A/N: Just a heads up that you might have missed the previous chapter if you weren't looking for it, so you'll want to take a peek and read it first if you haven't already. (This is me operating on the assumption that emails are slowly being sent out again because I've received a handful, and I'm hoping this chapter update notification will be among them.)
She's shaken awake before it feels like she's gotten any sleep at all, and Susan doesn't need the stiffness throughout her entire body to remember what happened. Blinking up at Jake doesn't help her see any better; she's sure he's there because she hasn't heard him move, but it's still full dark, and there isn't enough moonlight coming in from outside the cave to do her any good. "Is Dolores back?" she asks softly as she sits up, even though she knows Dolores would make a point of splashing to let Susan know as much if she were. A quick check of her watch suggests Dolores has only been gone a couple of hours, but—
There's a beat of silence before Jake says, "No. I don't want to wait for her. We've already been discovered."
Jake might as well have tossed her into the water. "I beg your pardon?"
Something lands on her lap, hardly heavier than her favourite cookbook from her childhood, and her fingers find a burlap sack and—
A softness that feels suspiciously like flesh beneath.
"What happened?" she asks as she fumbles for the opening of the bag.
"Pixie. And where there's one, there's more. I'm sure you know. I remember hearing something about a few of the initiates tracking a colony to Central Park, so this must be proof that there was something to their suspicions."
Susan frowns. Colony in Central Park or not, finding a pixie this far out means nothing. She can understand why Jake is jumpy, but— "Please tell me you didn't kill them."
He snorts. "Knocked it out. Killing it wouldn't get us anywhere."
It. Susan can't help but flinch at the word. Jake has as much to learn as he has to unlearn. Some magical creatures take pride in the pronoun, but others— "Them. Please."
"Like it matters when it's just—"
"It matters," she cuts in before he can finish the thought. Dragons might see themselves at the top of the hierarchy in the magical world and therefore take it upon themselves to protect it, and Susan isn't about to have a debate with her son about the morality of such a position right now, but she knows dragons aren't better than any other magical creature, especially the sentient ones, and she doesn't want to think that his prejudices from the Huntsclan will forever impact his part in their world once this is over.
"Fine. Them. Or her. It—they—she—was wearing some kind of uniform, and—"
"Uniform?" Susan repeats sharply as her fingers finally loosen the knot enough to open the sack. "I need some light."
Mercifully, Jake doesn't argue; he simply finds a flashlight, clicks it on, and passes it to her. Squinting as her eyes adjust, Susan sets it sideways in her lap to direct the beam of light away from both of them. That gives her just enough light to carefully extract the magical creature from the bag, cradling their body as she keeps them face down so she can be confident she's not damaging their wings. She knows the wings are much more resilient than they look and can take considerable damage before they're rendered completely incapable of flight, but they're still extremely sensitive.
A fine grey dust comes off the bag onto both the fairy and her hands as she does so—Jake had not found a clean bag, apparently—but Susan cleans them both off as best she can. Jake wets a tissue for the purpose when she asks, which at least means he's not going to stop her from doing what she can.
Susan's hoping the process will bring the magical creature in her hands back to wakefulness, too.
As it turns out, they're a fairy, not a pixie. The distinction between the two should be obvious to those who know what they're looking for, so it's not a mistake she'd have thought someone who grew up in the Huntsclan would make, but perhaps they're similar enough that the Huntsclan rarely has to make the distinction.
She'd never say that aloud to a fairy or a pixie, though.
Besides, there's always the chance that Jake hadn't gotten a good look at them before he'd…done whatever he'd done. What had he done? The cave is likely well stocked, and he wouldn't have needed light to find whatever he'd been looking for, but fairies aren't exactly quiet when being attacked, which means they hadn't noticed him, which means—
That's not the point.
It's already been done, and she can't change that now.
The fairy twitches, starting to stir, so Susan carefully turns the fairy in her hands to continue cleaning them off before sucking in a breath. "This is Petite." Susan knows her well enough to recognize her on sight. "She's a messenger fairy. Part of the Pixie Post."
"That doesn't make it better. Someone from the Huntsclan might be following her—"
"No. They're experts at teleportation magic."
He lets out a frustrated noise as she carefully wipes the last of the dust from Petite's face. "So? Even if it's your people who've found us and not the Huntsclan—"
"Jake. She wouldn't have come here if she weren't looking for one of us. She probably has a message from my father."
