overcome, in addition to being a Fenestra.” Juliet was routinely beaten, bruised and bled at the hands of DG’s headmistress. The woman who worked with Ms. Asura and, though wholly human, lacked a soul.
I frowned. “Being angelic might be the least of her problems, you mean?”
He nodded agreement. “She won’t talk about Kirian’s betrayal or Nicole’s disappearance, will she?”
“No.” Kirian befriended her when she’d arrived at age six. Three years older, he’d left at sixteen to travel the world. Only we learned later, his allegiance was turned to the Nocti and everything she thought she’d known about his travels were lies. He’d been bait to get to Juliet by her sixteenth birthday. “She has to be overwhelmed. Even with Tony around.”
Tony met Roshana when she was pregnant with Juliet. He’d been an uncle, father, and grandfather figure for them both. Until the Nocti managed to track Roshana,trick Tony, and kidnap Juliet. They’d been separated for a decade that Juliet didn’t remember well. Sadly, the fists and blood of Juliet’s DG years seemed easier for her to grasp than hugs and kisses from Tony and her mom.
Nelli’s car shrieked up the driveway to the cottage with reckless speed. The expression on her face had me swallowing past a lump in my throat.
Uh-oh
. “What’s wrong?” I asked, walking quickly toward her.
Nelli called out her window. “Grab whatever you need quickly. We might already be too late. Bales found bones north of here that could belong to one of the DG kids.”
The Nocti used Dunklebarger to raise kids who might be Fenestra until they were sixteen. On their sixteenth birthday the teens disappeared; we were still trying to account for all the missing. If they died, they were sacrificed to force Fenestras to turn Dark. I didn’t begin to hope that any were alive, well, and Light. We needed to collect their souls and remains—to bring justice and peace to the victims. Each encounter gave us more information on the Nocti and, we hoped, their future plans.
Tens grabbed a duffel bag from the van and folded into the backseat of Nelli’s compact. Custos ran to the car door and barked until he slid over and made room for her. I frowned and took the front next to Nelli. I swept my hair into a ponytail that danced between my shoulders.
Nelli drove the back roads at a clip that lost me immediately when we left Carmel proper. The open windows let the sun-warmed air fill the car with the pleasant scent of earth and fresh-cut grass.
“Who’s Bales?” Tens asked Nelli, the wind whipping his heavy black curtain of hair into his face.
He needs another haircut
.
Nelli’s hands tightened on the wheel but she never took her eyes from the road. “A friend.” She hesitated. “I think we’re dating. I’m not sure.” She shrugged. “We were in college together. He used to be a cop, then became a PI after he got shot two years ago. He doesn’t know anything about you. Just that I’m trying to solve a bunch of cold cases of missing kids. He’s been hunting up locations for me. He used to work homicide, so he knows what he’s looking for.”
“What did he find?” I asked.
“He called last night, said there was a report about finding skeletal remains and artifacts. He poked around today. Called in favors. Found out that the timeline might work for us to get there. We need to get in and out, without disturbing anything, before they remove the bones.”
We turned onto an old Indiana two-lane highway lined with grasses and copses of cottonwood and willow trees. To my right, a Cooper’s hawk pounced onto an unlucky rodent—its brown and white feathers blended in perfectly with the skeletal remains of last winter’s corn crop. Even though the calendar read May, the fields had been too wet, too cold, for planting yet. Many were filled with the mustard-yellow, tiny-faced goldenrod and broad swaths of white yarrows. Purple thistles poked up through the grasses.
I frowned. “Being angelic might be the least of her problems, you mean?”
He nodded agreement. “She won’t talk about Kirian’s betrayal or Nicole’s disappearance, will she?”
“No.” Kirian befriended her when she’d arrived at age six. Three years older, he’d left at sixteen to travel the world. Only we learned later, his allegiance was turned to the Nocti and everything she thought she’d known about his travels were lies. He’d been bait to get to Juliet by her sixteenth birthday. “She has to be overwhelmed. Even with Tony around.”
Tony met Roshana when she was pregnant with Juliet. He’d been an uncle, father, and grandfather figure for them both. Until the Nocti managed to track Roshana,trick Tony, and kidnap Juliet. They’d been separated for a decade that Juliet didn’t remember well. Sadly, the fists and blood of Juliet’s DG years seemed easier for her to grasp than hugs and kisses from Tony and her mom.
Nelli’s car shrieked up the driveway to the cottage with reckless speed. The expression on her face had me swallowing past a lump in my throat.
Uh-oh
. “What’s wrong?” I asked, walking quickly toward her.
Nelli called out her window. “Grab whatever you need quickly. We might already be too late. Bales found bones north of here that could belong to one of the DG kids.”
The Nocti used Dunklebarger to raise kids who might be Fenestra until they were sixteen. On their sixteenth birthday the teens disappeared; we were still trying to account for all the missing. If they died, they were sacrificed to force Fenestras to turn Dark. I didn’t begin to hope that any were alive, well, and Light. We needed to collect their souls and remains—to bring justice and peace to the victims. Each encounter gave us more information on the Nocti and, we hoped, their future plans.
Tens grabbed a duffel bag from the van and folded into the backseat of Nelli’s compact. Custos ran to the car door and barked until he slid over and made room for her. I frowned and took the front next to Nelli. I swept my hair into a ponytail that danced between my shoulders.
Nelli drove the back roads at a clip that lost me immediately when we left Carmel proper. The open windows let the sun-warmed air fill the car with the pleasant scent of earth and fresh-cut grass.
“Who’s Bales?” Tens asked Nelli, the wind whipping his heavy black curtain of hair into his face.
He needs another haircut
.
Nelli’s hands tightened on the wheel but she never took her eyes from the road. “A friend.” She hesitated. “I think we’re dating. I’m not sure.” She shrugged. “We were in college together. He used to be a cop, then became a PI after he got shot two years ago. He doesn’t know anything about you. Just that I’m trying to solve a bunch of cold cases of missing kids. He’s been hunting up locations for me. He used to work homicide, so he knows what he’s looking for.”
“What did he find?” I asked.
“He called last night, said there was a report about finding skeletal remains and artifacts. He poked around today. Called in favors. Found out that the timeline might work for us to get there. We need to get in and out, without disturbing anything, before they remove the bones.”
We turned onto an old Indiana two-lane highway lined with grasses and copses of cottonwood and willow trees. To my right, a Cooper’s hawk pounced onto an unlucky rodent—its brown and white feathers blended in perfectly with the skeletal remains of last winter’s corn crop. Even though the calendar read May, the fields had been too wet, too cold, for planting yet. Many were filled with the mustard-yellow, tiny-faced goldenrod and broad swaths of white yarrows. Purple thistles poked up through the grasses.
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