Read Online Return of the Hunters (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 4) by Sonya Bateman - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Sonya Bateman
Tags: Coming of Age, witch, Ghost, Fae, God, shapeshifter, dark urban paranormal thriller voodoo elf fairies werewolf New Orleans Papa Legba swamp bayou moon magic spells supernatural seelie unseelie manhattan new york city evil ancient cult murder hunter police detective reluctant hero journey humor family
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wandered closer to Reun, staring at the window and the thick whorls of snow blowing past the glass. The train hadn’t shown any signs of life since that jarring stop, and I had the same bad feeling as Denei. We weren’t going anywhere for a while. “Reun,” I said. “How far would we have to travel in Arcadia to make this work?”
He shrugged carefully. “I cannot say for certain. The greater the distance from our arrival point, the more likely we’d be able to cross the Veil close to our intended destination,” he said. “If we can make at least a full league, that may be sufficient.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “And how far is that in human?”
“I’d forgotten. You humans no longer measure in leagues,” he said with a smirk. “I believe it’s roughly three and a half of your miles.”
Well, that was still a lot more mights and maybes than I was comfortable with. At normal walking speed, without having to stop for things that wanted to eat us, murder us, or both, we could make that distance in an hour. But with Zoba in the shape he was, we’d have to figure a little slower than normal. So maybe an hour and a half. If we were lucky.
I could probably figure out around how much time that would be here. With a calculator—I wasn’t smart enough to do it all in my head. My hand was already in the pocket of the new jeans Bastien and Isalie got for me when I remembered I didn’t have my phone.
“Hey. Anybody here have a phone?” I said just as Rex came out of the bathroom with a wet towel.
Senobia stood. “I do,” she said, pulling one from her front pocket. She woke it up and unlocked the screen. “You makin’ a call?”
“No. I need a calculator.”
“Okay.” With a slight frown, she tapped the screen a few times and handed it to me.
“Thanks.”
We’d been in Arcadia for two days, and ten days had passed here. But now, we were working with a matter of hours. I figured out the number of hours for both time frames—at least I could do that much in my head—and then divided the bigger number by the smaller one.
The calculator came back with 5.
I cleared it and handed the phone back. “All right. One hour there is around five hours here,” I said. “It’s almost seven now, and we’ve got until noon tomorrow. So…seventeen hours. That means if we’re in Arcadia more than three hours, we’re screwed.”
Reun raised an eyebrow. “How did you figure that out so quickly?” he said. “You’ve been to Arcadia only once. Even I’ve not determined such a precise comparison of the time difference.”
“Er. Two days there, ten days here. Plus math,” I said.
“Ah, yes. Math.” He smirked. “The Fae have little use for equations.”
“Good thing I’m only half Fae, then.”
“Indeed.”
The door to the suite opened, and Bastien strode in with Isalie right behind him. “They hit a downed tree,” he said. “Cracked a rail, so that’s why there ain’t no power. They gettin’ the backup power going. But this train’s grounded, and they sendin’ another one to transfer folk.” He looked grimly at Denei. “It goan be four, five hours ’til the new one get here, on account of the storm.”
Her jaw clenched, and she stood abruptly. “Y’all go pack our things,” she said. “We gonna travel the hard way.”
“What way’s that?” Isalie said.
I held back a groan. “Through Arcadia.”
C HAPTER 15
E ven though I’d never been to this part of Arcadia, I knew right away that we were in the land of the Summer Court. All the trees had leaves.
We were right at the edge of a forest, looking out over a vast field of knee-high grass. I’d come through first and waited as the rest of them stepped from the shimmering portal Reun had opened, with alternating whispered shock and awed silence. The Fae realm might’ve been similar to ours in a basic sense, but it was an alien landscape. Everything was just a little wrong—except for the things that were a
He shrugged carefully. “I cannot say for certain. The greater the distance from our arrival point, the more likely we’d be able to cross the Veil close to our intended destination,” he said. “If we can make at least a full league, that may be sufficient.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “And how far is that in human?”
“I’d forgotten. You humans no longer measure in leagues,” he said with a smirk. “I believe it’s roughly three and a half of your miles.”
Well, that was still a lot more mights and maybes than I was comfortable with. At normal walking speed, without having to stop for things that wanted to eat us, murder us, or both, we could make that distance in an hour. But with Zoba in the shape he was, we’d have to figure a little slower than normal. So maybe an hour and a half. If we were lucky.
I could probably figure out around how much time that would be here. With a calculator—I wasn’t smart enough to do it all in my head. My hand was already in the pocket of the new jeans Bastien and Isalie got for me when I remembered I didn’t have my phone.
“Hey. Anybody here have a phone?” I said just as Rex came out of the bathroom with a wet towel.
Senobia stood. “I do,” she said, pulling one from her front pocket. She woke it up and unlocked the screen. “You makin’ a call?”
“No. I need a calculator.”
“Okay.” With a slight frown, she tapped the screen a few times and handed it to me.
“Thanks.”
We’d been in Arcadia for two days, and ten days had passed here. But now, we were working with a matter of hours. I figured out the number of hours for both time frames—at least I could do that much in my head—and then divided the bigger number by the smaller one.
The calculator came back with 5.
I cleared it and handed the phone back. “All right. One hour there is around five hours here,” I said. “It’s almost seven now, and we’ve got until noon tomorrow. So…seventeen hours. That means if we’re in Arcadia more than three hours, we’re screwed.”
Reun raised an eyebrow. “How did you figure that out so quickly?” he said. “You’ve been to Arcadia only once. Even I’ve not determined such a precise comparison of the time difference.”
“Er. Two days there, ten days here. Plus math,” I said.
“Ah, yes. Math.” He smirked. “The Fae have little use for equations.”
“Good thing I’m only half Fae, then.”
“Indeed.”
The door to the suite opened, and Bastien strode in with Isalie right behind him. “They hit a downed tree,” he said. “Cracked a rail, so that’s why there ain’t no power. They gettin’ the backup power going. But this train’s grounded, and they sendin’ another one to transfer folk.” He looked grimly at Denei. “It goan be four, five hours ’til the new one get here, on account of the storm.”
Her jaw clenched, and she stood abruptly. “Y’all go pack our things,” she said. “We gonna travel the hard way.”
“What way’s that?” Isalie said.
I held back a groan. “Through Arcadia.”
C HAPTER 15
E ven though I’d never been to this part of Arcadia, I knew right away that we were in the land of the Summer Court. All the trees had leaves.
We were right at the edge of a forest, looking out over a vast field of knee-high grass. I’d come through first and waited as the rest of them stepped from the shimmering portal Reun had opened, with alternating whispered shock and awed silence. The Fae realm might’ve been similar to ours in a basic sense, but it was an alien landscape. Everything was just a little wrong—except for the things that were a
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