With her mind spinning in largely futile circles, Kayla found it a huge relief when Zach stirred and uncoiled himself.

“Soon,” he said.

“Where is everyone?”

“Close. Jace in the house, Ali and Suze downstairs, Erica and Des nearby.”

“Everyone but Theo,” Kayla said softly.

“Working on it. Need all of us.”

“I thought he... drat, didn't think to ask Theo which pronouns.” Pronouns were admittedly not a high priority under current conditions, but old habits died hard.

Zach rolled his eyes and heaved a martyred sigh. “Whatever.”

That was Zach saying that? That was as odd as anything yet. “I thought being away from water was a problem.”

Zach shrugged and got up.

Not that Zach had been notably long-winded before, but between his now-minimalistic speech, Erica's muteness, and Des' difficulty with pronunciation, along with any issues Alison and JC and Suzi might have, she was probably going to have to add communication to the list of headaches. Not among themselves, but with anyone else.

On the other hand, it certainly prevented any possibility of bogging down in a billion questions instead of acting.

She followed Zach back down the ladder.

Over half the ground floor looked to Kayla like it had been designed to keep a bunch of barnyard animals, separated from the other side only by a wooden wall about four feet high with a swinging double door in it. There was a basin with a perpetual arc of water, like a drinking fountain that was always on instead of needing a button or switch, and near it, in a wire frame, a large round-bottomed bowl a third full of what looked a lot like trail mix. The entire floor was strewn with straw, but in one corner it was much thicker. A pair of large doors had been folded back, allowing free access to the pasture beyond. Less appealing was a far corner where a deep oval hole had been covered by a wide-spaced metal grate; a pair of thick angled bars had been rather crudely bolted to the two adjoining walls, clearly positioned for one to hold for support, which made the purpose obvious even if the whole setup was unorthodox and crude. At least there was no perceptible scent, and the lack of insect life meant no flies.

Alison was sitting on the bed of straw, horse-like legs drawn up in a position that looked awkward but she showed no sign of discomfort; the bowl of food was in reach above her, and she was munching on some of it from one hand, the fingers of which looked shorter and broader. Her deep blue nails were blunt and thick and, like her lips and dark-lined eyes, all the more striking against that porcelain skin—though not nearly as pearly-white as Theo's. The ivory-and-ultramarine spiral in the centre of her forehead suggested a unicorn horn, when combined with the rest, though largely symbolic.

Which meant the other one was Suzi, and that meant having to readjust yet again.

Incredibly slender with no trace of curves or breasts, barely dressed in diaphanous lengths of fabric that was nearly colourless but with a faintly rose tint, Suzi was sitting in thin air at about waist-height off the ground, as calmly as she once had on a blanket in Kayla's yard. In the dimming light, countless colours writhed and blurred and flowed across her skin. Something trailed behind her like a multi-coloured cloak, though Kayla couldn't see anything supporting it. There was something about her that made Kayla want to keep looking, something about those fascinating ever-shifting patterns that invited her to just watch and forget everything else...

Zach's hand on Kayla's shoulder forcibly turned her so she was no longer facing Suzi. “Longer you look, worse it gets. Wings much more, so keeping folded.”

“So I need to not look?” Kayla said. “Under most conditions, that would be unforgivably rude.”

Zach shrugged. “Rude is flexible. Don’t know how long or full effects. No way to test. Doesn’t work on us.”

Alison finished her snack and got to her feet. Hooves, actually. The whole complex manoeuvre nonetheless had a peculiar kind of grace to it. She had been a little less than Kayla's height; now, she was enough taller for Kayla to have to look up. One hand cupped Kayla's jaw gently, tilting her head up to look directly into bottomlessly-deep ultramarine eyes, lined with midnight blue and shadowed, though less dramatically than Theo's, with shades of blue and gold.

After a moment, Alison shook her head in frustration, golden mane flaring out and then settling again, and let go of Kayla. “Can't reach. Close.”

Zach sighed. “Worth a try.”

“Maybe with time. Not soon enough.” Like Zach and Theo, there was a distinct similarity to the voice Kayla knew, but there was as well a resonance to it, a melodic richness that Kayla lacked the terminology to name but it made her think of woodwinds.

“Will work around it,” Suzi said softly, and if Alison's voice created images of woodwinds, Suzi's triggered thoughts of mellow bells and flutes.

She'd had ample proof that they were communicating privately across distance, but hadn't really expected an attempt to bring her into it as well. Was it some ability peculiar to Alison, that she'd been the one to try and not Theo, with whom Kayla had the strongest connection? Well, presumably they had a reason.

“Too bad, probably easier on you. 'Cause I gotta ask what we're waiting for.”

“Jace to say when,” Zach said. “Only one chance. Has to be right.”

“Well, yeah.”