Jake opens his mouth, but a groan from Petite cuts between them as the fairy rights herself in Susan's hands. "Where's the wise guy with the iron powder?"
Susan shoots Jake a sharp look, but his face gives away nothing. "I'm sorry, Petite. It was a misunderstanding."
"That quality of iron powder sure isn't any kind of misunderstanding I've run into before," grumbles Petite. "Rougher than flying into a brick wall. You're getting charged extra for this."
"I'm sorry," Susan says again, even though she knows it isn't enough, "but is it safe to say you were looking for me?"
Petite doesn't look in Jake's direction, but she twitches and purses her lips before answering, "Message from your old man."
It's a confirmation Susan doesn't really need that Petite knows Jake is there and that he is the one who had attacked her, which of course means she doesn't trust him. If Susan decides to trust him, that's out of Petite's hands, but privacy is not taken lightly by messenger fairies.
Petite pats her pockets, finds her wand, and then produces a clipboard to present to Susan without any apparent trouble, which at least means the iron powder hadn't taken her down for long. Susan has always suspected Petite's magic to be nearly as strong as the tooth fairy's. "Sign here."
Susan picks up the tiny pen with the ink that always flows and makes a checkmark on the recipient line.
The clipboard vanishes, but instead of the usual message projected by magic, an envelope falls into Susan's hands as Petite takes flight. "You know how to call me if you need to send something in return."
"Yes, thank you," Susan murmurs, and Petite vanishes with a wave of her wand.
Lao Shi's letter is short and to the point. The Dragon Council has made their decision regarding Huntsclan Agent 99. Stay with him, keep this with you, and they will find you shortly.
Notably, it does not say what decision has been reached, which either means it is too much of a risk to trust with even the Pixie Post or Lao Shi knows she won't like it.
It might be both.
There's no indication of how quickly shortly will arrive, either.
"Well?" Jake asks as she folds the letter back up and tucks it into her pocket. "Does this change where you think we should be going to hide?"
"No," Susan says slowly, because if the Dragon Council is tracking the letter, they'll find Jake wherever she is—and, likely as not, they'd find him even if she abandoned the letter. Her father knows she isn't about to abandon her son, and he'll have made that clear to them.
Of course, if she were sure leaving Jake would help, she'd consider it—she'd be foolish not to weigh the risks—but she hardly wants him to face the Dragon Council alone.
As it is, hiding somewhere outside of the magical world is unlikely to slow down either the Dragon Council or the Huntsclan as much as she'd like. She suspects they're all willing to take risks they might not ordinarily take—Jake might argue against that in the Huntsclan's case, but Susan doubts her suspicions are unwarranted, given whatever has befallen Huntsgirl on top of what's been happening with Jake—and, when it comes down to it, Susan would rather go to Jonathan's family than her own right now. Still…. "Dolores's information may, though."
"She asked for the rest of the night. We can't wait for that."
"It's our best bet. So much of what you'll do hinges on a conversation with Huntsgirl you still need to have, and so much of what we'll do depends on the outcome of that."
His expression tightens, but he doesn't deny it.
"Dolores won't stay out longer than necessary," adds Susan. "We only asked for one thing."
Jake's only response is a grunt.
"Please. I think it's worth the risk."
"I don't," he snaps, and she blinks, not realizing she'd pushed him this far. "I have more to lose than you do, remember? And I can't trust your friends in the magical world to have my back. They might put on a nice show when you're around, but how do I know they're not going to turn on me they first chance they get? I'm part of the Huntsclan!"
"You don't have to be," she reminds him, "and the fact that you're not with them now should be proof enough that—"
"It's not proof of anything." The words come out as a snarl, and she sees his tail twist behind him before he suppresses his dragon side again. "Not to anyone who isn't you. You want to see the best in everyone, me included, but no one else has any reason to do that. They'll see another hunter with a foolproof infiltration technique that they need to put down before it becomes a problem."
"You're not a problem—"
"To you. I am to everyone else. Don't think I can't see that. Isn't that what your letter was about?"
Well.
He's technically not wrong about any of that.
If he were, the Dragon Council wouldn't be involved.
"Look," she says, holding her hands up in what she hopes he takes a placating manner, "I'll admit my own bias in this situation, and your concerns aren't unwarranted, but my father is addressing those. That's what my letter was about. He spoke with the Dragon Council about your situation. I'm sure they'll find a way to resolve this—"
"Sure. The same way the Huntsclan would. Which is not a resolution I want."
