Air Bound

2

AIRIANA placed her teacup carefully on the table in front of her. Her mouth had gone dry. She watched as Blythe casually picked up the phone and greeted the caller in her usual gentle, cheerful voice.

Lexi slipped her hand into Airiana’s. “Damon’s always been nice, Airiana. Why are you afraid?”

Airiana shook her head when Blythe held out the phone to her. Blythe frowned but resigned herself to being the go-between.

“Damon wants to come out this morning and have a meeting with you.”

“I’m working in the greenhouse this morning with Lexi and I won’t be able to schedule anything for several hours.” It would give her time to think. Damon and Sarah were supposed to be on their honeymoon. What would be so important that they would suddenly return and Damon would want to schedule a meeting with her? Whatever it was, it wasn’t good—for her.

“He says he’ll come by around twelve-thirty. That it’s important.” Blythe had a little note of warning in her voice.

Airiana nodded. That would give her sufficient time to gather her defenses around her and ensure Damon—or anyone else with him because he wouldn’t come alone—couldn’t convince her to do anything she didn’t want to do. “That’s fine,” she murmured, and looked down at Lexi’s hand, shocked that she’d been squeezing it so hard. “I’m sorry, Lex,” she added.

Lexi shrugged, flashing a teasing grin. “I’m better off without that hand this morning; after all, you’re helping me with the compost.”

Airiana found herself smiling again. That was the beauty of family, especially a family as close as hers. One moment she could be completely terrified, and the next, one of her sisters could make her laugh.

“You wish. I’ll pull all the beds, but you and that nasty smelling concoction you love so much will be all alone when you start shoveling.”

Lexi made a show of rubbing her hand. “I’m injured and the compost has to be mixed in those beds this morning. At least you’re capable of sending the odor away, although, really, it isn’t that bad.”

Airiana and Lissa both laughed.

“Of course you wouldn’t think it was bad, you’re a little farmer and it probably smells good to you,” Lissa said.

Blythe was silent and Airiana was very aware she was watching her carefully. Airiana sighed. “I know. I should have talked to him, but I need a little time,” she admitted, the smile fading from her face.

“He said he came back early. There was an emergency of some kind at his work,” Blythe reported, her shrewd chocolate eyes never leaving Airiana’s face.

“I wouldn’t know about that,” Airiana assured. “I wouldn’t, Blythe.”

“He works for the government in some capacity for defense,” Blythe said. “You all know he was injured a few years ago when someone tried to steal his work. They tortured his assistant, Dan Treadway, and killed him.”

Airiana’s stomach lurched. She pressed her hand tight against it, nodding her head. “I know. I heard the story from Inez at the grocery store.”

Inez Nelson knew just about everyone and everything about them here in Sea Haven, where she owned the local grocery store.

“Airiana, if this is a matter of national security . . .” Blythe began.

“Don’t. Don’t say it. I don’t work in that field and I haven’t for a very long time. I have no idea why Damon would want to talk to me. He’s never so much as acknowledged me. My mother was killed almost ten years ago. Damon was targeted much more recently. One has nothing to do with the other. And I certainly wouldn’t know anything at this point that could help him. They investigated my mother’s death and said all sorts of things, but no one proved anything to me.”

“But you did, as a teenager, work for the Defense Department,” Blythe clarified.

Airiana sighed. “You know I never talk about that.”

“Well, maybe it’s time you did,” Blythe said. “You’re safe here. You need to talk about things, Airiana. If you don’t, you’re going to keep having nightmares and keep thinking you’re going to lose your mind.”

“We were told never to discuss our work. I took an oath.”

“And no one is asking you to discuss your actual projects,” Blythe pointed out.

Airiana took a deep breath and let it out. Lissa looked at her expectantly. Lexi gave her a tentative smile of encouragement, but she clearly only wanted Airiana to do what made her comfortable. She was such an empath that already she looked close to tears. Airiana found herself wanting to comfort Lexi.

“When I was about seven years old, some men came to my home and asked my mother if they could do special testing on me. I was already well into high school and even studying some college-level mathematics. My mother agreed. We were struggling financially, and they told her if I qualified for their special program there would be a lot of money involved for us.”

“You never talk about your father,” Lissa said. “Where was he?”

Airiana shook her head. “My mother never spoke about my father. If I brought the subject up, she would start crying like her heart was broken. I don’t even know his name. Marina gave me her last name.”

“These men who came to visit you and your mother were from our government?” Blythe asked, determined, obviously, to keep her on track.

Airiana nodded. “It was a new program they’d developed for children like me.”

“Crazy smart,” Lexi said, flashing an admiring smile.

