Chapter 14 — Finding Family

  For the next few days after the craziness at the bar, Hailey did everything she could to keep herself busy. During the day, they spent their time in Seattle, reveling in Hailey's old favorites of shopping, eating and people-watching. Hailey lead Jessica to even more of her old hang-outs, exploits of an adventurous teenager in the city with an unlimited bus-pass and a gaggle of followers to explore with. They visited buildings almost at random, Jessica still awed by the sights and sounds of the city after living so much of her life in a quiet secluded town.

  With Jessica's newfound lack of embarrassment or shame, they had a blast visiting clubs in the evening hours. They danced and reveled in the thick pulsing atmosphere, where Hailey could lose her mind for a few hours at a time and not think about anything other than her best friend and the cute guys watching Hailey from the bar… right up until Rupert re-appeared with drinks, to their abject disappointment.

  As soon as night fell completely and the club atmosphere began to drag, Hailey and Jessica took to the skies, bidding Rupert farewell. They made trips out to the Greycloaks every single night. Hailey couldn't bear a single moment feeling unoccupied. She needed to be doing something, no matter how repetitive.

  Hailey still hadn't figured out how to tell her what had happened the night she went out alone, but since that night, they hadn't spent more than a few minutes apart at most. If Jessica noticed the abrupt shift in their activity, she made no sign of it. She looked happy, and that was enough for Hailey for the time being.

  Cinza and her people had nothing for them. After the disastrous trip out to poor Harold, they'd completely cut off contact with the newer Awakened. Despite Cinza's protests, Ruby had agreed with Hailey and Josh that it was too much of a risk. They couldn't afford to be caught, particularly when they still had no idea how Brian's men had found them.

  "Assuming they are Brian's," Cinza pointed out, at their latest meeting in her cabin. The rest of the impromptu Council was present, including Josh, Ruby, and Hailey. Thanks to a sudden downpour, Jessica had chosen to take cover inside as well along with Scrappy the mountain lion, and the two of them were sitting by a crackling fire in the stone fireplace against the wall. "I feel like we're giving up ground here when we needn't be."

  "Come on." Josh rolled his eyes. "How the hell d'you think anyone else is gonna summon golems like that? It's gotta be him."

  "We know Jackson imbued objects with the ability to create them. It's possible that someone else may be calling the shots, with Brian or someone else directing the golems." Cinza frowned. "I want to be sure we consider every possible option." She glanced at Hailey. "We still have no clues as to their identities?"

  "None," Hailey sighed. "I was hoping there might've been police footage or something, but they didn't release a thing."

  "Don't they use body cameras and dashcams?" Ruby asked. "They've gotta have something, don't they?"

  "Apparently not," said Cinza. "All they've released are vague descriptions and a request for public support. Nothing more."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  "What are my taxes going towards?"

  "You've never paid taxes," Josh pointed out.

  Ruby shrugged. "I'm still gonna complain about it."

  A mixture of complaints and speculation was all they could accomplish in those meetings. Of their other projects, Cinza reported little success. Nikki couldn't locate Brian for them since she had no sense of his essence—and with no one else particularly important to find, she'd returned to her old pet project of drawing energy from sources other than gemstones.

  Hailey wasn't sure if she was relieved or unsettled by her lack of progress. On the one hand, she still found it abhorrent, the idea of using up living things selfishly just to get another boost of energy. They'd got into a shouting match over it, with Nikki pointing out that Hailey didn't understand how hard it was for the rest of them to cast spells. The argument might have gotten far worse if Josh hadn't intervened. He'd proposed a compromise: that Nikki would only use plants, and if possible, eggs for her tests. Nothing aware.

  Hailey wasn't happy about it, but the other half of her mind crept in. Even with all her strength, she couldn't beat Jackson's golems. The guy wasn't even alive to sustain them or produce more, but still Hailey could only drive them back. She needed something stronger, and Nikki's ideas might be the way.

  Only two people had ever managed to actually destroy a golem completely. Aaron had pummeled one to a cloud of dust with enhanced strength, but according to Ruby, it was possible that Jackson had simply let it disintegrate as a distraction. Given what happened to Aaron only moments later, Hailey could believe that.

  Natalie was the other. Hailey hadn't ever seen her do it, but Yusuf and Rufus had described her power with awestruck hushed voices: beams of crackling pink lightning that simply annihilated huge portions of the golems. The ability to manipulate lightning and electricity was a rare skill, and Natalie had learned it at some point in Rallsburg.

  Hailey had sent her a dozen messages since that night in Tacoma, but Natalie hadn't answered a single one. Her last message, asking for help, hung ominously at the end of their chat log. The website reported she was still logging in, but no response. She asked around, and no one else had heard from her either. Lily informed her in a curt reply that Natalie was attending school as normal, but Hailey still felt something was off. Natalie usually welcomed any contact eagerly. Something had changed.

  If it was personal, Hailey didn't want to intrude. So she continued to leave messages, a couple each day, trying to be encouraging. If Natalie wanted to talk, she'd answer. She was a teenager; Hailey definitely remembered getting into moods where she just wanted to shut out the world for a bit when she was that age.

  So Hailey kept herself busy. She went out with Jessica. She spent time with Rupert, and with his friends Trevor and Elissa, secretly taking bets on how long it would take for the two of them to finally start dating. And she kept up flying around Seattle at night, watching everything she could.

  Between her flight and brief muttered spells to enhance her sight, Hailey could see for miles with ease and pinpoint accuracy. She and Jessica would dive between nooks and crannies up on the sides of buildings, never staying in one spot for too long, keeping an eye on the city. More than once, they stopped a mugging or a robbery in progress from afar, spooking or intimidating would-be crooks from above with a few easy spells. It was so simple, but every single one gave Hailey a little burst of pride. She was making a difference.

  To her surprise, when Hailey had proposed the idea to Jessica, she'd accepted without much debate. After their near-miss in the burning building, Hailey had assumed she'd be going it alone, but Jessica had agreed they should be helping people if they could. She'd gotten a promise from Hailey that they'd never actually show themselves though, if possible.

  Luckily for her, Hailey had no intention of being seen, particularly by the one person she was actually trying to find in the city.