“Your friend is leaving,” Alison said, sitting back down. Zach followed suit. The third spot on the triangle would put Kayla at an angle with Suzi in her peripheral vision only; it did feel rude, but Kayla went along with it.

“Crap. She's probably not going to be willing to go unless I'm there.”

“Des will explain. Can you signal her?”

Kayla touched the copper charm. “Supposedly, if this is broken.”

“Signal when done, she can come back then.”

“Yeah, good luck with that. Try pointing out that she needs to go gather reinforcements ASAP to shut this down and I've got you lot to keep me safe and hidden until then. But for god's sake don't tell her you have a plan you intend to activate while she's away or I bet you'll never get her across that door thing.”

“Thanks. Message to convince her it's from you?”

“Umm...” Something about the magic stone egg? Or was there some residue from that, that a wizard could possibly sense? “Tell her I said to bring me the rest of the Chinese food, and make sure Hob isn't hiding in the egg rolls.” No one would know about that, right?

Alison and Zach gave her curious looks, and Suzi might have but she didn't dare look at her directly—which was hard to remember and went against every social reflex. “Des will tell her,” Alison said. “Need her through the Gate. Soon after that. Jace will tell us.”

“More waiting,” Kayla groaned.

“Levi?” Suzi asked quietly.

Automatically, Kayla glanced in her direction; Zach had to intervene again.

“Sorry,” Suzi said apologetically.

“Not your fault.”

“Heather?” Zach asked.

Kayla told them about the phone call that had woken her and Max, and the cascade into utter panic that had followed.

“Max is with Heather now,” she finished. “Not sure about the others.”

“Anything from Niko?” Alison asked, her tone extremely casual.

“N...” She stopped. Different name, different face. A strong personal reason to want them home safely. At least one matters to me quite a lot. You've met me. Bookstore closed for personal reasons at an oddly coincidental time, but Niko hadn't contacted JC's friends looking for him. Freaky little shop with a lot of old books and peculiar items, for that matter.

The others waited patiently for her to answer. But she didn't dare tell them the truth, not if he'd gone to lengths like that to make absolutely sure that the kidnappers didn't connect him with their captives.

“No,” she said finally. “Sorry, there's been a lot of phone calls and running madly around, and I haven't had much sleep.”

Alison nodded, accepting that. “Jace misses him. Where'd your friend come from? I'm relaying this to all.”

So Kayla gave her the highlights of Riley showing up at the yard gate knowing too much.

“Nice to old women,” Zach muttered, and made a low sort of hissing growl.

“Had to,” Alison sighed. “No one knew.”

Oh, I bet Niko did, but like we would've listened if he'd said to toss her on her scrawny ass? He must've been frantic ever since, being the only one knowing what was coming. And how could he tell us without sounding insane?

“How here?” Alison asked.

“A wizard friend of hers. And apparently we've had a very low-level local wizard all along, who was trying to watch out for the bunch of you but these assholes moved while he was scrambling to set things up and figure out how to explain.”

“No danger we could have hurt our families?” Suzi said, and the body language Kayla could see from Zach and Alison reflected the sudden sharp focus in her voice.

“Right. He was in the middle of making sure of that.”

“Never was danger,” Zach said, and made that hissing growl again, the end of his tail twitching spasmodically.

“Riley's at the Gate,” Alison added. “Is good at understanding Des. Says she'll be careful about keeping the yard gate closed until she hears from you, and she's coming back with her friend exactly at the end of the half-hour unless you call her before.”

“Will that be long enough?”

“Yes. Easily. Will work fast or not at all.”

“Cool.”

“You like her,” Zach observed.

“Mm, I think I respect her, actually.” Kayla rubbed absently at her arms, where all the hair was standing on end again. Fleetingly, she wondered how Alison felt about cuddling until the chilly breeze feeling stopped, since Zach was probably not all that warm and Suzi, well, there wasn't much to her. But the sensations passed before she decided how to bring it up. “And showing up with answers and help at one of the worst moments of my life does win her some brownie points.” Was that an un-PC expression when one was talking to fae? Were brownies as such real, and did they get offended?

I have seriously far spent too much of my life around people who are far too obsessive about political correctness.

“She's through. Isabel's freaking out, looking for wizards. Need her to talk to them.”

“Okay, why?”

Zach shrugged. “Plan.”

“Oh, sure, now you go quiet again,” Kayla sighed. “I know, I should be grateful for what I get, after what you've been through.”

“Not long,” Suzi said reassuringly. “Don't look.” Motion, and a very slim, faintly-luminescent hand reached into Kayla's line of sight. “Might need this. Camo.”

Kayla took the length of fabric from her, reminding herself firmly not to look in Suzi's direction. There seemed to be quite a lot of it, but it had little perceptible weight, every air current making it ripple. From one angle it looked more or less pale silver-grey, from another faintly rosy.

