Airel: The Discovering (Airel Saga Book Two)

Chapter XIII

Somewhere in the Mountains of Idaho—Present Day

I OPENED MY EYES, though I didn’t want to. Nothing this day could hold appealed to me. Kale and I had left at four in the morning, and I had passed out in the front seat. Crying was hard work; my eyes felt crusty and swollen.

My head hurt so badly that it felt like someone had used it as a drum, pounding on it all night. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I looked over at Kale. He turned and gave me a sort of half smile.

“You were talking in your sleep.”

I groaned and pulled the visor down, gasping at my reflection. Normally after a night of crying and sleeping in a car, I would be a hot mess. I was not, in fact. I looked fine—good, even. I ran my hands through my hair and sighed. “Sorry. I hope I didn’t say anything embarrassing.”

“No.”

I tried to block the memory of Michael standing in the kitchen. He had turned toward me, looked me in the eyes, and lied, straight-faced. To think that I had almost kissed him. I had wanted to kiss him. Even now, I still wanted simply to be with him. That was the worst part; I still loved him. How could he have done this to me? And how could I still love him?

“You okay?” Kale asked. He was looking at me with a concerned expression on his face.

“Yeah. Just having flashbacks.” I wiped a tear that had slipped past my defenses. I smiled as best I could. I wasn’t okay; not even close. I wanted to run and curl up to die alone. But I might not die; I might have to live for thousands of years. I stood before the yawning chasm of eternity, and it was fast filling up with misery. A change of subject. “How long was I out?”

“About an hour. We’re still two hours out. I did some digging and found out that Stanley Alexander is a defense attorney. He’s widowed; his wife died of cancer, according to her medical records.”

“How did you get all this information?”

“I have a source.” He let a smirk cross half his face.

“A source?” It was clear that he was not going to let me in on this secret.

“I think I know where he will be.” Kale took a sip of his coffee. “The authorities don’t know what he’s done yet, but that won’t last long. People he works with, friends, neighbors will have seen that video on the news, recognized his voice, put two and two together and called it in. He hasn’t been seen at work in quite a while too.”

“What video?”

“He sent a video to the newspapers and TV stations. It aired last night.”

I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Kim?”

“Yes, she was on it. Which proves that she’s alive. But we need to find her before anyone else does. If the police show up, she’s as good as dead.”

“It’s like he wants to be caught …” I wondered if the video was an attempt to flush us out.

“Maybe he does. If he’s as far along as I think he is, God help the police if they try to arrest him.”

I wondered what he was talking about. “What do you mean? How are we going to get Kim back?”

“Airel, I think Stan is the Seer. You would have read about him in the Book I gave you.”

I nodded, wondering how someone who had lived thousands of years ago could still be alive.

“The Seer is a spirit. He can be killed, but only by one of the Sons of El. We must be careful how we go about our business, Airel. If we kill Stan and leave the Seer without a host, he will be driven into the Bloodstone.” Kale looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Do you know what that is?”