The Hunt (By Kiss and Claw #2) - Melissa Haag Page 0,92
I didn’t know what I was looking for. I cried and held my stomach, so hungry and desperate for relief.
My phone rang, waking me with tears in my eyes. I wiped them away and looked at the name before answering.
“You have three seconds to tell me what’s really going on with you before I fury my ass to Uttira and shake it out of you.”
“Uh? Hello?”
“Don’t you hello me. Your mom called me, Eliana. She told me some of what’s been going on. Mrs. Quill stopped feeding you? Adira’s been manipulating the hell out of you? The brownie masturbated in your mouth? That’s the kind of shit that friends talk about.”
The rage left her tone.
“Aren’t we still friends? Did you break up with me when I left?”
I choked on a laugh through my tears.
“Your mom admitted that she’s been messing up, too,” Megan continued. “She told me about the gifts she gave you and how the mermaids are bullying you to the point that one of them cut you. Why didn’t you tell me it was so bad?”
The hunger and pain still rippling through me was nothing compared to the ache the sound of her compassion evoked.
“I thought I could be like you and deal with it. But I didn’t. I screwed up, Megan. I screwed up so bad that I’m pretty sure you’re going to drag me to hell the minute you see me.” The pain in my middle grew. “Ashlyn’s missing. I asked some druids to do a spell to get rid of my mom, but instead, Ashlyn disappeared because she was there with me. She’s been missing for over a week now.”
I wasn’t sure she could understand me through my crying.
“Start from the beginning and tell me everything.”
“After Mom slipped two boys in my bed, I knew I couldn’t deal with her helpfulness on top of Adira’s manipulations. I tried asking Mom to leave, but she wouldn’t. I know she loves me, but sometimes it’s too much. She wasn’t helping. She was making it worse. I was talking to Ashlyn about it at the Roost, and some druids overheard. They said that they knew a spell that would place Mom outside the barrier. They said they’d used it before and promised that no one would get hurt. I believed them. And with Mom’s invitation to Uttira only temporary, it sounded like a good idea. Once she was out, she wouldn’t be able to get back in.
“So last Monday, they cast the spell in the aquatics bathroom. I was there to speak my Mom’s name as part of the spell. Ashlyn didn’t trust the druids and came along to support me even though she thought the spell was a bad idea.”
“Everything went the way the druids said it would go. They chanted, the fire changed colors, and I said my mom’s name. That was it. But when I looked at the door where Ashlyn had been standing, she was gone. At first, I thought she’d just slipped out. But when she wasn’t in independent studies, I began to worry. I told Adira. She said she would have the new liaison officer look for Ashlyn. She even has Raiden searching Uttira, but he hasn’t found her.
“I tracked down the druids and told them to figure out what happened to Ashlyn. They’ve cast spells looking for her, even one to see if she’s dead, but she’s not. She’s just not anywhere they can locate her. It’s like something is hiding her. They think it’s possible that it’s another druid but don’t know for sure. She’s gone because of me, Megan. What if she’s hurt?”
“Then I’m holding the druids responsible, not you. You didn’t cast the spell. They did. They shouldn’t have meddled with things they didn’t understand. Was all that stuff about me figuring out why the banshees were screaming just a way to keep me from coming home?”
“Mostly no. I don’t trust Adira to find actual answers about anything. Ashlyn’s missing. Banshees are screaming, and do you know what Adira’s worried about? Why I ditched class, who I’m with, and why I’m not showing up to her stupid dinners.”
I wiped under my nose.
“Yes, you might want to swoop in and save your friend from a few tears, but I trust you to put the needs of all living things before your own personal wants. Unlike Adira.”
Megan snorted.
“Shows what you know. I’d damn the world for you, Eliana.”
I heard the rumble of Oanen’s voice in the background.