Blaize and the Maven: The Energetics Book 1 (29 page)

"Based on what exactly?" Fintan snapped.

"Uh … a feeling?" Blaize squirmed in the driver's seat, but she kept her eyes on the road. She glanced at the GPS. Nearly there. "Okay. I'll scope out the situation and wait for Cuinn to get here. I won't engage."

"Good. We're on our way back now. We’ll be with you as soon as we can. I have the map coordinates. Stay away from the Rogue. Visual contact only." Fintan's voice was a little softer, but it was still an order.
 

They hung up, and Blaize pulled over to look at the map on the car's GPS. She was close to the coordinates Indigo had given her.

Will Indigo know this terrain any better than me?
She had no idea if the woman was a local. Just because she’d been new to working at the coffee shop in Merrow didn’t mean she was new to the area.

Blaize sat in the car and navigated around the area using the GPS, shifting the picture on the screen so she could get a good sense of where she was. There were some woods and a couple of barns marked. Not much in the way of housing, just a few cottages here and there. This wasn't well-travelled land.

Blaize checked her phone once more. Nothing from Cuinn or Tierra. She texted Cuinn: “Going to scope out the situation. Won't engage. Come ASAP.”

She waited a moment, then switched the phone to silent and put it in her pocket. Her deadline wasn't far off. She got out of the vehicle, her body and mind now on alert. Indigo could be anywhere—and this was almost certainly a trap.
 

But Blaize was confident. Catching Rogues was what she was born to do. She decided to loop round and approach the meeting site from the opposite side. She didn’t want the Rogue waiting for her.
 

She walked away from the car and into the woods that rolled over the land like a carpet. It was darker there, but she loved the smell of damp earth.

She picked up the pace, and breathed in deeply, her feet hitting the soft ground with gentle thuds. The pleasure of the physical activity was wonderful, despite her concern about what was waiting for her. Her chest lightened. She was finally taking action.
 

She slowed when, deep in the words, she saw a clearing and something slumped against a log in the centre. But Blaize was too far away to tell if it was a body, let alone if it was Rosa. She crept closer, staying low and hidden.

Blaize checked her cell. Still no message from Cuinn. She squatted on her haunches to wait. She trained her eyes on the body, glancing around every now and then to ensure there was no one else around. If nothing else happened, she could wait Indigo out here until Cuinn arrived. And then Blaize would meet the Rogue on her own terms.

Blaize breathed in and out to still herself, and put in place the shielding Cuinn had been teaching her for her mind, just as she might lock her Manipura shields over her body. This new type of shielding was harder to hold in place than her fire shields, but Cuinn had assured her that was just practice. And she had been practising. Practising until she was sick of it.
 

 
She had been there only a few minutes when she caught movement across the other side of the clearing. A thin figure with stringy black hair, wearing dirty jeans and a pink top, strode towards whatever was against the log.
Indigo
. Blaize managed to stop herself leaping to her feet and attacking. Just.
 

She gritted her teeth and watched the tableau play out. Indigo gave the pile a kick, the thud persuading Blaize that it was a body. But Blaize still couldn't tell if it was alive or dead.

Should she show herself?
What is Indigo doing?
Indigo seemed to be talking to the body on the floor, but there was a strange haze in the gap in the forest, and Blaize struggled to see clearly.
Is Indigo using fire?
Was smoke causing the scene to blur?
Is she burning Rosa?
Blaize shook her head to clear it. There were no flames, and she couldn't smell any smoke. Something wasn't quite right here, but she couldn't put her finger on what, exactly.

There was a movement to her side, and she tensed, ready to spring, to attack.

And then her whole body relaxed as she saw Cuinn, who crouched down next to her, his eyes on the clearing.

"What's going on?" he asked.
 

She filled him in. He stayed expressionless, listening. When she'd finished, he nodded, speaking in a harsh whisper.
 

"We can't take any chances. We'll go in from different angles. I'll work my way around the clearing. When you see me attack, follow me. I'll hold Indigo with my mind and you get Rosa. When Rosa's safe, I'll incapacitate Indigo, if I can."

"Surely it's better if I attack her?" protested Blaize in a low, urgent tone.

"You're not strong enough. She's too powerful." He moved off without another word through the forest.

Blaize felt a stab of disappointment in her belly. He hadn't even considered that she could attack the Rogue. And Blaize was a Warrior, not Cuinn. He was just a … a bookworm.

She scowled into the thick foliage between her and the gap in the woods, waiting. But following on the heels of annoyance was anxiety. He needed her to help him fight Indigo. He wasn't a fighter and had no wish to be. She was surprised by the thought that followed on from that: this was her opportunity to show him she was independent. That she wasn't Sophea.

She squinted across the clearing, which shimmered, the figures of Indigo and Rosa flickering in and out of sight. She tried to keep her focus on them despite the headache that pinched at her temples. Uncertainty filled her. What did she need to do? Confusion blurred her next steps.

Long minutes later, Cuinn broke through the woods the other side and shot towards the Rogue, rushing her in a physical attack. Blaize narrowed her eyes, the haze thicker now. Cuinn and the Rogue swam in and out of view, sometimes entirely obscured by the smog. Alarmed, Blaize exploded into action, and ran towards the body. If Indigo was going to burn the area, Blaize needed to get Rosa out now.

But as Blaize approached the struggling figures, the Rogue smashed Cuinn across the face with a hammer fist, and Cuinn fell to his knees, Indigo towering above him. The Rogue drew a knife from her hip, and slashed it across his throat. Blood sprayed across the clearing and spattered across the Rogue, whose triumphant gaze met Blaize's horrified one. Cuinn fell without a sound, his body disappearing into the thick haze.