Some of the tension drained out of her. She found herself smiling back at her youngest sister. “Crazy smart is a good term for me,” she agreed. “They set up little apartments there at the school. It wasn’t really a school like most schools. We were in a government very secure building, and we had teachers of course, but each of us worked on our own projects. We were educated as fast or as slow as the individual could handle, but clearly the projects were why they wanted us.”

“But they didn’t want parents living there with you?” Lissa asked, frowning.

Airiana shook her head. “They told my mother it was best for someone like me to learn without distraction, and honestly, I loved it, especially after Mom began to drink. I could have spent all day in school and in fact, I often worked late into the night. That was encouraged, and I’ve always been a bit of a night owl. I missed my mother, of course, and they allowed me to go home on weekends.”

“You worked for them until you were sixteen or seventeen?” Blythe asked.

“I was nearly seventeen. It was ten days before my birthday when someone murdered my mother. So really, about ten years.”

Lexi suddenly sat back, her eyes enormous. “Airiana, you can’t suspect that the people running the school actually had something to do with your mother’s death. You don’t think that, do you?”

“They lied about her, Lex. She wasn’t selling my work to another government. She wasn’t spying for another country or leaking information. When I was little, we discussed my work, but once she began drinking, I rarely tried to talk to her about it, and once I turned fourteen, I never did.”

“Why fourteen?” Blythe asked.

“I took an oath not to discuss my work with anyone. Mom had helped at first with the project, you know, brainstorming with me when I was little, but she’d begun to drink and I was going to her less and less.” She shrugged. “We had a rule, and she was the one who made the rule. When we were together, it was just us. Not the school and not my projects. She wanted me to be a girl and go to the mall and the movies and learn to have fun. She wanted to teach me how to have fun. I was very serious and she was afraid that by allowing me to go to that school I wouldn’t be a normal teen.”

It was the first time Airiana could really defend her mother. She had tried, but no one had listened to her. Her sisters were listening. They believed her. She could feel it, see their understanding on their faces. After her mother’s death, with the help of these women in the room with her, she had learned to have fun just as her mother wanted.

“Why would they lie about her? Why would they smear her name and act as if she was capable of betraying her country when she wasn’t? What was the point?”

“Perhaps they thought it would make you more loyal to them,” Blythe ventured.

“It had the opposite effect,” Airiana said. “I detested them. I wanted out of their program but I had no relatives, nowhere to go and no one to advocate for me.”

“And you blamed yourself for your mother’s death,” Lissa added.

Airiana nodded, tears burning behind her eyes. “I know intellectually I’m not to blame. Debra and the rest of you did a good job convincing me, but that child, that teenager, she believes that if she’d stayed home and never went to school, never was crazy smart, her mother would still be alive.”

“Your mother made the decision for you to go to that school, Airiana,” Blythe said gently. “A seven-year-old could not make such a choice. You both needed the money to make ends meet, and I suspect your mother was already beginning her downward spiral into alcoholism.”

“Her mind wouldn’t stay quiet.” Airiana found herself defending her mother. “Alcohol was her only relief.”

“That’s the child talking,” Lissa said. “You know that.”

Airiana nodded, a little appalled that she still blurted out a defense for her mother, even when she knew better. “I know Marina should have gotten help, but she didn’t, she turned to alcohol instead. Still, if I’d gone home several times a week instead of just weekends, she might have tried harder for me. She didn’t start really drinking until I was already into my teens. I didn’t even ask to go home more often because the more uncomfortable it got there, the easier it was to bury myself in my work. If I’d just noticed how hard it was on Marina and was even a little bit more compassionate . . .”

“You were a child, Airiana. A teenager with a mind that was demanding more knowledge every moment of the day,” Blythe said.

“Now, looking back, I never said anything to my teachers about what my mother was doing because I was afraid they would keep me from seeing her—but they must have known. Right? They wouldn’t have me working on the kinds of things I was without continually vetting my mother.”

“Which is why you believe there was some kind of conspiracy and your own government murdered your mother,” Lissa said.

Airiana nodded, biting at her fingernail. “I know it sounds insane. Maybe I think too much. I rarely sleep that well and I told you, my mind works on problems all the time. My mother’s murder never added up for me. Even if a foreign agent came in contact with her—and how would they know I was at that top secret school—wouldn’t it make more sense to wait for me to come home and then grab me? I would have told them anything they wanted to know to protect her.”

Lexi nodded in understanding, tears welling up. “We do anything we can to protect the people we love.”

Airiana put her hand gently over Lexi’s. “I’m sorry, baby. I don’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

“I’m upset for you, Airiana,” Lexi insisted. “You’re right. It doesn’t make sense to murder your mother over money for your work when they could just as easily have grabbed you.”

“So what happened?” Blythe said. “With your project?”

