he was the only one I trusted to be my lookout. “Be careful.”
Sarah opened the door to her home but didn’t step inside. “Is Mia upstairs?”
Lee nodded. He almost always knew where Mia was. She was his best friend, the only one who could sometimes control my reckless son. “We all know something’s going on. Well, Rhys doesn’t really. He thinks I’m being a weirdo, and Evan is watching cartoons. But Mia believes me.”
“I’m going to talk to her.” Sarah turned my way. “Z, do whatever you need to do however you need to do it. I’ve got your back on this.”
I knew she did. I was also grateful to her for letting me have this moment alone with my father and son. We walked into the apartment and I sank down to the couch. I took a deep breath as Dad and Lee sat on either side of me.
“Your father has been missing since last night,” I explained because we were obviously past covering this thing up.
“Devinshea didn’t come home?” my father asked.
“We know he made it into the building.” I explained the situation to him and I could see my father’s brain working.
I was the queen of the supernatural world, but I felt better with my dad here. My dad had taught me everything I knew about stealing arcane objects and keeping my head attached to my body while I did it. Years had passed since my last heist, and it would be good to have Dad’s input.
Lee leaned toward me, his voice kept low. “You think the wizard did something to Papa? Kelsey doesn’t like him. She wants me to stay away from him. I thought maybe it was because he doesn’t like humans, but it’s more than that.”
It was so much more. “Yes, baby. There’s a reason you need to stay away from him.”
“I’d like to know that reason very much, but I understand you’re under a deadline.” My father’s intelligent eyes were on me. “I take it you’re going to try to steal the wizard’s grimoire so you can figure out why Danny turns into a bootlicking idiot whenever the man walks in the room?”
My father has always been observant, but I was a bit shocked because he often didn’t see Daniel’s flaws. He saw every single one of Dev’s, but Danny had always been his favorite. “Caught that, huh?”
“I did and that’s not natural. And before you tell me I shouldn’t be saying these things in front of the lad, you should know that he’s the one who pointed out the problem,” my dad admitted.
“Dad acts weird around the wizard.” Lee sat back and looked fairly comfortable for a kid discussing his father’s disappearance. Of course I knew why. He had something to do, even if it was merely plotting and planning. “What does Kelsey think?”
I hated that I had to tell him about Kelsey. Lee adores her. He lights up when the Nex Apparatus walks in a room. She’s Lee Owen’s daughter. My Lee’s soul recognizes her. “We sent her to search for Dev. She went missing, too. And Marcus.”
My father’s eyes flared, and he sent me a look that let me know he understood how important those three people were to Daniel.
I reached out and squeezed my son’s hand. “But we’re going to find him. I promise. I won’t stop until I do. There’s something weird about the building lately. Your Aunt Sarah says it feels off to her. Have you heard anything?”
As long as he was here, I was going to use his skills. He usually knew all the gossip.
“Mia hasn’t felt well since he moved in. She’s not sick, exactly. She told me she feels weird and she doesn’t feel it when we’re at school. It’s when she walks into the building. Don’t get mad at her for not telling her mom. She thought it might be something to do with…female stuff, and she says those conversations are always embarrassing. What kind of female stuff do you think she means?”
I was not going into that with him, but it was obvious Sarah shouldn’t have teased her daughter about becoming a woman as hardcore as she had. She’d had a mini period party complete with red confetti-filled balloons she’d popped and explained to Mia that was the way it would be for the rest of her life. Well, at least until she got old and her ovaries then tried to murder her.