going, and everyone except Tristan protested, but I shut them down by pointing out what I had done today. Mom couldn’t risk going, and Char was sworn to protect her. They would stay with Dorian. So it came down to only Tristan, Owen, and me again. Perfect.
As the three of us prepared to leave the next morning, Julia popped into our living room, dressed in leathers like us.
“I’m going with you,” she announced.
“What?” I demanded. The hell she is!
“I did a little of my own investigating last night and confirmed what I suspected. Nobody knows anything about this witch or this girl,” Julia said. “We have no idea what kind of danger you’re headed for. You’re risking your lives again, and since I can’t stop you, I can protect you.”
I had all kinds of things to say about that, but Tristan squeezed my hand, keeping them from flying out of my mouth.
I don’t trust her, Tristan.
“Me neither. But she won’t leave, and it’s the best solution. Do you want her here with your mother and Dorian? At least she’ll be with us, where we can watch her.”
“Charlotte is here,” Julia continued. “Your mother and son have a warlock and a Lykora, and they’ll be safe in this house. Rina said you need me more. I can’t break her orders, regardless of what you think or want.”
Regardless of the fact Rina’s out of her mind and has no clue what orders she’s giving. I wanted to say it aloud, but didn’t. Tristan made a good point. I’d rather Julia be with us than here. Who knew what she could pull while we were gone? Who knew what we might come back to if we left her here?
“Fine,” I muttered. “Let’s just go.”
Tristan had explained to me that if you had a place on a map to concentrate on, you could flash there, even if you’d never been there before. However, without street names or landmarks, such as in the wilderness, and no coordinates, you might not appear in the exact spot you wanted, possibly as much as a few miles off. So flashing into the middle of the Everglades? Risky, even without considering that we could appear in a snake or alligator pit.
To avoid the chance of us appearing several miles apart, one of us would have to take the lead for the others to follow. I should have been the lead, since I’d seen the place more specifically in Trevor’s mind than a map provided, but none of us, especially me, felt confident in my abilities to lead a flash. So we all lay a hand on Tristan, and without Julia knowing, I shared Trevor’s image with Tristan, and we flashed.
We appeared hip-deep in the middle of a swamp. Well, I was hip-deep. Everyone else was more like knee-deep. The muck at the bottom sucked at my boots as we waded through the reeds to the bank, watching for gators and snakes. As I neared the grassy bank, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Something big and white disappearing into the water about forty yards away. I shivered as my imagination ran wild with visions of enormous anacondas and alligators. Standing on solid ground, I lamented the desecration of my new leather gear, but, to my amazement, it had already dried and returned to perfect condition.
“I’ve been waiting for you, princess,” said a familiar voice with an Australian accent coming through the brush. A bulky figure topped by a bald head emerged from a clump of trees.
“Jax?” I asked, though the answer was obvious. That must have been him, in crocodile form, I’d seen slithering off a few moments ago. He apparently had clothes nearby this time, because now, thank God, he was dressed. “What are you doing here?”
“I think I found the girl you’re looking for.”
“You? Here? But how?” I paused. “Oh, wait. Let me guess. A little birdie told you?”
He grinned, and the scar over his eye crinkled. “She’d spent some time here, and when she flew home, she told me all about it. Including a witch and a little girl she’d met hiding in the middle of the bloody bush—or whatever you call this place.”
“So you came here? I thought you never leave—”
“I couldn’t help it. You struck something in me, princess, and I had to do what I could to help.” He shrugged. “It’s been a ripper of a trip, actually. This place is a lot like Oz, but . . .