Freddy shook his head in agreement-and Lyse wouldn't have blamed him at all if he'd told the ladies he needed to go take a lie-down. He seemed genuinely overwhelmed by everything he'd seen and heard. Poor Freddy. Lyse was a blood sister who could wield magic and travel to other dimensions . . . and she felt like she was in way over her head. Freddy was a layman and he'd been exposed to some truly awful stuff. She didn't know how he was coping so well.
"Well, I left the others with Daniela at the hospital. I got sidetracked by a run-in with my uncle."
"Oh, God," Dev said, the color draining from her face.
"You don't have to worry about him," Lyse said. "He's not going to bother us anymore."
She finished the last dregs of her coffee and set the mug in the sink. Even though she'd just downed a ton of caffeine, she yawned, her lack of sleep finally catching up with her. Too bad for that. There was no time to think about taking a nap. They needed to reconnect with the others and then go get Marji and Ginny.
"What do you mean?" Dev asked.
"I dropped him off in a place that he's going to have a hard time finding his way back from."
"Okay," Dev said, but she refrained from asking for further details. "So how do we do this? Do you work a spell or . . . ?"
"No, it's even simpler than that-" Lyse started to say, but she was interrupted by a pounding on the back kitchen door.
The three of them turned to see the wood of the door frame splinter as someone shot three bullets into the lock.
"We have to go!" Lyse cried-as a furious kick from outside sent the kitchen door flying.
Lyse grabbed Dev's wrist and began the mental work of forming the blue orb that would take them to the dreamlands.
"Freddy!" Dev screamed, reaching out to her partner with her free hand. But he was already running toward the door, trying to block the intruders from entering.
"Go, Dev! They won't hurt me!" he called back to her, as the first black-clad man burst into the kitchen, holding an assault weapon in his hands. "I love you!"
The blue orb encircled Lyse and Dev just in time to stop a hail of bullets that came from the men in the doorway. Lyse felt sick. She knew if her magic hadn't been protecting them, they'd have been dead.
One of the men-it was hard to tell them apart because of the camouflage blacking on their faces-slammed the butt of his Kalashnikov into the back of Freddy's head. Freddy fell to his knees, then pitched forward onto the floor, either dazed or unconscious, Lyse wasn't sure which.
"Freddy!" Dev screamed as more men in black camo poured into the room and encircled his body. "No!"
She tried to break free from Lyse's grip so she could run to Freddy, but Lyse wouldn't release her.
"The girls need you, Dev!" Lyse cried, wanting Dev to understand what she'd be sacrificing by leaving the safety of the magical orb. She wasn't going to be able to help Freddy. There were just too many men with guns out there and more were still arriving.
She felt Dev stop trying to pull away, saw her deflate as they watched two of the men pick Freddy up by the armpits and drag him outside.
"Desist working magic and stand down," one of the men screamed at Lyse. He seemed like the one who was calling the shots for this mission.
"No way!" Lyse yelled back at him. "You have no authority here!"
He raised his hand and another volley of bullets slammed into the neon-blue orb, but none of them penetrated Lyse's magic.
"We have to go," Dev murmured, tears of impotent rage rolling down her cheeks. "If we stay any longer, I'm not gonna be able to take it."
Lyse picked up what Dev was putting down. Her friend could only stand there so long, letting those bastards manhandle Freddy, before she broke free of Lyse's grasp and did something stupid . . . like try to stop them herself.
"Okay, we're out of here," Lyse said, before Dev could change her mind.
Lyse didn't think about where they were going, just wished them out of the kitchen. She was just sorry she couldn't see the look of confusion on the soldiers' faces as the orb winked out of existence . . . she and Dev with it.
• • •
The magical orb took them to the clinic in Rome, to the long white corridor that led to Daniela's hospital room. Lyse shook her head, trying to figure out what had happened: Why weren't they in the dreamlands?
"Get back," Dev whispered, pushing Lyse into an empty room just as Arrabelle came striding down the corridor, moving at a brisk pace. Behind her, less than ten feet away from where Dev and Lyse were hiding . . . was Lyse.