We all stood awkwardly in silence, until Cray finally broke it. “Does she have carinin?” Cray asked. “This Jaime?”

“Carinin? What’s that?” Rebecca sniffed and used a thumb to swipe away a tear.

Cray scrunched his face up like he was thinking. He gave up. “I’m not sure what you humans call it. It can happen when fae and human have children. One of the reasons we aren’t supposed to intermarry. It is a disease that affects the blood.”

“That might be it,” Rebecca said. “Doctors here didn’t really seem to know what it was.” Her face lit up. “Is there a cure?”

Cray looked like a deer in the headlights all of the sudden. He probably didn’t want to disappoint her. Not when she’d been crying a second ago. “Not that I know of.”

Rebecca sighed and her shoulders slumped, but she didn’t look surprised. “I didn’t really expect you to have a good answer. It doesn’t sound like the fae have to worry about doctors very often.”

Okay, maybe she knew more about us than I did.

Obviously I knew I didn’t ever need a doctor, but I hadn’t really thought about other fae and their medical needs.

“So Dad did talk about Faerie with her, more than just mentioning it,” Jaden said.

“When can you leave for the Fort? The sooner we get them out of here, the better,” Cray said.

“True. Something bad will happen soon. They’re coming,” Jaden said.

Oh great. Now not only did I have my own paranoia to worry about, but his too. How did I know if he was having a gut feeling or his ability was telling him something? How was it even working, he wasn’t supposed to be old enough yet. Like me. So that meant he was a descendant of the Faerie Court too? “Did you see what’s going to happen?”

“No, sometimes I don’t see anything, I just get a feeling. Supposedly I should be able to control choosing what I want to see and forcing it eventually, but I don’t know how yet.”

Rebecca pinched the top of her nose. “We have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. Jaime is scheduled for her dialysis in the morning and she can’t go without. I don’t know where we could find a dialysis center on the way, plus they probably wouldn’t take a walk in. It’s too much paperwork. She has to have it every other day or she gets sick, very sick.”

“There’s something we can do that will buy you a little time. We’ll give you one night to get packed up. I’d stay to help but we need to get back to Starren and Wade, they are going to start wondering what happened to us,” I said.

“Are they the ones after Jaden?” Rebecca asked. “I heard you mention a Starren earlier.”

“Yes, and you don’t want to meet them, trust me. Especially in the mood Starren is in right now. Just get together what you need, get it in the car. You can leave whenever you’re ready. Tonight Cray can lead Starren on a merry chase.”

“You mean you’re just going to send them away?” Cray asked. “Not even help them get to Sanctuary? The Council isn’t going to be happy about them leaving, they will send someone after them. Someone worse than Starren. If they’re intending to use them to manipulate Jaden, this could be very bad for them.”

Shoot. When he said it like that it made me feel super cold hearted. Like it was me breaking apart the family, not the Council. I was supposed to talk to the mom and Jaden would turn himself over to me. That was what I’d signed up for. I pointed at Jaden and then pointed over toward the fence. He nodded and headed that way. I followed, not bothering to answer Cray, who looked nearly panicked at being left alone with a human.

“So, my side is done, now it’s your turn,” I said.

“You really want me to turn myself in while my family is running for their lives?” he asked, his face turning slightly red. “I understand if you don’t want to help, fine, but you want me to just let them go on their own?”

“That was the plan, yes. Plus, Starren and Wade are after you. You give yourself up, your family is automatically safer. They could probably just stay here.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“No!” Jaden practically yelled, making Cray look our way, concern obvious on his face. “I’m telling you, the Council is after all of us. Something has changed. I don’t know what changed or why, it has something to do with my dad, but I won’t let them get my mom or the girls.”

“Really? You don’t know how this works?” I tried to keep my voice down so his mom couldn’t hear me threatening him. “You made a promise. You’re fae, you can’t get out of it.” Sadly I’d found the truth in that when I was five and told mom I wouldn’t take any of the cookies off the counter. She left the room and the cookies taunted me until I tried. But no matter what I did, I couldn’t get one into my mouth. A stupid part of being fae.

“I do know how it works. And I know that the one the promise was made to can release the one who made the promise.” I glanced toward Cray to see if he’d noticed how loud Jaden was getting. He had. “Please, Trisha.” And then the loud was gone and sad was back. I liked mad better. Much better. So much easier to deal with. “You have to know something is going on here.”

Okay, yes, I could see his point. So far there had been no red flags about Jaden. He truly seemed like an okay guy.