“I wasn’t finished, not nearly finished. They took me back to the school and essentially I was ‘locked down’ for my own protection. They didn’t let me see anyone other than a psychiatrist they brought in. I didn’t talk to her. I stopped working, and everyone was upset and in an uproar. The psychiatrist tried to tell me throwing myself back into my work would be good for me, but I told her I couldn’t think, that the trauma of finding my mother like that had done something to my mind. I just couldn’t cope.

“At first they thought I was being stubborn, you know, a teen trying to outwit them, but in the end, after endless cajoling, threats and talks, they gave up. I don’t know if they were convinced I really no longer could do the work, or if I just was too much trouble, but they released me just before my twentieth birthday.”

“And we found you,” Lissa said with great satisfaction. “You and Lexi are our little sisters and we’ll protect both of you. This is a safe place.”

Their farm had always felt safe—until now. Airiana hugged herself tightly. Fear clawed at her belly and bit at her throat until it swelled and she felt as if she was choking. She needed to get to work, to smell the compost and feel the morning fog on her face just to block out the feeling of trepidation growing in her.

There was no real way to convey the feeling of danger to the others. They believed no one in their government would commit such a horrendous act—torturing and murdering a woman so they could keep the daughter isolated and alone, working on a project that could change the world.

In spite of the excellent counseling she received, there was no way to ever get the sight of her mother lying on her bedroom floor covered in blood from her mind. That image was stamped there for all time and no one had ever been caught. As far as she knew, the investigation had been dropped once she was back at the school. She’d asked numerous times, but they simply told her that Marina had been selling information and it was best Airiana not be involved for her own safety.

“Do you think the murder of your mother had anything to do with the murder of Damon’s assistant?” Lissa asked.

Blythe shot her a look that told her to back off, but Airiana was grateful to Lissa. At least someone wanted to try to piece together the puzzle with her even though it might hurt. She knew Blythe wanted to protect her emotions, but Airiana wanted to know who had killed her mother and why.

“As far as I know, Damon’s assistant died nearly two years ago. My mother’s death occurred a good six years before that. Nearly seven. So how could they be related?” Airiana asked aloud, but her brain was already working. Click. Click. She could feel and hear the pieces of the puzzle being put together.

Why would Damon Wilder suddenly want to talk to her? There could only be one reason. He had been given her project all those years ago to work on. That was the only answer. He had come to her school once. He must have been one of the people who had knowledge of what she was working on. She had refused to continue with her project, and the government wasn’t about to let something that promising go by the wayside. Damon had to have been given her work.

She closed her eyes. Her project had been worth killing for. Worth torturing other human beings over. She had created it, or rather the beginnings of it, and most likely Damon—and maybe a few others—had finished her work . . . or . . .

She bit her lip hard. Or maybe they couldn’t finish it and Damon wanted to talk to her about it. Why else would he suddenly be interested in her after two years of knowing she was living close by? Had he come to Sea Haven because he’d known? Now her mind was really going crazy with the possibilities.

“Airiana?” Blythe said her name gently, calling her back to them. “What is it?”

“I don’t want to talk to him, or to anyone else, about anything having to do with what I used to do. It isn’t that I’m unhappy because I didn’t have a childhood, I wanted to be there. I loved learning. I loved what I was doing. But I know that whatever my brain was conceiving turned from something good to something horrific.”

“This is our home,” Lissa reminded. “You aren’t a child. No one can force you to do anything. You’re safe here. Spend the morning with Lexi in the greenhouse. I’ve got two appointments this morning in the shop. I’ve got to finish the glass chandelier for the hotel in France and two other metal pieces as well for their gardens, but I’ll be home before Damon gets here, even if I have to reschedule the two appointments.”

Blythe nodded and glanced at her watch. “I’m heading to the village to take over Judith’s shop this morning. I promised her I’d keep it open while they were gone. They closed the gallery part time. Frank Warner, Inez’s fiancé, agreed to help them out and keep the gallery open four hours a day during the week, which was good of him. I won’t be able to be here, but Lexi and Lissa will be. Unless you want me to close for a couple of hours in the afternoon?”

Airiana found she could breathe much easier. There it was. Love surrounding her. Keeping her sane when the world around her seemed to be caving in. Three women who would stand by her and believe in her even if she couldn’t always believe in herself. She knew if she called Judith she would immediately fly home from New York, from her important art show, to be with her. Rikki would leave her beloved sea and join her without question.

“I love you all,” Airiana said. “Lexi will take good care of me while you’re both gone and no, Blythe, you don’t need to be here when Damon comes. We can handle it.”

Blythe smiled at her. “Of course you can, but call me if you need me for anything at all.” She stood up. “I still have to shower and change before I open the shop, so I’d better get moving, but . . .” She trailed off when Airiana shook her head.

