But it’s different seeing it on the news and now Crissy's missing and it’s all real. And then you…” Faith looked over at the man who was offering her support and safety for no reason she could understand. And then there was that other tiny little issue. "You're— Nobody can move that fast. I saw you move too fast."
Aldric nodded, then sighed and glanced around the kitchen. "I think we both have some things to talk about. I promise you, I will keep your confidences to myself, but before you are willing to trust me with any of your secrets, I understand if you need to hear mine. Though here, among my clan mates, I have nothing to hide. They already know everything I'm about to reveal to you. But perhaps you don't wish to have this conversation where we could be overheard."
He wanted to know about her magic. That was the only thing she could think of, and at this point it seemed fair. She knew he was implying that he hadn't told anyone about it, which made no sense to her but she wasn't going to complain. He was attractive, generous, and had saved her life and Kaylee's. He had given them a place to recover, sheltered her niece from the worst of the situation by bringing them here where another kid was, and had gone out of his way to make sure they were both comfortable in their surroundings.
He already knew that she had some magic, after all, and it's not like she had a lot of it. And he clearly had some magic or something of his own.
Faith nodded. "Okay. Where should we talk?"
"We can go to my room. The clan knows not to bother me when the door is closed, and we can have some privacy." He grimaced and his tone turned wry. “If we sit in my office, we are likely to be interrupted every five minutes with someone’s complaint of problem.”
“Sounds difficult to get any work done,” Faith said with a raised brow.
Aldric shrugged. “It is in part my duty to solve their problems, I grant you. It does, however make it difficult to have an entire private conversation.”
“Well, then. Your room it is.”
Faith stood, and with her phone held in her fist so tightly that her knuckles turned white, she followed him out of the kitchen and to the stairs.
When they got there, Aldric lifted the duffel bag off the desk chair where he had apparently left it earlier and moved it to the bed, before taking the seat he had cleared. Faith felt cautious, but went right to her bag and zipped it open to glance through the contents. Everything was neatly packed, but it seemed to have
