Extraits

CHAPTER 2

Lark

“LARK, I’M TELLING you, something weird is coming. No, more than weird. Dangerous.” The fairy fluttered around my head despite the fact my forge was going at full tilt, the coal fire within the belly of it red hot, and my work shop was cooking. He ruffled my long blonde hair with his passing, daring to dart low over my cleavage to get my attention. Of course he wouldn’t think of touching my sweat slicked skin, no matter how badly he craved salt. Even he wasn’t that brassy.

This was not the first doomsday prophecy my alcoholic little friend had given with a message of ‘bad shit on the horizon.’ A part of me was waiting for him to start singing “Bad moon rising.” For him, 70’s music from the human world was damn near prophetic.

CHAPTER 1

Rylee

I TRAILED MY fingers down the side of the crumpled missing person poster, taking in the hard feel of weathered paper. That was one of the downsides of Bismarck, North Dakota. Weather wasn’t exactly kind, regardless of season, and tended to age everything. Paper and people included. About half dozen pictures plastered the board, young and old alike, but this one poster—I couldn’t take my eyes from it.

The edges crinkled, curling with age, and the picture was faded, but I still saw the kid in the center.

Jonathan Aaron Black. Age 10. Dark brown hair, dark brown eyes. Missing over 2 years. Mentally incapacitated, needs medication. Please contact family if found. $25,000 for information leading to his recovery.

I stared at his photocopied eyes, the way they crossed and the dull level of apathy behind them. This was the one I wanted to go after, my heart tugged at me to find him, and take him home.

Giselle, my mentor, warned me not to tackle any “salvages” on my own. Shit, her voice always echoed in my head. Always warning me, always cautioning me.

“Rylee, finding missing children; those are the most dangerous salvages. You don’t know the reason they were taken. And you don’t have the experience to know an easy case from a complicated or perilous one.”