Rowan glared. “Explain again why we’re abandoning a perfectly working vehicle?”

“We’ve been driving twenty minutes down a road in a direction we were last spotted traveling by people who saw us steal this vehicle. If law enforcement is called, they will put up roadblocks, but they’ll also drive on this road,” Gretta said. She held up her phone. “But most importantly, an Amber Alert was already issued with this vehicle’s description. Maybe for a car theft alone, they might not be on top of things, but with murder and kidnapping? This’ll be an all-hands-on-deck situation. We need to get off the road.”

Rowan pulled over. “This is a desert. They'll spot us from the air if they have a plane or helicopter. Not to mention that we have no supplies—especially not water.”

Gravel pinged against the wheel well as he came to a stop.

“I can do something about the water situation, but we need to put distance between us and this truck. If you are right about Gabriela, and she has law enforcement connections, we need to find a way to lie low for a few days before we head in a direction they don’t expect.”

“We’re all exhausted,” Rowan said. “You look like you might pass out at any moment, and I’m not doing much better.”

“I want to go home,” Sofia said. “This isn’t fair! I didn’t do anything!”

“I know,” Gretta said. “None of this is fair, and you haven’t done anything wrong, but we have to keep moving.”

Rowan and Gretta exchanged glances, then got out of the truck.

“Can they track your phone?” Rowan asked.

Gretta sighed. “Yes, and it’s only a matter of time before they start thinking about tracking me. My fingerprints are on file, so they will likely identify me from the ATV incident. And that’s assuming they don’t spot me from the parking lot cameras at the mine.”

Gretta tapped a few icons to set her phone to airplane mode and shoved it in her pocket.

“I’d guess that Gabriela will have told them about you by now,” Rowan said. “We can wipe down the truck quickly to make it less likely to have prints from here, but you are right that we didn’t wipe down the ATV. And frankly, we’ll probably leave behind hair or something else that’ll put us at this scene.”

“I can help with that,” Sofia said in a small voice. “I have a magic word that cleans.”

“We got this,” Gretta said. “It’ll just take a minute.”

Sofia held her hands towards the vehicle and said, “Rescarnis!”

Dust, dirt, and small items from within the truck shifted and flew about as they arranged themselves. Rowan and Gretta watched in amazement. When things settled, the outside of the vehicle was covered in a fine layer of dust, and the interior was messy in a new way.

“Nice try!” Gretta said encouragingly. “You moved most everything about. We’ll still need to try to clean it by hand quickly.”

Sofia frowned. “The magic word is supposed to clean the space you use it on. But my mom says it only works if your room was clean yesterday.”

Rowan touched the driver’s side window, leaving a clear set of fingerprints and a few smudges in the dust. Then, he braced himself and spoke the same word as Sofia, “Rescarnis.”

The fingerprints and the smudges in the dust disappeared.

“Ah,” Rowan said. “I think I know what is happening. I think the spell restores something to how it was the day before, and the truck was dirty yesterday.” He smiled. “This is perfect.”

Gretta smiled. “That makes sense! Nice job, Sofia.”

Sofia wobbled, and Gretta caught her.

“Usually, it doesn’t make me so tired,” Sofia whispered. “You aren’t tired, and you did the spell, too.”

“You’ve had a busy few days, and when you did the spell, you did it on the whole truck,” Rowan said. He didn’t mention that he was exhausted. She didn’t need to know that. “Would you like to ride on my shoulders?”

Sofia shook her head. “My dad said I’m strong enough to walk now.”

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Rowan nodded. “You are very strong, but if you need to rest, it’s important that you let Gretta or me know, okay?”

Sofia nodded. “I’m not a little kid anymore. I’m eight now, so I don’t get tired like a baby would.”

Gretta smiled. “Everybody gets tired, sweetheart. Even adults.”

Sofia shook her head. “Not my dad! He never got tired.”

Gretta nodded. “Your dad was very strong.”

“Lead the way,” Rowan said with a gesture into the desert to Sofia.

Sofia marched ahead. She didn’t know where she was going, but since Rowan and Gretta didn’t know where they were going, they didn’t object. The only direction necessary for the moment was away from the truck.

The noon desert heat rose, and the shortening shadows from the scattered scrub brush and cacti became more sparse.