Would a real criminal risk his freedom and safety to move his family if they weren’t in danger? Probably not. Even if he wasn’t a criminal, he wouldn’t have come back knowing he wouldn’t be able to interact with his family unless he truly believed they were in danger. I sighed. I was about to get myself into all kinds of hot water.

“So what do you want from me?” I thought I already knew the answer, but just in case…

“Get my family to Fort Wayne; get them settled in. Then I’ll let you turn me over to Starren.”

I sighed again. This was not going to be fun explaining to Nina and Dan where I was. Maybe I should just stay out here overnight. Nah, that would probably be even worse. But what if I couldn’t get away in the morning? Wait, what was I thinking? I could turn invisible for Pete’s sake. Sneaking out of the house would not be a problem.

“Please, Trish,” Jaden asked. “I want you along in case something comes up that I need help dealing with. Or, more likely, if I need to talk to mom.”

“Fine. But I’m holding you to the whole turn yourself in thing next time. I have my own reasons for doing all this.”

“I’m sure you do,” Jaden said, his voice going soft. He stuck out a hand. “Thank you.”

I reached forward slowly and shook his hand. It was warm and slightly calloused, sending a tingle down my arm.

I pulled my hand back quickly. “And you owe me one. I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing it for your little sister.”

“Fine, as long as you’re doing it. Now you actually have to release me.”

Okay, that was a little awkward. “How do I do that?” He gave me a little smile, the first one I’d really seen.

“Just say out loud that you release me from my promise to be turned over to Starren tonight.”

“Jaden, I release you from your promise in exchange for a new one. That once your family is safe in Indiana, you will allow me to turn you over.”

He lost the smile and got very serious. “As soon as my family is safe. I promise.”

I nodded, not really knowing where to go from there. Thankfully Cray saved me from any further awkwardness.

“Trisha?” Cray called from the other side of the yard. I moved his direction. “We should help them with their stuff as much as we can. I can keep watch for Wade and Starren. They are far away right now, but I’ll let you know.” It was a good thing this tracking didn’t work both ways. Wade and Starren wouldn’t be able to find us until we wanted them to. Or they came back to the house, which would be bad. Very bad.

“He just knows where they are like that?” Rebecca asked, looking at me. I nodded. She shook her head. “Thanks for the offer to help but we don’t have much. Nothing we can’t leave behind other than the pictures. After losing Jaden and Thomas, stuff doesn’t seem as important anymore.”

She sounded so sad. I shook it off. Ignore it, ignore it.

Just get the job done. I was already helping way more than I should be. “Okay then, the plan is we come tomorrow afternoon, everyone loads up in your car and we head to Indiana, how’s that? How long of a drive is it?” Dan and Nina were going to freak. Hopefully they would forgive me. No time to worry about it now. I’d figure it out later.

Cray shrugged. “I don’t understand human travel.”

“Mom?” a little voice asked from behind the screen door.

I hadn’t even heard her open the inside door. Some protector I was.

“Yes, Jaime?” Rebecca asked, turning to the door.

“Who are those people?”

“Just some friends. What do you need?”

“He was here again, mom, I could feel him. I think he might still be here now. Do you think we should try talking to him?”

“I’ll be in to talk in a moment, honey, just step back inside.” Rebecca sighed. She waited until the door clicked closed. “She’s been telling me for the past week that Jaden was here. I didn’t believe her. I guess that if we make it to Fort Wayne I’ll have some explaining to do. I’ll tell Lucy what’s going on. She’ll want to know why we’re moving, but it would probably be better to hold off for Jaime. Is Jaden still here?”

“Yes.”

She held her hand in the air. “Goodnight, honey, I love you.”

He reached his hand up and pressed his palm against hers. She obviously couldn’t feel it. He looked down and dropped his hand to his side, his face stony, like he was trying not to show how much this was affecting him. I knew what it’d do to me if that was my mom. Didn’t matter it was his step-mom, just like it didn’t matter anymore that Nina was my foster mom. They were just moms. I’d be ready to kill someone if they had done to me what they’d done to Jaden.

Rebecca turned and headed for the house. “See you both tomorrow.”

“Cray and I better find Wade and Starren,” I told Jaden. “See you tomorrow.” He nodded and followed his mom into the house, strolling right through the wall. Yuck. He really was a ghost here.

Actually, at the moment, being a ghost sounded better than dealing with Starren. But no such luck. “Lead the way,” I said to Cray.