She can imagine what the Huntsclan would do. "They're not going to kill you. Whatever you've been taught, they're not monsters."
He huffs. "There are worse things they can do than kill me. I just want to live my life. I don't—" He breaks off, looking away from her. "I don't want any of this. I don't want to run. I don't want to hunt. I don't want to play the long-lost son who's miraculously returned from the dead."
She winces at that, but if he notices it in his peripheral, he ignores it.
"I can't have what I want," he continues, "so the closest I can get to that is running. And staying here after two different magical creatures have seen me and left in the same night isn't something I can do, okay?" He flicks his gaze back to her. "I know how the Huntsclan operates. I know how magical creatures are tracked. There shouldn't be any activity in this area—that's one reason why Huntsgirl and I picked it in the first place—so when something changes, that'll get noticed. Once isn't much indication of anything, but twice is noteworthy, worth watching just in case, and now— Someone will check it out. And I can't afford to be here when they do. If you want to wait for Dolores, wait on your own."
"Sounds like you fancy yourself caught between the devil and the deep blue sea," comes a voice from the darkness, and Susan jumps even though she recognizes it.
Jake is unnerved, too, judging by the talon he quickly shakes back into a human hand.
"Don't worry," Dolores adds as Susan plays the flashlight beam over the water. "I missed all the juicy bits before Jake was bemoaning being a long-lost son." She slips under the water again and closes the distance to the water's edge before surfacing as silently as before.
Showing off, Susan figures, but she sets the flashlight on its end to give them a circle of light above without comment.
"I could only confirm so much," cautions Dolores as she pulls herself onto land, "but I thought you'd want the assurance that while there was definitely a fight, Huntsgirl walked away from it and her opponent didn't. Not sure what shape they're in beyond bad. I caught the tail end of a cleanup in Little Italy but had to keep moving before it became obvious what I was doing. By the time I circled back, the site had been scrubbed of anything useful. I did track down Huntsgirl's team, but she wasn't with them at that point."
"88 and 89?" Jake asks. "You're sure it was them? They didn't go back to the Huntsclan?"
"Unless the Huntsclan has a new restaurant front, then no," Dolores says dryly. "I ordered something small so I could eavesdrop, but either they talked in code or they're fools. I'm leaning towards the latter, and not just because they were in uniform without their masks. They mentioned Huntsgirl, but only when 88 was complaining that she should've turned up by now."
Jake doesn't comment on that, but he makes no effort to hide his sour expression.
"That made it clear enough that trying to use them to find her wasn't worth my time, but that doesn't mean I didn't get lucky." Dolores looks over at Susan. "Do you have a recent family photo on you?"
Susan blinks. "No, why?"
"Pretty sure I ran into your husband, but he didn't recognize me. Not that I'd expect him to. We only met the once."
That had been years back when Susan had first been searching for answers, back when Dolores had been more private investigator than friend and had insisted she look into Jonathan despite Susan assuring her there was nothing to find.
Still.
"He was going to look after the shop. He wouldn't have any reason to be in Little Italy."
Dolores hums. "He had a reason, especially if that was the meetup point like it seems to be."
"What?" The question comes from Jake, and Susan's tempted to echo it, but she's starting to see the shape of the puzzle Dolores is building in front of them, and she doesn't—
"He wasn't alone. Trust me, if I could've come up with a decent reason to stick around, I would have."
Susan isn't concerned about Jonathan's fidelity—she has no reason to question that—but hearing meetup point, not alone, and had a reason to be there doesn't exactly bring her any comfort when she doesn't like what it all adds up to.
Dolores confirms as much when she looks at Jake and asks, "I know blonde-haired and blue-eyed from the multitude of descriptions, but is Huntsgirl about your age?"
"Why didn't you start with that?" Jake hisses, which is all the answer either of them needs.
"Because walking into a situation like that without thinking isn't going to do you any favours," Dolores retorts. "Use your head. Huntsgirl might be on the outs with the Huntsclan right now, but meeting her team with the father of the American Dragon in tow would be a good start to getting back into their good books, wouldn't it? I'd say it looks like she chose herself when it came down to it."
"You don't know that!"
