It wasn’t as bad as he’d made it sound.
It was a lot worse.
I stared at the screen, watching the footage now for a third time, barely hearing the reporter talking over the video, stomach sinking. This was bad.
“I am so fucked,” I said to myself, clutching my cup. “What the hell was I thinking?”
That was the problem, though. I really hadn’t been thinking.
Worse yet, the news had correctly identified me—not as me, of course, not at Autumn McCrory, but definitely as the Quicksilver Crystal Princess, the de facto leader of the Magic Crystal Justice Squad. That alone made me want to curl up in a hole and die.
I was twenty-nine years old and I was going to be known for the rest of my life as the Quicksilver Crystal Princess. At fourteen, it hadn’t sounded so bad—none of it had sounded that bad.
At fourteen, none of us had exactly been able to think very far ahead or very clearly about what could happen in the future.
Gods, we were so stupid back then.
But Nimue had made it sound like it wasn’t going to be terrible. She’d talked to us about duty and honor and responsibility and helped us learn how to use the powers our wands gave us—and so much more. I missed her more than I wanted to admit. She’d always somehow known what to say and what to do—up until the last minute of her life, when she’d sacrificed herself to save us in those dark hours.
We’d all thought that it was the ultimate noble sacrifice.
Something about it now seemed like cruel irony. We hadn’t won the war. We’d only delayed it.
My lips thinned as I ran the video back again. Where had the cameras been? How had I missed the fact that I’d hit the eleven o’clock news?
Tristan was right. If the others didn’t know what I was doing yet, they’d sure as hell know soon.
What do I tell them when they come demanding answers? I didn’t know. What was worse, I didn’t know what I’d do if they didn’t come demanding answers.
I put my head down on my desk, staring at the wood grain at close range, then sighed.
“Buck up, Autumn,” I muttered to myself. “This isn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened. Or could have happened.”
It wasn’t, but it was damn close.
It had only been a matter of time, though, before someone caught sight of me. I’d really just hoped it would be later.
I let the video cycle through one more time before I turned it off with a groan. My coffee cup was empty. Even four cups in, I wasn’t any less tired than I’d been when I rolled out of bed. I’d need to fuel up even more if there was even going to be a prayer of my making it to Maricopa tonight to babysit Tristan and his date.
I wish I could have said no.
At least it meant I didn’t have to cook.
Dragging myself to my feet, I headed with my cup back toward the kitchen to make another pot of coffee and try to mentally prepare myself for diving head-first into my brother’s research. Not for the first time, I wished I could find a way to just be numb, to not feel the ache of his absence whenever I even thought of what he’d been digging into.
Gods, Aust, why didn’t you tell me about what you’d found sooner? But I knew why. He wanted to be sure before I threw myself into danger again. He knew that would be my first instinct, especially since we’d already figured out that no one was going to crop up to replace me and the rest of the team. No new Magic Crystal Justice Squad was going to arise.
There was just the old one, now twelve years out from retirement, and with most of the team intending to stay retired for the rest of their lives.
I couldn’t blame them. If not for my promise to Nimue and what had happened to Austin, I would’ve stayed retired, too.
Like I said. Fate’s a cruel bitch and I know for a fact that she’s got my number.
Halfway through making a fresh pot of coffee, someone pounded on my front door. It startled me badly enough that I jumped, heart going at three times its normal speed.
What the hell? I wasn’t expecting any deliveries, and Tristan never knocked—he’d always just let himself in.
The last time someone had pounded on the door like that…
My heart lodged in my throat. I opened the drawer where I kept my wand stashed and prayed that I wasn’t going to need it.
Keeping it hidden behind my back, I moved toward the door.
Whoever was on the other side pounded again. I swallowed hard, trying to keep my voice level. “Just a minute.”
Peering through the peephole, I only saw someone’s back. It was a woman, her brown, almost black hair in dozens of small braids. I caught a flash of skin only a few shades lighter and swallowed hard.
Oh gods. Please no. I don’t think I can face any of them.
But if it was who I thought it was, she already knew I was home and she already knew she had the right place.
Still, if it was Tia out there, how the hell had she managed to find me?
Clutching my wand behind my back, heart hammering and praying that this wasn’t some kind of trap or trick, I unlocked the door and cracked it open. Tia turned at the sound of the bolt sliding back and met my gaze through the crack.
