Page 49 of Alphas Never Hide

Ryleyreached for his ginger ale with a shaky hand and took a large gulp of it.Whenhe finished, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.Hesucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.Hedid it again, just howI’dinstructed him when we’d been in the woods earlier.Thenhe closed his eyes.Igripped his neck a little tighter, to remind him he wasn’t alone.Anotherdeep breath in, then out.

“Idon’t know whyI’m—” he waved his hand through the air, “—being so weird about this or whatever.”

“You’redoing great,”Isaid. “Thisis the first time you’re talking about it.Thefirst time you’ve let yourself really think about it, since you escaped.Itis going to be raw.Andwhat happened today wouldn’t have helped.”

Ryleyleaned into my touch a little more and let out a shuddering breath. “So, likeIwas saying,Iwent on a holiday.I’mself-employed and can pretty much work from anywhere, soI’mnot sure it was really a holiday.”

“Whatdo you do?”Vanasked.

“Idesign websites for people and do some graphic design work.”Hepatted his laptop, which he was holding against his chest like a security blanket. “Thisis allIneed.Anyway,Ibought a twenty-year-old convertible on a whim, thinking it’d be cool to drive through the mountains with the top down.Ithrew whatIneeded in my backpack, andIhit the road.Onmy first night,Igrabbed a room at a motel off the highway.Nothingspecial, but it didn’t look like a dive, either.”

“Whatwas the name of it?Wasit close to a town?”

Ryleypushed up his glasses. “Iwasn’t really paying attention.Itmight have been something likeSleepyHillsMotel.”

“Youdidn’t plan your route on one of those, what do they call them…?Appsor whatever?”Iasked.Heseemed way too techy not to have used a program to plot his route.

Hischeeks darkened. “NormallyIwould have, yes.ButI’dhad the bizarre impulse to see whereIended up.Itook it as a sign theEternalMagicwas trying to tell me something, like she had whenIleft my herd.Butthen, whenIwas jumped leaving my room to get ice my first night,Iwondered if some other magic was messing with me.That’sa ridiculous idea, isn’t it?Badthings happen to people all the time.Itdoesn’t mean magic is involved.Butthat compulsion to get in my car and drive right to the spot where someone was waiting to abduct me,Iwondered if something else was at work, you know?”

VanandIexchanged a look.Thatdidn’t sound good.Ididn’t know of a magic that could do that, but magic could be twisted to do a lot of things.Whathappened betweenSimonandOgdenwas just one example.Buthow wouldRobbieget his hands on something like that?

“Youknow what?Nevermind about that whole magic thing.I’mbeing paranoid or letting my brain think it was a big conspiracy becauseI’mhorrified at how unpreparedIwas.”

“We’veseen magic twisted and manipulated into doing a lot of strange things this summer.Anythingis possible,”Itold him.

“Andyou’ve been with those wolves ever since?”Vanasked, steeringRyleyback on topic.

“Yeah.”Heshivered, andIwishedIcould pull him into my lap and hold him. “Mymind is blank from the point whenIstepped into the hallway to waking up in a cage in that bunker.”

Alow growl rumbled through me.Icouldn’t stop it.Ididn’t try.ThinkingaboutRobbieand his pals attacking random supes—no, not any random supe, butthissupe in particular—made me want to stop them.Permanently.

I’dbeen huntingRobbieall summer, butI’dnever considered killing him before.Ialways imagined turning him over toVan.Gettinghim help.Butsuddenly my plans turned a hell of a lot darker.ButcouldIdo that?Killmy own brother?Thelast familyIhad?

Yes.IthoughtIcould.ForRyley.

Howfucked up was that?I’dknown the guy for less than twenty-four hours andIwas thinking of killing for him.Whatwas going on with me?First, my magic was acting up and now this?

Thechair creaked whenVanleaned forward in it. “Didyou see who grabbed you?”

“Ithink they must have drugged me.Ididn’t see a thing.”Ryleyshook his head, and his shoulders drooped.

“That’sokay.Fromwhat we understand, they’ve been doing this for several months at least.Enoughtimes to get good at it.Oncethey targeted you, there probably wasn’t much you could have done,”Vansaid. “Now, how about when you were in the bunker?Didyou see anyone while you were down there?Anyguards?Anyother prisoners?”

“Threewolves.Allof them were guards,Iguess.Noone else.”Hepushed up his glasses again. “Wait.IthinkIheard someone crying one night.Thewolves always talked about leaving the bunker at night and sleeping in a bed, soIdon’t think it was one of themIheard.Imight have imagined it.Itgot spookily quiet down there.Itmade you hear things that weren’t there.Anyway,HaydenandIdidn’t find any beds when we looked through the tunnels today, soRobbieand his guys must have been living somewhere else.”

Thatwas important.BecauseifRobbieand the others weren’t sleeping in that tunnel, where did they go?Andwhere was that other prisoner who’d been crying?Robbiehad said something about other pets too, hadn’t he?Werethose the shadowsRyleymentioned when we’d first stepped into the tunnel?Wherehad they gone?VanandIshared a look that told me he was thinking the same thing.

“Okay,Ryley,”Vansaid. “That’sgood.”

Vanasked a bunch more questions.Alot of them were variations of the same thing, trying to get as many details fromRyleyas he could, includingRyley’sobservationsabout what’d happened when he’d gone back down in those tunnels with me.Whentheir interview finally ended,IdecidedIhad a few of my own questions.

Iturned toVan. “Weneed to get back to that tunnel.Haveyou calledBirchAveryyet?Whencan we get out there?”

“Birchwill be here in a few days.”Vanheld up his hand whenIopened my mouth to protest about the delay. “Heknows this is important, but theSChas him checking theFardalePrison.Ateam of independent mages go through the place every six months to make sure theEternalMagicisn’t undermining our efforts to keep all those bastards off the streets.Birchis on the team this time around.”

Vanmade it sound like theEternalMagicherself was breaking criminals out of prison, like a scene from an action and adventure movie, but we both knew it wasn’t like that.

Asupe was blessed with magic when they were born.I’dheard of occasions when theEternalMagicwould bestow additional blessings as a person aged, butI’dnever heard of her removing magic from someone.Oncea supe, always a supe.Andthat made it tricky for prisons, because magic didn’t like to be trapped.Ithad nothing to do with theEternalMagicgoing out of her way to help criminals; it was just a fact of supernatural life.