“We are going to need to stop to drink soon, and we probably should find shelter to wait out the hottest part of the day,” Gretta said. “There’s not much for shadows right now, and I’m starting to worry about heat exhaustion.”

Rowan nodded. “I think you are right. If we don’t find shade and water soon, heatstroke will be a major issue. And we can’t stay out in the open once planes and helicopters get involved.”

“My mom gave me two special, magic words for emergencies,” Sofia said. “But, they are secret words. I’m not supposed to tell anybody, not even my dad.”

“Magic words, like the one you cleaned the truck with?” Gretta asked.

Sofia started to cry.

Rowan looked at Gretta, unsure of what to do. Gretta stepped forward and hugged the child.

“You’re okay,” Gretta said. “You don’t have to tell us the words, and it’s not an emergency yet.”

“Maybe I waited too long to use them,” Sofia said.

“Gabriela is a powerful sorceress,” Rowan said. “They probably couldn’t have stopped her.”

Sofia started crying harder, and Gretta glared at Rowan.

Gretta mouthed the words “shut up” to Rowan and then whispered to Sofia, “You are going to be okay.”

“Umbraeth,” Sofia whispered.

Nothing happened.

She squeezed her eyes shut as if making a great effort. “Umbraeth.”

More nothing.

“You are tired, sweetie,” Gretta said. “You don’t have the strength to open a channel.”

“What was that word supposed to do?” Rowan asked.

“It helps you find a safe place.” Sofia leaned her face into Gretta, hiding. “Maybe there are no safe places.”

“Umbraeth,” Rowan said. Instantly, he felt a tugging sensation, like somebody gently pulling on his wrist. He raised his hand and let the sensation help him point. “I feel something.”

Sofia looked up and pulled away from Gretta. “Where? We need to go fast while you can still feel it.”

Rowan looked at Gretta, who shrugged and then nodded.

He let the sensation lead him, walking briskly with Gretta and Sofia behind. They came to the edge of a rugged, rocky hill with a shear face on the north side. He stopped when he arrived at a small hole, big enough for a coyote to fit into.

“I think it’s an old coyote den,” Rowan said.

Sofia ran forward, but Gretta stopped her before she looked into the hole.

“There might be an animal in there,” Gretta said.

“If the magic led him there, it’s safe,” Sofia said.

“Safe for Rowan might not be the same as safe for you. Let him look first,” Gretta said.

“It’s pretty small for even you to hide in. If I shifted to coyote, I could hide in there, but that won’t help three humans.” Rowan looked from Gretta and Sofia to the hole. “If anything jumps out and bites me in the face, I hope you have a plan.”

“I promise, if anything jumps out, I’ll laugh,” Gretta said.

Sofia snickered.

“Not helping,” Rowan said.

He knelt and peered into the hole. The scent of coyote urine nearly knocked him over. Beyond the smell, there were other signs that a coyote or other small animal had used it as a den, but the hole was deep and opened into a larger space. Rowan couldn’t see well enough in human form to tell how deep the hole went, but it looked like it might be a cave.

“If we made the opening big enough to get in, there might be room for all three of us,” Rowan said without conviction.

Gretta frowned. “I’m not hiding in a feces-ridden coyote hole.”

“I’m not going to lie,” he said. “The smell is a bit tough. As a coyote, I’d be fine, but as a human, even if we squeeze through the opening, I don’t think I could spend any amount of time in there.”

“If the magic word led us here, then this is the best hiding place,” Sofia said. “Mom said to trust the magic.”

“Maybe the magic only finds the best hiding place for the person who used it,” Gretta said. “Rowan can turn into a coyote, and that’s a great hiding place for a smelly coyote.”

“If he needs a hiding place for three people, then it’s a hiding place for three people,” she said, her voice sure.

Gretta eyed Rowan. “Maybe he wasn’t thinking of everybody else.”

Rowan rubbed his face, then started digging with his hands to make the opening bigger. “Great, now you’re going to make me prove it’s big enough for three people.”

The sound of a plane from the east made Gretta turn. The hum of the small plane’s engine grew louder as it approached.

Gretta glanced around at the nearby shrubs. “Rowan, you might want to hurry. If they are searching for us from the air, we’ll need to get under some cover quickly. While Rowan plays in the sand, maybe Sofia and I can try to gather some bushes and grasses we can hide under.”