“You are a really stupidly hard person to find,” she said, crossing her arms. “Can I come in?”
Heaving a sigh, I nodded, opening the door wider. “Yeah. Come in.”
This isn’t going to be fun. Not at all.
Her tone told me that much.
She stepped past me and walked deeper into my apartment. Exactly three steps in, as I turned to close and lock the door behind her, she turned back toward me.
“Unlisted phone number, zero social media presence, no address under your name, no real paper-trail. It’s like you wanted to be forgotten.”
“Maybe I did,” I said as I leaned against the door, avoiding her gaze. I didn’t want to see the anger or hate that I knew I’d find there. She was pissed and probably entitled to it.
“Maybe you did,” she echoed, her voice heavy with sarcasm. “If not for that video on the news and three measly pictures that might be you on Tristan Zeller’s arm—by way, if that is you, you’ve got even more explaining to do than just what was on the news—you might as well be dead.”
I shrugged. The lack of social media and the unlisted number and address had all been my idea. Austin had profiles, but the apartment was under the name of the McCrory Trust and his cell number was unlisted, too. It had just seemed safer that way, smarter. Besides, the work he did practically required some sort of social media presence.
Mine—or the lack thereof, if I were really honest with myself—didn’t require even that much, so I’d stayed completely under the radar as much as I could.
There was a huge part of me that really had wanted to be forgotten.
“So how did you find me?” I asked, staring at her feet. She wore flats, cute ones printed with cherries on a pale blue background. The red echoed the color of the capris she wore. Somehow, she’d always managed to be effortlessly fashionable, even when we were teenagers.
I’d always envied her that in a teeny, tiny way.
She huffed a sigh. “It wasn’t easy.”
“I didn’t think it would be.” Because I didn’t want to be found.
The weight of her gaze was almost enough to make me wilt. “I ended up finding your dissertation. That got me to a copy of your CV. Why the hell aren’t you teaching?”
“Technically, I’m doing post-doctoral research.” I levered myself off the door and walked back to the kitchen. She pivoted to keep me in view. I turned my back to her as I resumed making that fresh pot of coffee I’d started before her pounding on my door had interrupted me.
“Post-doctoral research,” she echoed. “In what, Autumn?”
“Technically nothing.” My lips thinned and I turned back toward her. “What do you want, Tia?”
Her expression went slack. For the first time, I met her gaze and saw worry there, not the anger and hate I’d expected. “What do I want? I want an explanation, Autumn. What the hell is going on? Why were you out there as the Princess on the evening news? I thought that was all over—we hung it up.”
“We did,” I agreed. “But you guys knew that Austin and I were going to watch. That we were going to wait to see who was supposed to pick up where we left off if something new cropped up, if something else went sideways.” My fingers curled around the edge of the counter behind me and I held onto it—it was something tangible, something solid, and I needed that without knowing why. “I owed that much to Nimue and there was no way in hell Austin would let me shoulder that burden alone. Not after everything he watched us go through.”
“So what changed?” Tia took a step toward me, then stopped, as if she’d seen something in my expression that gave her pause. “What did you guys find out?”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“More complicated how?” She looked around, her brows knitting. Her arms fell to her sides. “You were on the news stopping some apparent thugs from breaking into a WestCorp satellite facility because who knows why. That seems pretty simple to me. I just want to know why. Maybe if I asked Austin, he’d tell me.” She turned, as if she was about to go looking for him. I didn’t stop her.
I just squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed hard, fingers digging into the edge of the counter.
“He lives here with you, doesn’t he?”
My head dipped in a single nod. I couldn’t look at her. I couldn’t even open my eyes for fear that I’d just burst into tears.
The pain of loss hit at the worst possible times.
Worry threaded through her voice, mingling with a sense of dread and foreboding, as if somehow she knew what I was going to say. “Autumn, where is he? Where’s Austin?”
“They took him,” I said in a choked whisper. “Men with guns came one night and took him. I didn’t realize who or what they were until it was too late to stop them.”
“What were they?” she asked, her voice growing closer. I trembled, biting down hard on my lower lip, as if that would help keep the tears at bay. “Autumn, please. Tell me.”
“They were her men. Her monsters.”
Tia’s voice dropped. “Kalstrixa’s?”
