and in trouble.
"Miss Hawthorne, are you all right?"
"No…I mean yes. I will be," I wiped at my eyes. "So he handed you this notice personally?"
"No. It was on my desk the next morning with an address to send his last check. I tried calling him but there was no answer," she clasped her hands in front of her. "I must admit, your reaction is as strange as Tulose's had been. He looked like I'd hit him in the stomach," she pointed at me. "That's what you look like. Good afternoon, Miss Hawthorne."
I watched her leave and followed just behind her. I locked the door and pulled down the shades Crwys had installed for a bit of privacy. Turning the sign to closed, I headed back through the break room door with Grey at my heels and found Kyle waiting for me by the table. He had a bag in his hand. "You don't look so good."
I told him what Prescott said about the missing persons report.
He looked as weirded out as I felt. "Who would report her missing? You don't think it was Dionysus do you?"
"It might be." I moved to the stairs leading up to my apartment. The door was open so I went in and grabbed the leather jacket tossed on the couch. I paused when I caught the smell of Crwys on it. It was his jacket. I buried my face in it and inhaled as deeply as I could. Something gnawed at me, in the center of my stomach. It was anxiety; a deep longing that hadn't been there before. When I thought he'd left me that gnawing had been laced with anger, but now that anger was directed at myself.
Was he in pain as Kathy said? Had he been in pain since the moment he vanished? I'd been holed up in a cabin for two days, making my own little pity party with my Elementals and the man I wanted to profess undying love for had been suffering.
Sweet Lady, I needed to get a hold of myself and stop being a whiny Witch. I had my power back, and I had an extra kick if I wanted it. The Arcane, every time I used it, it felt stronger. Crwys believed my Elementals held the Arcane in check like a dam. And when they were gone, it built up strength and lodged itself in the mark on my chest, which I now kept covered.
What I'd noticed in those woods as I practiced with the Elementals, was that even though the voice wasn't as vocal anymore, the power was still there, just below the surface. Waiting. Watching. Ready to strike.
"Sam?" Kyle called up.
We'll find him, Sam-Sam.
I took comfort in my mother's voice as I slipped the jacket on. I grabbed my pistols from out of my bag, checked their ammo and slipped them into the back of my jeans. With a glance around the main living room, I spotted my cell phone on the kitchen table where I'd left it before heading to the cabin. There was less than fifteen percent battery life left and over a hundred texts and voice messages.
Whoops.
I grabbed the charger and headed down the stairs.
After locking up, we piled into my Jeep where I hooked my phone up and handed it to Kyle. "Type the address off this card into my navigator, then start going through my texts and emails. If anything looks odd, tell me."
Relegated to the back this time, Grey made herself as comfortable as possible as we drove around town.
"You going to tell me what the Dragon fantasy thing is all about?"
I glanced at Kyle. "You sure you wanna know?"
"I don't like going in blind."
"Remember how my dex always claimed to not know what Crwys was?"
"Yeah."
"And remember how he said he was a Drachen when we first met?"
"Yeah…but I thought he was kidding." His eyes widened and I could see his jaw drop out of the corner of my eye. "He was serious?"
I nodded.
"Crwys is a…"
"You can say it. It's not like saying Voldemort."
Kyle put his hand on the dashboard. "Crwys Holliard is a Dragon?"
"Mmhmm. Levi confirmed it. And I think Kathy is having her first visions as a Seer like your aunt. She's been having dreams about him. That the Dragon is in pain and that the princess has to rescue him."
He made a rude noise. "You are no princess."
I ignored that. "But if anything she said is true, and remember it's filtered through a child's eyes, then