I knew Simone was a mermaid princess, but I had no idea that she was capable of this.
“Th-thank you,” I croaked low and in a whisper to her.
“Of course.” Simone gave me a soft and easy smile, but the concern was glistening in her stormy gray eyes. “Did you do all of this? Is that why your knuckles were covered in blood?”
I nodded, emotions clogging my throat and stopping me from speaking.
Cody whistled as he looked around.
“Q, what the fuck happened?” Cole asked. “What is going on? Nat said that you lost Byrd?”
I sent my head back against the tree, staring up at the sky above. Tears stung my eyes again and trailed down my cheeks just thinking of reliving the story all over again. But, I launched into telling them everything that had happened. My voice cracked while I talked about seeing Byrd vanish. I was grateful that it didn’t take long to get them all caught up.
“Well, this is officially the worst Christmas ever.” Nat crossed her arms and sighed.
“How could this have happened?” Cole asked, running his hand through his longish, dark blond hair while shaking his head. Ever the good hunter, his soft blue eyes scanned the woodline surrounding us as if the assailant would pop out again at any moment. I kept doing the same thing, even though I knew it wouldn’t help. Hunters could usually sense supernaturals from miles away. It was a feeling we got, like knowing someone was watching you or feeling another presence close by in a house, but it would give us a ton of information about the kind of supe they were. But I didn’t get anything from Byrd’s kidnapper. Even if they were using magic to teleport, I could usually sensethem. From this, I got nothing. I had told the others as much, which had made Cole scrunch his eyebrows. He continued, “How did we not sense someone? How did they get past all of our defenses?”
“Defenses? What defenses?” Simone questioned.
“There’s a spell on the grounds here. It’s powerful witch-fae magic, actually. It’s similar to Byrd’s Aunt Talli’s house.” Maisie explained. “Only those allowed in can enter the property, I’m pretty sure. You have to have permission from a family member of the owner, right?”
I nodded, unsure if my voice was gone after everything that had transpired, if my throat was sore, or if I was just scared that if I did speak again, it would just be wails of agony.
“So, how did someone get through if it wasn’t one of us?” Nat said.
“Could it be—?” Simone started.
Cole shook his head. “No, it wasn’t Cooper. He was next to us the entire time inside the house. He didn’t step away once the whole time.”
“What about earlier? Could he have made a call or something?” Maisie asked.
“Not unless he and Mom are in cahoots with each other. She was the only one with him the whole time?—”
“Fucking cahoots? What is this,Scooby-Doo?” Cody looked over at Nat with a raised eyebrow from where he was crouched near the path of blood.
Byrd’s blood path.
“Bite me, Cody.” Nat flicked him off.
I tightened my grip around Tina’s hilt and my thinning hold on the last bit of my patience. I could feel my rage flaring up within me like someone was quickly fanning a flame. My voice surged forward, and it was the first time tonight that it didn’tbreak with emotion. “Knock it the fuck off, the both of you! We don’t have time for this.”
I wasn’t sure if it was the tone of my voice or something else, but Nat and Cody flinched before looking down and away from me. I fucking hated seeing that. It reminded me of my father, the tyrant. I never wanted to be anything like him. But I wasn’t myself right now.
Cole gave me a look that I couldn’t quite interpret before saying. “Quinn is right. This couldn’t have been Cooper. His power is over guns. The dumbass is terrible with anything sharp, honestly.”
“How does one have ‘power’ over guns?” Maisie asked without looking up from Byrd’s blood near Cody. Her eyes blazed a neon purple bright enough to see through the darkness of the night, and glittery sparkles overflowed. This was only the second time I had seen her in action, the first being when she sent Byrd’s mom home. I could tell she was using a fraction of her magical power, but I could still feel it. It danced down my skin like a staticky chill.
“Hunters all have powers, babycakes,” Cody explained, the nickname eliciting a glare from Maisie. The two had quite the situationship. They fucked like rabbits and both had huge commitment issues that would make a therapist drool at the chance to make a fortune from them, but there was a weird caring connection between them. You could tell they hate-fucked, but there was still a tenderness to the edge of their glares and insults toward each other.
Cody continued despite Maisie staring holes into his skull. “Every hunter is born with a unique skill or ability. It enhances our hunting. For instance, I can track anyone and anything to the ends of the earth. Natty over here knows how to create a poison strong enough to kill anything. Cole is the deadliest thing in the water, including the Megladon and other bullshit we haveyet to discover down there. Cooper is a force to be reckoned with a gun, able to aim and take out his target easily. Quinn over here can take a hit better than any of us and is pretty good with knives and anything sharp. Honestly, we have long argued which is her actual power.”
Simone stepped in. “Then, you can track Byrdie, right?”
Cody’s ever-persistent smirk fell, and his mouth became a straight line. It was a dangerously rare occurrence that made my stomach plummet through the snow. “Unfortunately, no. For me, Byrd’s trail ends here. I don’t see any roads beyond this like I usually do.”
“Maisie?”
Maisie’s mouth set into a straight line just like Cody’s at Simone’s question. She concentrated hard on Byrd’s blood and beyond where she had disappeared on me. Her eyes grew so bright, so brilliant a purple that they were almost white. Then, she slammed her eyes closed suddenly, shrouding all of us in darkness instantly. When she opened her eyes again, they were back to being their dark-brown-almost-black that I could only see in the dark of the night because of my supernatural vision. Maisie shook her head, staring long and hard at the blood like it were a difficult math problem that she had been trying to solve for ages.