“Yes.”
The words came as a harsh whisper. “But we banished her.”
“Apparently not hard enough,” I said, my voice choked. “Because her thugs showed up at the same front door that you just pounded on and took my brother before I could stop them.” Sucking in a shaky breath, I finally let go of the counter long enough to swipe angrily at my eyes, at the tears that had started to roll down my cheeks. It was only then that I met Tia’s gaze and saw the shame there.
The bottom dropped out of my stomach.
“When did this happen?” she asked, a tremor in her voice. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Six months ago,” I said, feeling lower than the shit you’d scrape off the bottom of your shoe. “I didn’t tell anyone. Tristan found out on accident.”
“Tristan Zeller.”
I nodded, closing my eyes again. “Yeah.”
“Who doesn’t know anything about any of this. Or…didn’t until you told him.”
“I didn’t tell him anything,” I said. “Just that men with guns came and took Austin.”
She shot me a skeptical look, then came toward me, leaning against the kitchen island to gaze at me steadily. “How do you know him?”
Now was the point that I hoped I was a far better liar than Tristan kept telling me I was. “Austin introduced us. They went to school together.”
Tia nodded slowly. “Must be pretty good friends.”
“Yeah,” I said quietly. “That actually was me in the pictures.”
“Are you seeing him?”
“Not like that,” I said. “I haven’t been with anyone since…” my voice trailed away as my throat tightened more.
Garrett was like a ghost that haunted me. Even all these years later, I ached for him in ways I couldn’t even fully fathom, much less fight.
Tia nodded slowly. “Have…have you seen him? Talked to him?”
“Glimpses only,” I said, turning away. “Do you want some coffee?”
“Are you asking me to stay?”
I shrugged. “Knowing you, Tee, I doubt you’re leaving before you’re fully satisfied with the results of your interrogation.”
“Interrogation,” she repeated, though I could hear the teasing smile in her voice without looking back. “Well, I always was good at that, wasn’t I?”
“The best,” I said, glancing back over my shoulder. “Do you want some coffee or not?”
Her smile gentled and she nodded slightly. “Yeah. Coffee would be good.”
I plucked a spare mug from the tree on the counter, turning on the brewer and leaning against the counter to wait, playing with my own empty mug. Behind me, Tia sighed softly.
“It’s good to see you,” she said almost tentatively. “Even if I had to see you on the news first.”
“Did you see it last night or this morning?” I asked her.
“Five AM,” she said. “Spent all morning trying to track you down instead of actually doing my job.” Her lips thinned. “You had me real worried, Autumn. Really, really worried.”
“Yeah, well, I guess I’m good at that.” I looked away again. “Sorry about the scare. Sorry you had to see me on the news.”
“I’m—I’m not really that upset about that,” Tia admitted. “But I am upset that you didn’t come to me when they took your brother. Why didn’t you?”
“Because we retired,” I said, staring at the thin stream of coffee as it dripped into the carafe. “Because it didn’t seem fair to try to drag you back into something that you’d managed to get out of. All of you guys have lives. For Austin and I, making sure that nothing bad happened because of what we used to fight was our job, was our life. If we could do that and let you guys keep on keeping on? Why wouldn’t we do that, y’know?”
“How long have you known that she was back?” Tia asked. “Or—or at least her forces were back?”
“Austin told me about a month before the men showed up to take him,” I said, starting to pour the coffee. I filled her mug first, then mine, and brought both over to the island. I kept talking as I got the cream and sugar and brought them over. “I don’t know how long he knew before he told me, but I think it was a while. He was always watching, always digging. He was better at it than any of us.”
“Well, that’s how he figured out our secret in the first place, isn’t it? It’s not like it was any kind of twin-sense.”
I choked on a laugh that could have easily turned into a sob, shaking my head. “You’re sure as hell right about that.” For all the jokes and theories about twins having some kind of innate connection that bordered on the psychic, it hadn’t really been that way for Austin and I. Every so often one of us would have a bad feeling about the other’s state of being that came true, but not enough for either of us to believe it was anything other than coincidental. As for when I’d picked up my wand for the first time, if Austin had noticed anything inside of the first year, he never let on. It wasn’t until later that he’d started to sort out that there was something strange going on with me and my friends from school. He’d gotten curious enough to start digging and it wasn’t long before he’d stumbled into what was going on.
