We walked quite a while in silence. I lost track of the blocks after seventeen. How had I gotten myself into this mess? This was what happened when I let myself care about stuff. I shouldn’t care about Dan and Nina. Shouldn’t, but did. How was I going to explain being gone all day today?

And how was I going to get away tomorrow if I went back today? I could always use the invisible thing, but would Dan let me come back, or would that push him over the edge? I growled under my breath. I was getting tired, something that didn’t happen often, and it was making me cranky. “Are Starren and Wade at least headed in this direction?” I asked Cray.

He nodded. “Getting close.”

“The least amount of talking with them, the better,” I said. “Starren will be hard to fool.”

Cray nodded again, but didn’t say anything.

“How did you get away from them, anyway?”

“I said I saw something and when they ran off I slipped away.”

Ha. I wouldn’t have thought he had it in him.

The area was getting livelier as we finally reached the tourist section of town. Neon lights blinked everywhere. People were laughing and hanging off each other having a good time. I guess I’d be having a good time too if I was here under different circumstances. I weaved through them, hardly having to think about keeping myself invisible. A couple passed us, the guy carrying a bunch of packages for the girl, who laughed at something he said. Would that happen for me someday? I’d thought I’d found it once before. Thought I would have it for life. That hadn’t turned out so well.

Another block and I caught sight of Wade headed our way, Starren not far behind him. He stood out from the crowd, partly because of his height and good looks, but mostly because he looked pretty angry.

I nudged Cray. “Ready? Here they come.”

His eyes got wide, but he nodded. Poor guy. Today had been a lot for him, for both of us.

“Where have you been?” Starren asked, pushing ahead of Wade.

“Nice to see you too, Starren.” Okay, a very typical movie response, but what can I say, I was nervous. And it was a non-answer, which got me out of telling her where we’d actually been.

“Where is he? We’ve been looking for him, and you, for over an hour.” Oh yeah, she was mad. Even more mad than when I’d insisted on making that phone call.

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“I don’t feel him right now, Starren,” Cray said.

“What? Try harder. We can’t lose him after getting so close!”

“Are you getting too tired?” I asked. Maybe I could save him from getting chewed out. Somehow I felt responsible for getting him into this. “You know he can’t sense things when he’s tired Starren. That’s why you let us go home at night.”

“He is new to his power.” Wade said. My hero. Ha. “We can’t push too hard or he could lose it for a while.” He turned to me. “It’s possible to push your ability too far and shut it down.” I had to keep an evil smile off my face. Wade was helping us and didn’t even know it. Just what he deserved.

“Ah!” Starren slammed a palm against the nearest building, sending that slapping noise ricocheting. A lady walking by swung farther away from us, looking right through our little group.

“Don’t get the cops sent after us,” I whispered. We were invisible, but that probably made the whole situation worse. If they somehow found us I’d hate to have to try to explain how that had happened to some officer. No way we’d be making it back to help Jaden’s family if we got caught.

“Let them come. I could use a fight right now. We almost had him. I can’t believe you idiots let him get away.”

“You know we can’t do that, Star.” Wade’s tone was very soothing. I hadn’t heard him use that tone of voice since he’d been trying to calm me down about the Inza’s not letting me go to his place as much as I’d wanted. “We can’t get the humans involved. The Council would not be happy if we took out a bunch of the local law enforcement. Let’s go home for the night, get Cray up in the morning, and try again. He could be miles away right now, in a car, for all we know. We wouldn’t be able to catch up anyway. If we do it that way, we can use the portal and get the drop on him.”

“Fine. We will use the portal to our advantage tomorrow.” She swung toward Cray. “Now that you know his aura, will you be able to pick him out even among the presence of other fae?”

Cray looked at me, then nodded reluctantly.

“If you haven’t found his location by morning, you will be coming back with us and combing these streets until we find him.”

“What about me?” I asked, slightly insulted.

She waved a hand at me like I didn’t matter and took off walking. Cray and I looked at each other, then followed.

“Don’t make her mad at you, Trish,” Wade said from behind me. “She’s pretty far up on the chain. If you really want to stay with the Inza’s like you told us, I suggest you listen to her, otherwise you might find yourself waking up in some place you don’t know again. Only this time it won’t be in a forest close to home.” He passed me and caught up with Starren, not even sparing me a glance.

Grr, someday… something. I didn’t even know what. Was he trying to look out for me, or was something else going on? How was I supposed to know? It wasn’t like he’d been very forthcoming with me so far.

No one had anything to say the rest of the short trip down into an alley. Starren walked straight into a wall, disappearing. How did they remember where all these random portals were? I’d go around crashing into walls forever before I accidentally hit the right one.

I stepped through after Cray, keeping my eyes closed for a second after the portal sensation faded.

“Back here by seven a.m.,” Starren told me, then took off.

Wade clapped Cray on the shoulder. “Come on. You need to get some rest.” Cray glanced in my direction.

I lifted an eyebrow. He nodded. Tomorrow. Tomorrow we were going to help Jaden’s family, and then I was going to turn the guy in. Dan and Nina would be safe, and I would be able to stay with them. I was going to do it, no matter what my conscience was trying to tell me. I had to.