Jonas (Darkness #7)(18)

“Not to worry, Sasha. Toa tells me you have handled the basic link with him very well. You keep up excellently, and when put under pressure, come up with exciting and terrifying spells. I can’t wait to wage war at your side.”

Goodie.

“How long do you think it’ll take to break the concealment spell, Cato?” I asked.

“Oh, probably a day or two. That little Delilah-human is coming, correct? I hear she is just great at picking apart very intricate spells. Quite the marvel for one unused to magic and with such a low power level.”

“Yes, she is, but she’s heavily pregnant.” She’d nearly caused a riot at the Farm when she said she was coming to help. Putting pregnant women in harm’s way wasn’t something Stefan’s people did. Well, it wasn’t something most people did, but Stefan’s people got really violent about it. Her mate tried to challenge Stefan. Charles and Paulie had to subdue him.

“Yes, we will guard her, assuredly. Now, Sasha, how are your two little ones? I would so love to meet them. You must—“

My phone beeped with call waiting. Glancing at the number wasn’t helpful since I didn’t know it. And while usually I wouldn’t answer, to get Cato off the phone, I’d make exceptions. “Cato, I have an important call coming through. Can I talk to you later?”

“Yes, of course. Of course. Are you any closer?”

“Bye, Cato.” I clicked the button to end the call and answer the other with an extravagant eye-roll. “Hello?”

“You’re supposed to say who you are,” Charles “helped” from the front seat. He was trying to take over for Jonas in the business etiquette department and succeeded in making me want to beat him senseless.

“Sasha?” a harried female voice panted into the phone.

“Yes, this is Sasha—see Charles, I didn’t need to say my name.”

“If you did, you would’ve saved that person asking,” Charles retorted.

“Sasha, this is Emmy. You don’t know me. But I am the person who has Jonas. Kind of.”

I bolted forward in my seat and waved at Jameson to quit talking to Stefan. “Where is he? Is he okay?”

“He’s—yes. He’s okay. For now. I’m—it’s a long story. I’m trying to get him out. I just took down my… jailor, basically. The guy that keeps me here. He’ll be looking for me. And they will kill Jonas when they find him. But I can’t get out of here with him. Or, at all, now. They’ll see me. I’m not allowed outside. Um. This is jumbled. Sorry. Just—I can tell you how to find this place. But you have to come quick. We don’t have much time. And even still, we’ll have to sneak out when you bombard this place. There’s no other way to get out alive.”

“Will you keep this phone on you? I can trace this phone.”

“Ask if it’s a trap!” Charles hollered. Stefan was staring at me, wondering if he should take the phone and handle this. I wasn’t great at organization.

“Can you put Jonas on?” I asked in a choking voice.

“Yes. Later. But now, please write this down. I’ll tell you how to break the spell—I’ll try, anyway. How close are you?”

“Half hour. We’ll be there in a half hour. We already have people waiting to get started.”

I heard a relieved sigh and a “thank God.” After that I scribbled frantically on an ad in a magazine Charles was able to scrounge up in Jameson’s car. It was clear Emmy didn’t know much about magic. She spit out words and sentences that sounded like a second-hand rant from a mad scientist. I wrote it all down, though, hoping Cato would be able to make sense of it. After that I heard a heavy door open and a low hum that sounded vaguely like Jonas.

My breath caught. My knuckles turned white where they clutched the phone. And then I heard, “Sasha?”

“Oh my God, Jonas!” I couldn’t help a racking sob. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“Yeah. I liked it. Where are you?”

“You would—“

“What’s his status? He take down half the guards yet, or what?” Charles interrupted in a rush.

“Can he get out?” Stefan asked.

“We’re on the way,” I said. “Twenty minutes, now. Cato is already there. Sounds like Rudy is somewhere in there. Cato’s worried they are going after the Council.”

“Yeah. They are. This crew is up to no good. They’re trying to take over.”

I heard what sounded like heavy metal clinking. Hinges creaked.

“Ah. That feels good,” Jonas sighed.

“What? What happened?”

“Emmy released my hands.”

“How were you holding the phone?”

“Shoulder. Sasha, listen, do you know how to take off a bit of magic for tracking somebody?”

My mind raced. I’d never even heard about the ability to do that. “I’m sure Toa would. Or—wait—Cato totally does! He was talking about how he was keeping tabs on Rudy. That was probably how. I could ask and call you back.”

“Is it something I’d be able to do, though?”

My heart sank. Jonas wasn’t great with spells that didn’t involve violence. Take down an army with his hands? Yes he could. Do a simple tripwire spell that a red could do? Nope. That wasn’t his specialty. “Probably not.”