Dolores rolls her shoulders in a shrug. "No. I don't. Which is why I told you first thing that I could only confirm so much. So why don't you tell me why you think she would just happen to go to the restaurant where her team is waiting with such a potentially valuable hostage?"
Jake glowers, but all he grumbles out is a demand for the restaurant's name and address. Haley's favourite, as it turns out. Jonathan likes it and certainly wouldn't protest if Huntsgirl suggested going there, but why would they be together in the first place? Does he really think confronting the Huntsclan directly will do him any good? It's not like they haven't spend nights talking about the danger—to Haley, chiefly, but also to them—and going over contingency plans and the various fail-safes that are in place. He knows a diplomatic conversation won't get them anywhere, so she can't fathom why he would think that a viable plan.
"How long ago was this?" Susan asks. Dolores would have come as quickly as she could, but—
"About half an hour. It was going to take me a good twenty minutes to get to a river whichever way I went."
"I'm going," Jake says. "Are you coming or not?"
"I don't know if this is the best plan." Jake needs to talk to Huntsgirl, but Susan would rather talk to Jonathan first. She doesn't have her cell phone with her—of all the things to have left behind!—and there's no emergency burner phone in their supplies, but she does have some coins in a change purse. If she can just get to a payphone—
"You two can sort it out," Dolores says. "I need to get back out there, but reach out if you need anything else from me." She hesitates, then adds, "Good luck."
She slips into the water silently this time, and Susan wonders if Jake's frown is because of what Dolores has told them or because he's noticed that Dolores is only loud when she wants to be.
Or because he doesn't agree with Susan and Dolores both trying to caution him.
"You were right," he says after a beat of silence. "I need to talk to Huntsgirl. So why is that suddenly not the best plan?"
"I should talk to your father first."
"So come with me. Or send a magic message in a bottle or something by fairy. Those both apparently work pretty fast."
The bitterness in his tone shouldn't surprise her, shouldn't sting, but it does. "It's not that simple. I need to talk to him, not just warn him about his choice of companion."
Jake's mouth twists. "Who's assuming the worst now?"
"All I'm asking is that you wait until I've called him before running off to look for Huntsgirl."
"If I wait, she might be gone!"
"She might be gone when you get there even if you leave now," Susan counters, "and if she is, there's a good chance she'll still be with your father, in which case he can tell us where they are."
That, at least, makes Jake hesitate.
"I just need to find a payphone. It won't be a long conversation."
"What if you don't like what he tells you?"
She bites her lip, but she'd promised him honesty. "If that's the case, I'd like to discuss it before you run off regardless."
Jake purses his lips but doesn't argue.
Of course, he also doesn't say he'd stick around for a discussion and not simply run off.
It's already been made clear that he intends to go even if she'd rather not, so his oath won't hold him back.
"If he doesn't answer, we'll have lost time we needed to find them."
If he doesn't answer, then Susan can guess where he'll be, and Jake could lead them both there if he cares to take the risk.
She'd hate to ask it of him, though.
Jake might not have renounced the Huntsclan, but he wouldn't be here with her now if he was happy going back to them.
Besides, he's already made it clear that going back isn't an option. He doesn't want to hunt, and even if he could keep his true nature a secret, even if he could keep all of this a secret, he wouldn't simply be welcomed back into the fold. She has to trust that whatever solution the Dragon Council has come up with will be better than whatever the Huntsclan would do.
Jake likely won't be convinced of that, especially not if the mere presence of Dolores and Petite put him so on edge, but she can hardly reassure him when she doesn't know for certain what decision has been made in the first place. Anything she tries to say would ring hollow.
"We can cross that bridge if we come to it," she says. If Jonathan doesn't answer, even if it turns out that's because Huntsgirl has taken him to the Huntsclan, she still has to trust that he'll be able to turn the situation to his favour. He's rather good at that. He was able to hold his own even before he knew about the magical world; now, he's better prepared for it.
Forewarned is forearmed, after all.
"You can call him," Jake says, "but I'm going on ahead. I don't want to risk losing them, and if your call gets intercepted, I don't want to be there when the Huntsclan shows up. We can meet up in two hours, with or without them. You can even choose the place."
"I'm not leaving you yet."
"Fine. If you want to stay with me more than you want to make that phone call, that's your choice."
"We can find a phone on the way. If we can't, I have enough cash to buy one and a pay-as-you-go card."
