The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,63
head right here.” It was hard to imagine sleeping with this bright incessant news station saying such awful things, but I patted the bench. “Put your feet up here. And Isla you sleep right here.” I got her laid down beside him. “Now sleep. Pretend like your da is right beside you, because he is.”
Archie looked worried.
“I’ll be here when you wake up.” I tried to make myself big so he couldn’t see the war on the screen though it was right around us everywhere.
“You won’t leave?”
“If I get that door open I am getting us all out of here. And we’re on the same level as the vault.” I went to the door and looked up and down the prison. “There’s no guard. I just have to get us to the vault. And you know what I’m thinking?” I was kind of talking to myself now. “I’m thinking they don’t know how to get into any of the rooms, or they would have us in the prison rooms instead of this drastic old dungeon. So yeah, we just have to get out of this—”
Archie’s eyes drifted closed. Isla’s eyes closed and I stood walking around the room listening to the news telling me that the kingdom had fallen due to an attack. I turned to watch when the anchorwoman said, “There are three known invading armies, all attacking within hours of each other, a fourth flag has been sighted, but we do not have confirmation…” What the hell is going on? “The Defense Minister is unavailable for comment.” The news didn’t mention Hammond so I couldn’t tell if he was around. Where was Hammond?
I needed to get us out of here. I thought, Wait a minute, Bucko, and snuck over to where the kids were sleeping to check Archie’s pants pocket. The one closest to Isla had something inside. I patted it, my breath quickening. Holy shit. I gingerly reached inside being careful not to wake him and slid out a freaking Swiss Army knife.
The one I had told him he wasn’t allowed to carry.
I clutched it to my chest.
“We’re getting the hell out of here.”
Thirty-eight - Hayley
Fraoch nudged me awake. “Hayley, yer phone. Tis Kaitlyn.”
“Wha—?” I grabbed my phone and stared at it blearily, “What?” There were fifteen messages from Quentin and one voicemail from Kaitlyn. I started scrolling through the texts. “Oh no! Fraoch! Oh no! Something is happening!”
We both turned to the window as the storm outside, wind and clouds, thunder and lightning, grew.
“Why the hell didn’t you call me back?”
“I was sleeping, phone on silent, what is happening?”
Quentin at the exact same time said, “What is happening?”
Then he said, “Her phone just disappeared.”
I said, “I’m listening to my voicemail now, sending you a transcript.” I fiddled with my phone for a moment and then listened while I pulled on my shoes.
“She’s headed to Magnus’s kingdom, they have Magnus and the kids.”
Fraoch was out the door running down the stairs. I chased after him, stopping to bang on their hotel room door, listening, nothing, then rushing downstairs saying to Quentin through the phone, “What are we going to do?”
“Mount a rescue, we need to jump into the kingdom. A couple of days after Magnus left.”
“You know when that is?”
“Hell yeah.”
By then I was racing toward the grassy knoll by the church where it looked like the storm had been focused. Fraoch and I got to the middle of it and stood, looking in all directions.
“Is the whole family kidnapped? Is that what just happened?”
It was eerily quiet, just before dawn, and I hadn’t noticed this before, the smell after a normal storm was usually damp and mossy, muddy and fresh-watery, this smell was acrid, as if lightning had struck and the fire was still hanging in the air. The place was so empty it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Fraoch and I returned to the hotel lobby and luckily I had booked our stay so I was able to sweet-talk my way into an extra key for Katie’s room.
Fraoch and I entered and tried to piece together what had happened.
“How did they get everyone?”
“I daena ken.” I glanced at Katie’s bag, and rifled through it. All her stuff was inside, except of course her phone.
Her kids were gone, but Isla’s diaper bag was still here.
“Why would she have gone outside with the kids?”
“Tae see the stars? They were verra beautiful.”
“Great, well in hindsight, that was a stupid reason to get kidnapped.”