Conall shook his head. “No. Everything’s been quiet. And I have a feeling Patricia would call you first.”
My jaw tightened again, my chest heavy. There was little in this world that annoyed me more than waiting. But Briar wasn’t the only thing we were searching for. “What about Cormac? Has he checked in?”
“He texted last night. They know they’re close but always one step behind the Cure. Humans move, and the Cure is human.” Conall gestured with his chin as he walked into the main section of the cabin. “Could you grab me water from the refrigerator before you come sit down?”
“Could I…?” I glanced around, spotted what looked to be a refrigerator, and opened it, finding a bottle of water. “Just this?”
“And a glass,” he said, sliding into the seat by the table.
“No whiskey this morning?” I said with a smile I didn’t feel.
“Not all of us are you.”
I walked to the table and sat down, handing him the water and exhaling sharply. I stared at my hands, picking at my fingernails, pulling at them hard enough to feel a sting. “This is hopeless. What are we even doing?”
He twisted the cap, the crack of the breaking seal echoing through the cabin. “Right now,” he said, “we’re going to keep looking for Briar.”
My phone rang. I jumped at the noise, although it was the best sound I could hear. “Hello?” I barely pronounced the word at all.
“Lorcan, it’s Patricia.”
I straightened, glancing at Conall. My breath hitched, and my pulse played like a rapid drumbeat in my ears. “Oh, thank God. Tell me you’ve found something.”
Patricia got straight to the point. “We finally confirmed she got off the train in Edinburgh. She didn’t go all the way to Aberdeen.”
Relief and frustration tangled inside me, and I bit my lip. Why had she gone there? She was so close, yet still slipping away from me.
“We’re calling every hotel now, trying to figure out where she might have stayed,” Patricia continued. “We’ve also confirmed that she uses cash, so watching her accounts has been useless. And she isn’t making reservations until just hours before she gets somewhere. I don’t know if she is trying to stay hidden or unsure of her agenda.”
My teeth tightened on the lip held between them until the metallic tang of blood hit my tongue. Did she know we would try to find her? “Thank you, Patricia. If you find anything else, let me know immediately.”
“We will, Lorcan. As soon as we know more.”
I hung up and raised my eyes to Conall.
The resignation on his face screamed he had heard the conversation. “So now what?”
I stared at the phone in my hand, my mind racing. The stale air of the plane hit my lungs again, making my stomach churn. There had to be something we could do instead of waiting next to the phone. I raked my fingers through my hair as I tried to understand the significance of Edinburgh, but nothing came to mind. Where was she? Maybe I didn’t know her as well as I thought. “I know she isn’t there anymore, but you were right. We need to go to Harrowmont Hall and the hotel where she stayed. I swear I will compel every person who saw her to piece together her next steps.”
The curtain beside Joshua’s bed slid open, and the vampire appeared, his hair ragged. “I guess I’ll wake Zadie and get her started on the flight plan while I make tea.” He sighed as he walked toward the cockpit.
Conall pressed his lips together.
It was nearly evening when I stood in the stark lobby of the inn Patricia told us Briar had stayed in. It had taken hours to get the flight plan to Manchester approved, then equally long to drive to Harrowmont Hall. No one there remembered seeing Briar, let alone knowing where she went.
But here… A clerk cowered in front of me, his back pressed against a sterile white wall, his eyes darting to the desk I had jumped in a single leap. My pupils dilated as I focused on his eyes. The sharp scent of fear clung to him, his breath turning shallow as my will curled around his thoughts. He shivered, fighting at first until his shoulders relaxed, becoming almost limp.
I snarled. “That’s better. Let’s try this again. Where did Briar go? What was she talking about?”
The man shook his head. “I don’t know. When she arrived, she mentioned this one ancestor, the woman the Harrowmonts had erased from their history. You know, the one convicted of murder.”
“Go on.” I bared my teeth.
The man swallowed. “She kept muttering to herself, asking why she was here. Why was she trying to learn about a woman everyone wanted to forget? I think she felt like people were trying to push her away. The next day, when I came in, she was gone. The night manager said she checked out early to go to the train station, headed north. I don’t know if she knew exactly where she was going.”
Conall stepped forward, the sound causing me to glance over my shoulder. “Brother, look at him. He knows nothing.”
I clenched my jaw. Another dead end. A waste of time. Every second Briar was out of my reach, the knot in my chest twisted tighter. I grabbed the man by his shirt as I stared into his eyes. There was something he had said. “You said people were pushing her away. What did she say?”