"That won't stop the Huntsclan—"
"Would you rather run first and try to contact them after? Once you're too far away to help if they've found themselves in a situation where they need help?"
"Huntsgirl knows what she's doing."
"Just because she knows what she's doing, that doesn't mean others agree with it. The fight suggests otherwise."
"She walked away from that," Jake says softly. "Dolores said so."
"Do you think she walked away from that and into a trap or that she's the one in the lead?"
Jake hesitates, which she hopes is a sign that he's going to reward her with honesty and not that he's trying to think of a lie she won't question. "I don't think she's leading your husband into an ambush. It wouldn't be enough. He's not a valuable enough hostage, and she already knows what the American Dragon looks like if she wanted to bargain with her knowledge. And if she— If she were really interested in saving herself, she'd give me up instead. It wouldn't be hard for her to spin some story about it, and if she's careful about her details, she could get away with it."
"But you don't think she'll do that."
Jake shakes his head, and Susan can't spy any doubt creeping into his expression. "She's known about me for a long time. She helped me through most of it. If the Huntsclan doesn't know what I am yet, she's the reason why, not me."
"So why do you think she's doing this?"
"I don't know." The admission is a quiet one, the words small and helpless.
"Can you guess?"
He grimaces. "She wouldn't have any reason to be with him if she doesn't at least suspect who he is, but if she wanted to turn him in, she could go straight back to headquarters. Teams that have to split up in the field return separately all the time; she's not going to be punished for showing up without 88 and 89 when that decision paid off. She shouldn't even be out with them in the first place. They're trainees. Initiates within their first year. They shouldn't be trusted with anything but low-level scouting missions."
So if he can guess, he's not comfortable telling her.
Not that she's sure he would be after all this.
Susan nods anyway. There's no point in wasting their time debating something they can't know for sure, and Jake's been rocking on his feet since Dolores left. If she tries to hold him back any longer, he really will leave without her. "Let's head out. I know where I'm going; I think I can lead if you'll stick with me. If you're comfortable cutting through the park instead of skirting it, it'll save us time, and I know a corner on the way that should still have a payphone."
"It would—" He breaks off, biting his lip. "It would be faster if we flew. You could tell me where to go and I could carry you."
He doesn't add I think, but she can see the uncertainty on his face now.
Haley hadn't exactly praised his flight skills, but he's right. It would be faster.
It might not be safer, though. They know the Huntsclan is on the prowl, and even if Jake tried to stay above the lights, he might be noticed as a patch of shadow against the sky. He would know that better than anyone.
"Are you sure? Given…everything?"
He gives a sharp nod.
She can't risk overburdening an inexperienced flier, which means travelling light. She has her wallet with her and a few other essentials squirrelled away in various pockets; she can walk away from the rest of their supplies for now. If they have a chance to come back here and grab them, great. If they don't, she'll start fresh.
And if they don't arrive in time to catch Jonathan and Huntsgirl, she'll try to convince Jake to carry on to the safest place she can think of outside of the magical world. She has to trust Jonathan, Jake clearly still trusts Huntsgirl, and she needs to learn to better trust her son's judgement if they're going to get through this.
"All right; let's go. Do I get to see the second entrance this time?"
A smile plays on his lips for a second before it's gone, and he nods again, turning and walking deeper into the cave. She gets to her feet with the flashlight and follows, keeping the light focused on the path in front of her. He doesn't need it, and she can't afford a twisted ankle from a careless misstep right now.
There's a faint pop of magic that has Jake spinning back in his tracks, and Susan starts and nearly loses her footing anyway. She can see Jake reaching into one of his pockets, but she takes a few steadying breaths and keeps her focus on the messenger fairy—Lille this time, she thinks—who somehow looks more haggard than Petite had after the run-in with the iron powder.
Maybe that's what Jake is reaching for.
She gives a slight shake of her head just in case.
"Susan Long," Lille announces formally as she pulls a tiny clipboard into existence. She doesn't bother looking behind her. "Sign here."
"Are you all right?" Susan asks carefully as she signs.
"Priority express messages always take it out of me," says Lille as she swaps the clipboard for a letter, and Susan's heart sinks.
She shouldn't be hearing from her father again so soon, but she can't imagine who else would send her something now.
Lille vanishes, and Susan opens the letter to read two little words that make her stomach drop to her feet.
Haley's missing.