Jenna Black - Dark Descendant

Taking a deep breath for courage, I slipped past the camera and onto Alexis’s property.

My instincts were stillinsisting that Emma was nearby. Unfortunately, I wasn’t having much luck convincing those instincts to tell me where .

At first, I stuck to the woods that bounded Alexis’s property, not because I felt it likely Emma was buried there, where roots would have made digging difficult, but because it was easier to stay hidden. I traipsed through those woods for at least forty-five minutes, having no idea what I was looking for but hoping to God I’d recognize it when I saw it.

No luck. If Emma was buried in the woods, I lacked the power to find her.

I turned my attention to the gardens and lawns that surrounded the house on all sides. There weren’t any lights on in the house, so it was likely no one would see me if I ventured out from the cover of the trees. Still, I hesitated to do it. I’d seen what Alexis had done to Steph, and he’d been interrupted before he could finish. If he caught me trespassing on his property … He might still technically have an agreement with Anderson, but I doubted that would protect me.

I squatted behind a bush at the very edge of the tree line, trying to work up the courage to break cover. The cloud cover was growing thicker as the temperature continued to drop. There were moments when the moon disappeared from view, and I worried that soon the patchy clouds would turn into a heavy overcast. If I had any moon-driven powers, and if those powers depended on actually being able to see the moonlight, they’d better hurry up and make themselves known to me.

I was gnawing my lip indecisively when a flicker of movement off to my right made me jump and gasp. I was frantically trying to unzip my backpack before I’d even finished turning toward the sound, cursing myself for not having the gun in my hand already. Then I saw the doe picking her way through the underbrush and almost laughed myself silly.

My heart was racing, my breath coming short and steaming in the frosty air. I sat down on the cold ground, putting a hand to my heart, waiting for the flood of adrenaline to fade.

Braver than I, the doe ventured out of the woods and onto the outskirts of the manicured lawn. She paused briefly to look at the house, as if assuring herself that the coast was clear, then set off toward the man-made pond at a brisk, elegant trot. Still waiting for my heart rate to return to something resembling normal, I watched her progress and felt reassured by the lack of alarms, blaring lights, or barking dogs. My fear of venturing out from the woods was just a side effect of stretched-taut nerves.

The doe reached the shore of the pond, and stood poised there for a long moment. Her head turned in my direction, until I could have sworn she was looking me straight in the eye. The light of the moon limned her with silver, giving her an ethereal look. I shivered as I remembered that Artemis was often depicted with a deer by her side. Was the animal even real?

The doe quit staring at me and bent her head to drink from the pond. And suddenly, for no reason I could point a finger at, I knew. Emma was in the pond. Not buried, as Konstantin had claimed, but drowned. Tossing her into the water, weighted down with chains, required a lot less effort than digging a grave and burying her. I wondered if the magic of the Liberi caused her to revive on a regular basis, and then drown again. I shuddered away from the thought, which was too horrible to contemplate.

All right—I finally had a strong hunch where Emma was. It was based on absolutely zero empirical evidence, and no matter how strong my hunch, I wouldn’t be shocked to find out it was wrong. However, the only way to confirm I was right was to take a dip in the pond. The prospect was far from inviting. The water would be freezing, and while the pond was relatively small and probably not very deep, it would take a significant amount of swimming to check the whole thing. All the while out in the open and defenseless against attack.

Slowly, carefully, I edged back into the full cover of the woods. If Emma really was in that pond, I would need help getting her out. I was less certain of her location than I’d have liked to be, but I figured now was a good time to call Anderson and share my theory. Obviously, he knew more about the Liberi and their powers than I did. If my evidence was enough to convince him that Emma was in the pond, then I’d feel a lot more confident that I wasn’t just imagining things. And if I wasn’t just imagining things, then it was time to call in the cavalry and get Emma out of here.

About forty minutes later, I was so numb from cold I feltlike I might have frozen in place. That’s when Anderson appeared suddenly and without warning at my side. I about had a heart attack, and a strangled scream escaped my throat as I backed hastily away and tripped over an exposed tree root, landing on my butt.

Like me, he was dressed all in black, with a black knit hat pulled low over his forehead. Hard to spot in the dark, for sure, but I should have seen something .

He grinned down at me, apparently enjoying the spectacle I’d made of myself. “It’s just me.”

I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath, searching for calm. How had he just appeared out of thin air like that? Emmitt and Jamaal had both pulled similar stunts, and I’d assumed it was an ability unique to Liberi who had death magic. Then again, no one seemed to know who Anderson’s divine ancestor was, so perhaps he was himself a descendant of a death god, though apparently an obscure one if no one recognized his glyph.

I opened my eyes and glared up at him. “You’re lucky I managed to swallow that scream,” I told him. “This expedition could have been over before it started, all because you felt like being a comedian.” Probably no one would have heard me if I’d screamed—I’d told Anderson to meet me in the woods at the property line, right near the realigned camera—but it was the principle of the thing.

Still grinning, he reached out a hand to help me up. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I kind of forgot I was in stealth mode until it was too late.”

I brushed dead leaves and pine needles from the seat of my pants. I wasn’t sure I believed him, but I didn’t suppose it much mattered. I glanced into the woods behind him, but saw no other lurking Liberi .

“You didn’t bring any backup?” I asked incredulously. When he’d put enough faith in my hunch to agree to come himself, I’d assumed he’d bring at least a couple of his other people in case this turned into a fight.

“It’s easier to be sneaky with just two of us,” he responded, and I knew at once he was lying, maybe just because it was such a lame explanation.

I gave him a hard look. “What aren’t you telling me?”

The look Anderson gave me in return was just as hard. “Things you don’t need to know,” he said, and took a step forward as if he thought the conversation was over.

I grabbed his arm. “Hey, if I’m putting my butt on the line for you, I deserve full disclosure before I go charging in there.” The sneaking about I’d been doing so far had no doubt been dangerous, but not half so dangerous as an actual attempt to extract Emma from the water. Assuming she was even there.

Anderson twitched his arm out of my grip. “Come help me, or go back to the house. It’s your choice.” He plunged forward again without a backward glance.

Common sense told me to get the heck out of there. I couldn’t begin to guess what Anderson was hiding, but chances were it was going to come back and bite me in the butt. That’s just the way my life works.