“Right, I want to get a start on these books,” Raiden says, still smiling as he begins to stand up.
Ransom nods, “Yeah, I need to go and work on the wards. They’re still giving me some trouble, and it’s starting to drive me a bit crazy trying to figure out why they aren’t working.”
“Wait,” Griff says, looking at me, he asks, “you never told us why you were going to kick yourself?”
“Oh shit, yeah,” River says, looking at me expectantly. He adds, trying not to laugh, “I can’t believe you kicked yourself in the head.”
“Well, to be fair, I didn’t know that I could still do that,” I retort and then add, “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”
Coen grins, “No, Love. You’re absolutely not going to live it down.”
Smirking, Evander interrupts, before I can retort, “Nene, focus, why were you kicking yourself in the first place?”
“Oh, right, yeah,” I reply, as I try to organize my thoughts, to get me back to where I was originally going before I got distracted by whether I could kick myself. “My finding ability, I can use it to find Pete.”
Realization dawns on everyone’s expressions.
“I have no idea why we didn’t think about using your finding ability to locate Pete,” Reed says. “We’ve used it several times now, so it’s not like it’s rarely used, and we’ve forgotten about it.”
I nod, “Now you know why I wanted to kick myself,” I say with a smug smile that I’m not entirely sure the situation warrants.
“Well, go on then. If we know where he is, then we can ask him a few questions. He’s going to know more than anyone about angels, he is mated to one,” Raiden says, excitement and a thirst for knowledge filling his eyes.
I nod.
Despite the small thread of nerves that moves through me at the thought of actually coming face to face with Pete as my father, I call on my magic.
Specifically, my tracking magic.
Focusing, I ask it to find Pete and bring an image of him into my mind. It buzzes, getting ready to do as I’ve asked, and I feel it build like it normally does just before a map appears, but this time, nothing happens, and it fizzles out.
I frown.
It doesn’t feel the same as it does when it’s not working. When I called on it to help me work a case when I was working with HID, it didn’t even stir. That’s not happening now, it’s like it’s trying to do what I’ve asked, and it can’t for some reason.
“It’s not working,” I tell the guys who are all watching me curiously. “I can’t find him.”
Doc hesitates and then asks gently, “Could it be because he’s dead?”
The others give him sharp looks in admonishment, which are unnecessary. I appreciate that Doc asked.
I shake my head, “No. I can usually still find people even if they are dead. It’s like what happened on the pack land. I could see Asher’s light, and then I could see it fading, so I knew that we needed to get to him quickly. If he were dead, if any of them were dead, then I would have known. “
“Okay, so that’s not the reason that you can’t find him then,” Ransom says, looking thoughtful.
“Didn’t you say that it doesn’t always work?” Griff asks.
I nod, “Yeah, but that was before my supernatural side came out fully, and it hasn’t given me any trouble for a while now, not since I used it to help me find this place.”
“Well, I’ve got no clue then,” Coen says.
“It’s certainly odd that it’s not working for Pete, although he did manage to hide the fact that he was a supernatural from you. So there's a chance that he’s somehow cloaking himself well enough that you can’t find him,” Raiden suggests. His eyebrows are drawn down slightly as he tries to puzzle it out.
“That’s true,” River agrees.
“I would be inclined to agree if it weren’t for the fact that I saw through Navy’s very strong cloaking that none of you did. So wouldn’t that mean that my tracking ability is able to see through strong cloaking and glamor too?” I ask.
“Usually it would, but we’re playing with a lot of unknowns at the moment,” Doc points out. “We don’t know if the same applies to your magic. You’re not a supernatural that any of us have encountered before.”
