“I don’t know who would have done that, but I know that they’ve left. I heard them land and take off again. Kate made quick work of whatever video she took, and they didn’t even power down the engines. They are two hundred miles away by now.”
“Good,” Anna said. “I hope they stay that way.”
“I hope so, too,” he said. He swept her off her feet, hugging her close and kissing her before setting her down again. “Let’s get breakfast going so we can head home.”
They tiptoed down the stairs, rummaging through Jason’s kitchen until they found what they wanted, and set to work. They were almost done when Jason stumbled down the stairs, looking blurry-eyed and disheveled, his chestnut hair radiating in spikes from his scalp. Anna almost giggled at his rough appearance, but she stopped herself. They’d all spent a good portion of the night awake, and Anna doubted that Jason had gotten any more restful sleep than Anna had. He was probably just as worried about the sudden appearance of people from the east as Anna had been, maybe more so. At least Anna had known those people existed for almost a year now. Jason, on the other hand, was still processing the fact that their quiet village had been ruled for decades by a dragon in disguise. Adding Kate to the mix wasn’t making things easier to digest.
“Good morning,” he yawned, then smiled as he inhaled. “There are some oranges on the tree if Lucy wants fresh juice.”
“I’ll do it,” Anna said. “I don’t want to wake her up.”
Jason yawned again, stretching as he turned and looked into the living room just off the kitchen. Then, he froze, looking at one sofa, then the other, then back at Anna.
“Is she asleep in the library?” he asked.
“No,” Anna shook her head. “She’s in the guest room beside the one we slept in.”
“No, she’s not,” Jason said.
“You must have missed her,” Eli said, sliding food from the pan to a plate and setting it on the table. “She’s easy to miss with all those blankets wrapped around her.”
Jason shook his head.
“I saw that the bed was unmade, but she’s not in there.”
Anna felt sick, but she tried to remain calm. Lucy was slender and loved to wrap herself in piles of blankets as if she were freezing to death. Or maybe he’d missed her going into the bathroom to get ready.
Trying to calm herself down and stay rational about everything, Anna left the kitchen, went through the living room and raced down the hall. By the time she made it to the hallway, she was running, but she resisted the urge to call out to Lucy. She didn’t want to frighten the child out of sleep or disturb her if she was in the bathroom.
The bed was empty when Anna reached the room, the bathroom door ajar. Feeling faint, Anna half tripped over her own feet in her rush to the bathroom, but that, too, was empty.
“Lucy!” she yelled, no longer caring if she frightened the child. “Lucy, come out please. This isn’t funny.”
But the room was empty, and Anna’s heart sank as the truth settled in the pit of her stomach. Lucy wasn’t there.
She laid her hand on the sheets, which were ice cold. No one had been in this bed for some time. Anna felt frozen in time, everything in slow motion as she took in the entire room, ignoring the footsteps of the two men as they searched each room in the house and came up empty.
“Eli, she’s gone!” Anna yelled, her own voice sounding foreign as the terror settled in. “Eli, where is she?”
“I don’t know,” Eli said.
He tried to put his arms around Anna, but she shoved him away, running to the windows and looking out each one before running to the next room and starting the process again. Anna was shaking and crying by the time she reached the back door, which she yanked open just as Jason pushed it from the other side. They locked eyes, and without him saying a word, Anna knew that Lucy wasn’t in the yard or in the house. A moan escaped her lips as she shook her head, willing the truth away.
“She must have snuck out,” Jason said. “I didn’t hear anything.”
“I checked on her before Kate left the house,” Eli said, trying and failing to console Anna, so he continued to try to talk her through it. His every word grated on Anna’s already frayed nerves. Words weren’t going to get her Lucy back. “I watched Kate from the window while I eavesdropped on their conversation. Lucy wasn’t with her. I swear to you, Anna. Lucy wasn’t with her.”
“Then where is she?” Anna shot back, her voice strangled. “Where is she if she isn’t here and she isn’t with Kate?”
Eli closed his eyes for a moment, and Anna almost shrieked in anger. Now was not the time to take a moment to regroup and calm down. They needed to find Lucy before something happened to her.
“Where did she leave her backpack when we got here yesterday?” Eli asked Jason.
“In the hallway by the front entrance, but it was gone when I went out the front door to check the yard for her. Eli, the door wasn’t locked.”
“Are you saying she left through the front door?” Eli asked.
“I think so. And I know I locked it, because I always lock it at night. Last night was no different, and I remember seeing her backpack sitting by the door. I almost moved it for her, but I didn’t want her to feel like I violated her privacy. I remember what my sisters were like at that age.”
Anna was shaking, and the conversation was starting to sound far away. She was trying her hardest not to run into the streets, screaming Lucy’s name at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t let something happen to Lucy. Why hadn’t she been there when Lucy needed her?
“She must have sneaked to the choppers,” Eli said, his voice grim. Anna listened to Eli talk, but the words were a jumble of nonsense, and she couldn’t believe that Lucy would do that. And wouldn’t Kate bring her back if that was the case? “We need to find them; with them, we’ll find her.”
His words finally sank in, but with them, there was little hope.
“You said they must be two hundred miles away,” she said, her face falling, her hands shaking. “That was almost an hour ago. How will we catch up to them? Do we even know where they’re heading?”
She felt the tears coming as they spilled over her cheeks, but she didn’t bother wiping them away. While she’d been in bed, enjoying the morning with her husband, Lucy was speeding away in a chopper, chasing some dream, with no idea of the danger she was putting herself in. Anna had failed her child, and Lucy could very possibly pay for Anna’s mistake with her life. The realization hit her hard, and she staggered under the weight of her fear and grief.
“There were eight choppers,” Anna said. “How do we figure out which one she was in, and how in the world are we going to catch up to them?”
“Not we,” Eli said. “I will. I can fly faster and higher without you.”
“I can’t let you go alone,” Anna said. “We have to stick together. When we’re divided, that makes us both vulnerable, and we can’t save Lucy if we’re dead.”
Eli opened his mouth as if he was going to try to convince her, but his jaw closed and he nodded instead.
“You’re right. We can’t do this alone.”
“What are we going to do?” Anna asked, still struggling to stay calm and think things through without the panic derailing her.
It was easier said than done.
“We’re going to need reinforcements,” Eli said, but he was lost in thought and obviously thinking out loud while Jason and Anna hung onto his every word. “We’re going to have to assume that they’ve already noticed her and go in to quietly retrieve her. It’s going to take a lot of doing…”
He trailed off, and Anna searched his face, looking for the bold, confident man Eli had always been. Their eyes met, and she knew that they were in for a hard battle.
The only thing she saw in his eyes was fear.