Blaize sprinted the last few yards, torn between Rosa and Cuinn. But the scene was blurred, and Blaize's head felt fuzzy. She missed her footing as she got close and stumbled on a stray root.
 

She put her arm out to break her fall, and gasped as she hit the ground. On her hands and knees on the floor, she started to push herself upright, but confusion filled her and she couldn't remember what she was supposed to be doing. There was something urgent, she knew. Something life or death. She swayed on her hands and knees, her head drooping.
 

A strong arm grabbed her from behind, and pulled her head backwards and up by the hair, which stretched her neck out painfully. She felt a sharp prick where her neck and shoulder joined, and then—oblivion.

Cuinn didn’t spend long with the police. After a short conversation, he left the police station and walked towards his car, pulling his cell from his pocket to text Tierra he was on his way back to pick her up.

The police, with whom he had a reasonable relationship, had let him read Rosa's statement. Indigo had come to see Rosa as she’d been closing up. Rosa had been worried about the other woman, explaining Indigo had looked even thinner than usual.
 

Rosa—
always too softhearted
—had invited Indigo in for something to eat, wanting to broach what had happened with Blaize. Rosa had told the police she’d never felt any need to be afraid of Indigo before, and she didn’t intend to start now.
 

Rosa didn’t remember much after that. An attack, pain, and then to her surprise, the arrival of the police. No one knew who had called the attack in.
 

The address the Rogue had given in her application form to the coffee shop had been false, and they had no way of tracking her down. The police were still making inquiries - which Cuinn felt was just another way of saying they had no idea where she was.

Cuinn had his hand on the car door when he saw the missed call from Blaize. His stomach gave a lurch, and he shook his head. He was jumping at shadows—the uneasy feeling would be nothing.
 

But once he’d listened to the voicemail and read her texts, Cuinn’s stomach churned, and he gripped the phone in his fist.
 

What the hell was she thinking?
Blaize was impulsive. Unpredictable. And the danger could be specifically directed towards Blaize—there had been a reason that Indigo had attacked Blaize and Cuinn still wasn’t sure what it was. Until he understood if the leeching was the only purpose, or whether there was some darker purpose for choosing Blaize particularly, he wanted to keep her out of it. And, he admitted to himself, to protect her.

If only he’d answered the phone, he could have told Blaize that Indigo didn’t have Rosa. That there was no need for her to go. By now the churning in his stomach had turned to a cold, hard rock.

He dialled Tierra on his way to the hospital, and her shocked voice said she would wait for him outside.
 

When he picked up Tierra, her face was paler than usual. He pulled away as soon as she shut her door, heading for the map reference at the northeast end of Kanaka Creek Regional Park. They'd both had messages from Fintan as well, who was well on his way back with Cara.

Tierra updated him on Rosa as they drove, who had been surrounded by white sheets and bleeping machines. The last thing that Rosa had said to Tierra had chilled him right down to the bone.
 

“She’s damaged. She was like a junkie seeking a fix. I don’t know what she’s addicted to, but she’s unpredictable. I’ve never seen anyone so out of control.”

***

Cuinn and Tierra found the SUV Blaize had used and called Fintan and Cara to direct them there. There was no sign of Blaize or anyone else. Tierra had to threaten Cuinn with an energetic fight if he didn't wait for Fintan and Cara before he headed off into the woods to find Blaize. She closed her eyes to seek and track Blaize while they waited.
 

“She’s not close by. I don't feel her within my range,” she told him.

Cuinn paced up and down, grinding his teeth with impatience until Fintan pulled up, and he and Cara fell out of the car almost an hour later.
 

Cuinn updated the newcomers, and Fintan nodded before he spoke. “Okay. Tierra, can you work with me to track her? We can start from here and see where she went.”

“Of course.” Tierra pulled a coat from the car.

Fintan stopped Cuinn from joining them. “I think you should go back to the house. Check her Haven and the dreamscape. We’ll take the cell phones in case she’s injured. If she is, we’ll call you. But the more of us out there, the more likely we are to obliterate any tracks. Tierra’s our best tracker energetically and physically, so you need to let her work.”

Cara nodded. “I’ll stay with Cuinn until you need me.”

Cuinn ran his hands through his hair. “I need to come.”

“You’ll do her more good at home, Cuinn. I promise. Now let us go and do what we’re good at,” Fintan said.

Cuinn could see the logic of his argument, but the emotions inside him threatened to overwhelm him. Cara put a hand on Cuinn’s arm, and Tierra gave him a fierce hug. “You know I can do this Cuinn, but Fin’s right, I can’t do it if there are too many distractions. It’s going to be tricky enough when it gets dark. It’s already six o’clock”

Cuinn nodded reluctantly. Tierra was good at finding things, but it wasn’t a skill she had much use for these days. He hoped she’d had enough practice recently. "We'll stay at the car. But we're not going home immediately. You might need us. I'll see if I can find her mind in the physical area before I go to her Haven."

Fintan sent him one last sympathetic look and then he and Tierra were gone into the woods.

“Do you need anything else to be able to search for her?” said Cara.

Cuinn shook his head and got back into the car, putting the seat back so his long frame could lie down as much as possible. He relaxed and searched for her mind in as wide an area as he could. But he could find no trace of her. She was either unconscious, or she’d been taken out of his range—a range that was further than Tierra's. Neither was good. His stomach was a knot of tension, and all his muscles were tight. He couldn’t stop thinking about the image from the prophecy, of her tied up, bloody and beaten.

After a couple of hours, with full dark outside the stuffy car, Cara’s cell phone rang.
 

The noise felt shrill, intrusive after the quiet he’d been working in, but he welcomed it nonetheless. His eyes snapped open, and he put the seat back up as Cara spoke. Her end of the conversation didn’t give anything away, and after a few “Okays” she turned the phone off.