No matter how hard any of us ever tried to keep a secret, somehow Austin could always figure out what it was. That was his superpower.
He’d always said it was the only one he needed.
I miss him so much.
He was all the blood family I had.
Now even that had been taken away from me.
“So he found something,” Tia said. “Pursued it, didn’t tell you anything until later, and then shit hit the fan.”
“In a major way.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Before you got here I was getting ready to go through his files again, see if I could figure anything out, see if there was something I’d missed the last dozen times I looked through them.” I sighed. “I don’t know. I feel like there’s something he buried in all of the information that he gathered that I just haven’t found, one piece of the puzzle that I’m missing that’ll help me put it all together.”
“That also sounds like him.” Tia stirred some cream and sugar into her coffee, staring into the mug for a few seconds before she looked at me again. “Did you report it?”
I startled. “Report what?”
“Austin’s kidnapping.”
Wincing, I shook my head. “No. How could I? For all I know, she’s got people in the military industrial complex or law enforcement and they’re the ones that took him.” The thought made me sick but it was entirely possible. Before we’d managed to banish her, Kalstrixa had people everywhere, embedded in some of the highest levels of governance and law enforcement. It had been a terrifying thing for a bunch of teenagers to face.
In some ways, I was silently grateful that a new crop of teenagers wouldn’t be the ones facing her return.
At the same time, fighting her alone didn’t have much appeal, either.
I can’t ask them to help me. They hung it up. Let them stay retired.
Let them stay safe. As long as they’re not involved, they’ll be safe.
As long as they don’t suit up, they’re safe.
Please, let them stay safe.
Tia chewed her lip. “I guess I didn’t think about it that way. The men that were going after WestCorp—”
“I don’t know what they were after,” I said. “Not yet. That’s part of what I was going to start trying to figure out when you got here.” I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Tristan was going to check into some things on his end to see exactly what his company’s getting set to do at that facility.”
She nodded slowly. “I wish you’d called me.”
I just shook my head. “I didn’t want anyone to know.”
“You shouldn’t be fighting alone. Someone’s got to watch your back.”
I tried not to think about how long I’d been doing it alone. She didn’t need to know that I’d been doing it for seven months—since before Austin was taken.
There was a big part of me that thought my actions were at least one reason that he’d been taken away from me.
Every action I took now put him in danger, but I knew that he wouldn’t want me to stop fighting. Even though he hadn’t confided in me exactly what he’d found, he’d said enough for me to know how high the stakes were and how much he believed that we needed to take action.
I couldn’t just stop now. That would have been a betrayal and my brother was the one person in the whole universe that I wouldn’t ever betray.
Not in this life or any other.
“Autumn?”
I jerked, blinking at her. “What?”
“You got really quiet,” Tia said. “It was like you weren’t even here for a minute.”
“Maybe I wasn’t,” I whispered, staring into my mug again. I took a slow sip of coffee. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Tia reached across the counter and put her hand on my arm. I shivered a little. She bit her lip. “I’m sorry to barge in and demand answers.”
“I probably deserved it,” I said. “Like I said. You didn’t deserve to find out about this from the evening news.”
“Yeah,” she agreed softly. “But it’s okay. Sounds like it’s been rough all over for you.” She wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. “I’m guessing Rin doesn’t know?”
A shudder went through me and I shook my head almost convulsively. “No. And neither of us are going to tell her.”
Tia blinked. “Wait, what? You don’t think she deserves to know?”
“They broke up, Tia. A year ago.”
“He was going to marry her, Autumn. You don’t think she deserves to know that something’s happened to him?”
It was almost enough to bring me to tears again. My hands tightened around my mug. “Just because they were going to get married doesn’t mean that she deserves this level of pain, Tia.”
Her sharp breath told me that she knew exactly what I meant. “Oh. Oh, Autumn, that’s not what I’m implying.”
“You don’t have to,” I said, my voice cracking. “I’ve already thought it. I just hope I’m wrong. Is it awful to hope that they’re just holding him hostage and maybe punishing him for my actions but not trying to do that to him?”
“No,” she breathed. “No, Autumn, it’s not awful. None of us would ever wish what happened to Garrett on anyone. You know that. God, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to remind you of that.”
