Caitlin was tense and quiet, her gaze flickering toward the clock on the dashboard what seemed like every other minute. Not that he could really blame her. He could almost feel the minutes flying by, each one an opportunity for Matías to catch up with Zoe and…what? Use his powers to lure her away from her friends, take her to a nearby motel, and force her into bed. Then she’d be his, and the unspoken rules of the witching world would make them bound together, even if he wasn’t her true consort. That was how these things worked for a prima, and although he didn’t understand precisely why such traditions had arisen in the first place, there was no changing them now.
His phone had remained conspicuously silent ever since his last conversation with his father, and Alex didn’t know if that was a good sign or not. It did seem to indicate that no one had yet been able to get in touch with Zoe’s parents, and Miguel and Jack were also maintaining their radio silence.
Alex saw the off-ramp for Cactus Road coming up, and let out a sigh of relief. “Almost there,” he told Caitlin.”
She nodded. “What’s the plan?”
He didn’t have a frigging clue. Get close enough to Zoe so he could cast his protective field and therefore render her immune to Matías’ magic? Beyond that, he didn’t know for sure, although he was hoping he wouldn’t have to perform such a show of magic in front of a bunch of civilians. But if it came down to a choice between protecting Zoe or revealing his magical gifts in public, well, he’d make sure the prima-in-waiting was safe, and worry about the consequences later.
“What plan?” he quipped, but the joke fell flat as Caitlin continued to gaze at him, that one eyebrow of hers cocked at an ironic angle. Backpedaling, he said, “We have to find her first, and see if the three warlocks are together. I’m hoping they’ll have split up, because the three of them together are more conspicuous. It would have been different when they were going after you and your friends, since it was three and three, but I have no idea how many friends Zoe has with her. Zander didn’t know for sure.”
“All right,” Caitlin said. “I suppose we’ll start at the movie theater and go from there. How big is the mall?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never been to this one.”
“Well, since it’s Phoenix, I’m going to guess that it’s bigger than the mall in Flagstaff, which is the only one I know.” She paused, appearing to think over the problem. “How well do you know Zoe?”
“Uh….” It was time to turn off onto Cactus Road, so he did that as he considered Caitlin’s question. “Not that well. I mean, she’s my cousin — really my cousin, that is. Her mother is my Aunt Andrea. But they’ve always lived up here in Fountain Hills, while we were down in Tucson, and so we saw each other at all the family get-togethers and clan gatherings or whatever, but I wouldn’t say we were all that close. I always got the impression that she wasn’t overly thrilled to be chosen as the next prima, but she went with it because, well, that’s what you have to do.”
“And what’s her power?”
“Nothing she can use to protect herself from Matías,” Alex said bitterly. “She’s a healer, a curandera, but beyond that, she has the greatest facility with potions that my grandmother said she’d ever seen.”
“And no one brought her in to help Maya? I would have thought — ”
“They tried, back when my abuela first got sick. The problem was, no one knew exactly what was wrong with our prima. Zoe can supposedly whip up a potion to get rid of a cold or the flu in nothing flat, and according to Jack, she makes great hangover cures, but….”
“But it’s not the sort of thing that can counteract black magic. Got it.” She didn’t exactly sigh, but Alex could tell from the way the corners of Caitlin’s mouth had turned down that she wasn’t thrilled with his answer. “What does she look like?”
The question caught him off-guard at first, because it seemed to have come out of nowhere, but then he realized Caitlin was just moving on to the next order of business. “She’s — I guess she’s pretty. Not very tall…maybe around five three or somewhere? Her hair and eyes are dark brown, and she wears her hair really long, almost down to her waist.” He smiled then, recalling a particular aspect of that hairstyle. “She got a little rebellious the last year, put a streak of hot pink in her hair. And a tattoo of the Pluto symbol on her shoulder.”
“Why Pluto?”
“I’m not sure. Tell you what — when we find her, you can ask her.”