Witching Time (The Wild Hunt #14) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,51

they were back at the house, the dog at their heels.

Kipa slipped his arm around my waist. “So, what do we do now?”

“Wager’s worried, so there must be bad news about this place. Tonight, we search for Aida’s body and whatever else we can find. And I hope to hell that we don’t meet more than we can cope with.” As I glanced at the sky, the lightning broke again, illuminating the dusk, and thunder rattled the ground around us. I shivered, the distinct impression washing over me that we were about to go swimming in a pool full of sharks.

Chapter Eleven

Once Rain and the kids, along with the dog and both cats, were bundled off to Vixen’s house, Kipa, Llew, Jordan, and I gathered near the center of the fair. With Jordan a tiger shifter and Llew one of the magic-born, I thought they could probably hold their own. We would search in pairs, and the two of them could protect each other—Jordan with his strength, Llew with his magic.

“Can your men help us?” I asked Kipa.

He nodded. “They’ll be here shortly.”

Sure enough, he had barely finished speaking when six husky men leapt out of nowhere, appearing at his heels. They were the elite of the elite, always at the Wolf Lord’s beck and call. He motioned for them to join our huddled circle beneath one of the awnings.

“All right. We’re looking for the remains of a fourteen-year-old girl. She probably died back in 1978 or so. Our primary goal tonight is to find her body. However, if you encounter anything else strange—any sub-Fae or other creatures like that—and can safely catch them, do so. If they’re big and bad, call for help.” I looked around the farm. “There’s a lot of acreage to search. My guess is the remains are hidden. If they weren’t, they would have been found years ago. So let’s get moving. Look in any nook and cranny you find.”

We spread out. Kipa kept me with him, but we reassigned Jordan and Llew so they were split up, each going with one of Kipa’s guards. That just seemed the safest idea.

As we began the search, flashlights and walking sticks in hand, it occurred to me how often people went missing, and how many were just forgotten. Over 600,000 people in the United States vanished every year, both human and otherwise, and over 60,000 to 80,000 were never found. They were labeled cold cases, runaways, or they had just mysteriously disappeared. He got lost in the woods…she ran off into the streets…the kid was abducted and is now on the back of a milk carton… The thought was overwhelming. A moderate-size city of people, just gone, without leaving a trace.

Reeling with the numbers, I glanced up at Kipa. “Do you think we’ll be able to find her?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Is there anything you can do magically that will help?”

I thought for a moment and then nodded. “I’ve got a spell that might help.” I stood back, focusing on my energy, willing it to coil up and channel through my thoughts and body. I held out my hands, palms facing up.

That which is buried in the ground,

That which is lost, now be found.

That which is hidden, now come to light,

That which is cloaked, come to sight.

That which was silenced, now be heard,

That which was glamoured, now be unblurred.

Aida, let your bones rise to the sight.

Show me the way, by arrow’s light.

There was a faint trembling in the air in front of me. The next moment, I stiffened as a current of energy snaked through my body, traveling down my arms and out my hands. I slowly opened my eyes to see a silver arrow—much like a hologram—hovering above my palms. I took another breath, letting it out slowly, and slowly gave the arrow a little toss. It rose into the air and began to spin. Then, settling on a southern direction, it began to move.

Kipa and I took off, following it. The arrow flew through the air faster than I could run, but Kipa was keeping pace with it. Ten minutes later, he and the arrow were well ahead of me. I paused to catch my breath by a stand of low-growing trees. I was strong, and I had stamina, but running over uneven ground wasn’t easy in the daylight, let alone at night. I leaned over, hands on my knees, then straightened and stretched, ready to race off again. I had barely started forward