“Cover,” Zach said. “See?” He took it from her and flipped it over his own head so it settled all over, like a child's ghost costume made from a sheet. When he drew himself inwards into a ball and went very still, Kayla found it harder to focus directly on him. The fabric didn't exactly change, but it did seem to distort the light subtly around him, breaking up outlines. By itself, it might not do much, but if one were already hiding, it might make a substantial difference. He pulled it off and handed it back to her. “Des says you can hide.”

Kayla dropped the fabric over her lap and fished Xeno's charm out of her pocket. “Supposedly makes it difficult for humans, at least, to actually notice me if I'm wearing it. Obviously it completely fails on fae.”

“Good. Combined, you're safer. Wear it.”

Kayla shrugged and put the charm back on before she began to fold the length of fabric. It had to be the size of a twin sheet, at the very least, but she could see right through it when it was close to her face.

“Doesn't completely fail,” Suzi said. “But mostly.”

“Do I want to know what this is made out of?”

A brief pause, and Zach said, “Doubt it.”

“Okay then, not asking.”

“Stupid wizards,” Suzi muttered.

“Why?” Folded into a small many-layered bundle, the fabric was still so thin and light that she could stuff it into the pocket of her jeans, though admittedly with some effort and a significant bulge. That probably shouldn't be physically possible, but then, Physics appeared to be whimpering in a corner somewhere, commiserating with Biology over a couple of strong drinks, and both were wishing this whole place and everyone in it didn't exist.

“Phrixos worried,” Zach said. “Nestor pouting. Isabel panicking. But not telling others. Let's go.”

“Wow, that was sudden.” Kayla scrambled to her feet with him.

“Multi steps to get into place unseen. Will be running and waiting.”

“Okay, cool, at least it's a step closer,” Kayla said. “Lead on.”

“Trust me?”

“Of course I do!”

“No talking inside. Might hear.”

Kayla heaved a sigh. “Oh, of course. All right, silent running it is. Until we have that cuff, right?”

“Yes. Then no more hiding.”

“Will see you soon,” Suzi said.

“Not coming?” Kayla asked.

“Not stealthy,” Alison said wryly, tapping a broad hoof with an ultramarine fingernail. “Different job to do first.”

“Okay.”

She heard a rattling sound that must be the bar on the outside of the door; Zach pushed it open.

“Go,” Des said, waving towards the house. “Will close.”

Well, fair enough: then no one just glancing at the stable would have any reason to look more closely.

They did have to cover some ground, all of it worryingly flat with much less cover than Kayla would have liked. Considering how hyper-alert Zach was, he quite likely shared the sentiment.

That house was ridiculously large, but an absolute disaster as far as aesthetic appeal.

Zach closed a hand around Kayla's—the sensation of cool scales was distinctly odd—and urged her at a run across the last bit of open ground to the outer wall of the house. They hugged that to and around a corner.

There, they paused briefly, then followed that wall to an elaborate door with a stained glass window set into it and narrow stained glass panels flanking it. Presumably someone thought it was pretty, since privacy would be rather irrelevant here. Zach opened it and drew her inside.

Even with Theo's earlier warning, Kayla was just not expecting what, or rather who, was in the front hall, a broom in her hands. Under the circumstances, her own immediate kinky thoughts about the living fetish fantasy she was looking at struck her as deeply inappropriate and more than slightly annoying: that was, above all else, JC.

On the other hand, she now understood what Theo had meant by French maid barbie-girl and repressed submissive impulses coming to the surface. That must have been a complicated and uncomfortable collision with newly-awakened fae nature. Not that this was the best time for a hug and expressions of sympathy and concern, but she made a mental note for later.

JC gestured to the nearest room, with a glance down the hall behind her that might have been worried but it was hard to read any expression at all. Zach and Kayla ducked into it, only seconds before Kayla heard a male voice from deeper in the house bellow, “Where the fuck did you get to now? Christ, walk away from dirty dishes to sweep a floor, what kind of logic is that? Damned fairy.”

Zach's fingers flexed again, and he scowled. Kayla expected to hear the sound of heels, given JC's outfit, but there was nothing at all until the male voice grumbled, “About time. I need to get supper started for everyone, now Isabel's friend is gone. Who cares if I need the kitchen to actually keep everyone fed, when she wants privacy with a friend?”

Zach folded himself in an oddly sinuous fashion to sit on the floor, tail tucked forward under him, so Kayla let herself slide down the wall until her bottom hit the hardwood floor.

Waiting, with no idea what they were waiting for or what next, was excruciating; it took all Kayla's self-control to stay where she was. Not that the dragon beside her would be likely to let her get into trouble. She looked around: clearly a library, with shelves of books stretching from floor to ceiling on all sides, and a table with several chairs in the centre.

Whatever was about to happen, she hoped it was soon, but even more than that, she hoped her friends were right and this would work without her or her friends getting hurt.