“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of it anyway,” I said. I had to take another drink to loosen my throat enough to keep talking. “I don’t know what I’ll have to do to save Austin, Tia, but I’m not asking any of you to come back to this. I want you guys safe.”
“None of us are safe if she’s back,” Tia said, her gaze steady and her voice firm. “Nothing that means anything to us will be safe—no one that means anything to us will be safe if she’s still out there, Autumn. You know that. You might not want to, but in your heart, you know it. That’s why she came after Austin—above and beyond whatever he uncovered and couldn’t leave alone. She came after him because he means something to you—to all of us.” Her hand tightened on my arm. I swallowed hard and just stared at the countertop.
I knew the words were coming before she said them, I just didn’t want to hear them.
“Let me help,” Tia said softly. “Please, Autumn. Don’t shut me out. Don’t shut any of us out. He’s family to us, too.”
I couldn’t deny her that. I shivered, wanting nothing more than to shrivel up and blow away like a dry leaf on the wind. “Tia, if you pick it back up, you might never be able to set it down again. This could destroy your life, everything that you’ve worked for.”
“If I don’t and she wins, everything that I’ve built for myself since we hung it up isn’t going to matter anyway.” She took both of my hands in hers. I couldn’t help but stare at the engagement ring on her left hand. Austin had mentioned to me that she was getting married shortly before he’d disappeared. He’d seen the announcement on social media a few days before an engagement announcement hit the papers. I was happy for her.
I was also terrified.
Her fingers tightened around mine. “I won’t build my future on rubble of yours and Austin’s, Autumn. It’s not in me to do that to either of you. You’re going to let me help in whatever way I can—whatever way I have to. You’re not going to argue with me about it, either. Y’dig?”
“I dig,” I whispered, then smiled faintly. “What are you going to tell your fiancé when you start missing dates and not coming home until late?”
“I guess that’s going to have to depend on group consensus,” she said with a faint smile. “Because let’s be real here. It is only a matter of time before Rin shows up looking for you and Austin because I’m guessing she knows where you guys live.”
“Actually, she doesn’t.” I shook my head, smiling weakly at the shocked look that crossed her face. “Austin always either picked her up or met her somewhere, and they would always go back to her place. She hasn’t known where we lived in ten years.”
Tia let out a low whistle. “Well, then. Either way, she’s going to be hunting you down. She might not find you as fast, but she’ll find you regardless.”
“You think she’s going to be mad.”
“Oh, I think she’s going to be absolutely furious.” Tia grinned. “Good thing you’ll have me to back you up and help deflect the mighty Sullivan Rage.”
“You’re going to make me tell all of them, aren’t you?”
“You don’t think you should? That we should?”
Tristan warned you.
I closed my eyes for a second. “I just wanted to keep you guys out of it. Safe.”
“And I love you for it,” Tia said. “I also hate you for it. C’mon, Autumn. All of us might as well be sisters. We hate and love each other in equal measures and god knows that sometimes we don’t like each other very much, but at the end of the day, we’ve always got each other’s backs. Hell hath no fury like a girl whose sister’s been threatened.” The ghost of a smile curved her lips. “Or, in this case, our not-so-innocent and beloved brother.”
I stared down into my coffee again. “Well. I guess I’d better get dressed, then, huh?”
“If we want to catch Rin before she’s completely on the warpath? Probably, yeah.” Tia swirled her coffee in her mug. “Should we call before we go see her?”
“No,” I said, gulping down my coffee in a few swallows. “She’ll only want to know why I need to talk to her and I’m not going to break this news over the phone.” Even though it might be easier if I did, she doesn’t deserve that. I’ll eat her wrath in the face if I have to—hell. She’ll probably beat the snot out of me for not telling her sooner.
Still. She and Austin had broken up—however temporary or not it might have been. Maybe she’d just chalked his silence up to that.
Maybe she was over him.
Either way, I was going to find out whether I liked it or not.
“Let me get dressed,” I said quietly. “Then we’ll go.”
“Sounds good,” Tia said, watching me as I crossed the living room. “Do you mind if we make a stop on the way?”
I paused at the entrance to the hallway that led back to the bedrooms, arching a brow at her. “No. Where are we stopping?”
“My place,” she said, dark eyes sparkling. “There’s something I need to pick up.”