“I really will be fine, Blythe,” Airiana assured. Her stomach was still in knots, but her mind had settled and she wanted to examine the theory that the patterns she’d always considered part of the walking-on-the-edge-of-madness might actually be air communicating with her.

Lissa stood up as well, gathering up the teacups to put back on the tray. “I will come home before he gets here, so no worries.”

Lissa was small, but fierce. She was definitely their warrior woman and she had no compunctions about going up against an enemy three times her size if need be. Anyone threatening her family was considered an enemy. Even her red hair crackled around her with her fierce energy.

Airiana caught her breath. She could see patterns in the air around Lissa’s silky red hair. It gleamed like living flames with every movement Lissa made. She knew exactly what those patterns were and what they meant, which had never been the problem. Now, she could study them intently instead of fearing them, believing air was giving her information, trying to convey something important.

She had always known Lissa loved her and she could see that love clearly in the fierce patterns of determination surrounding Lissa’s red head. There were no dire warnings of impending doom. Only her sister’s deep resolution that she would protect Airiana and Lexi with her life if need be.

Lissa sent her a small smile. “Stop looking at me with that mushy, goofy look. You know I don’t cry and I’m not in the least bit girly. I refuse to get all teary-eyed with you.” She picked up the tray and turned toward the kitchen.

Lexi burst out laughing. “Lissa, you’re the most girly-girl I know. You can try to hide in your most excellent baggy jeans and tees, but there’s no hiding the way you walk. Just because you refuse to be a sympathy crier like me doesn’t mean the tears aren’t there. That’s why you’re running away to the kitchen.”

“I can pound you into the ground, little sister,” Lissa reminded. “We have self-defense class tonight.”

“You can try,” Lexi said with a little sniff, “but I’ve been improving. Working on my moves.” She made chopping motions in the air with her hands.

Airiana found herself laughing. The image of little Lexi, who had trouble killing snails, fighting warrior woman Lissa was just too funny. “I want to believe you could take her, Lex, but seriously? Lissa can score on Levi and Thomas occasionally.”

“I wish,” Lissa said, and left the room.

“I’ll take a shower, get dressed and meet you in the greenhouse,” Airiana promised Lexi.

Lexi nodded. “Take your time, eat something. I’ll have everything ready for us. You do know we’re really working with compost, right? And you’re going to shower first?”

“Yes, I am. I am a girly-girl and I’m not going outside without a shower and clean clothes,” Airiana declared with a small laugh.

Lexi shrugged. “You’ll want another one when we’re finished.”

“Llamas? Really, Lex? For their manure?” Airiana asked as Lexi headed toward the door. “You weren’t kidding, were you?”

“There are studies done about concocting a sort of tea with their manure and using it on the plants . . .”

Airiana held up her hand. “Don’t use ‘tea’ and ‘manure’ in the same sentence or I’ll have to pound you into the ground.”

“You’re such a baby,” Lexi said. “It’s science. You’re supposed to love science.”

“I draw the line at foul-smelling llama-manure tea.”

Airiana watched Lexi leave laughing before she got up and made her way to the kitchen. Lissa had most of the teacups washed. Airiana leaned her hip against the doorway and watched her for a long moment.

“I love you, Lissa. If anything happens, I want you to know that you and the others mean the world to me. Being in our family has changed me, made me a better person. You’ve instilled confidence in me that I never had, and I appreciate you more than I can ever say.”

Lissa spun around, holding the dripping teapot against her chest. “Nothing is going to happen to you. Rikki got through her crisis and came out stronger than ever. So has Judith. This is your time, Airiana. I’m not going to dismiss your fears and tell you everything is going to be fine when you’re feeling like something terrible is coming. I say, if it is, let it come. We’ll face it together. We’re strong together, whether we’re all physically present or not. You’ll get through this and you’ll be happier for it.”

Airiana nodded. “I know. I don’t want to go the way of my mother. My mind can be very demanding and chaotic if I’m not continually learning and the last thing I want to do is start drinking to numb myself.”

Lissa smiled at her. “Crazy girl, you don’t drink alcohol. I can’t see you suddenly swilling the stuff.”

Airiana laughed. “Keep an eye on me. If you see me suddenly hitting the alcohol cabinet, hit me over the head or something.”

Lissa rinsed the teapot again and set it aside with the rest of the clean dishes. “I am coming back, Airiana. If Damon gets here before me, just stall.”

“I will, I promise.” Airiana blew Lissa a kiss and turned to go back to her bedroom.

“Airiana? I love you right back,” Lissa said, her voice tight.

When Airiana turned around, Lissa was already ducking out of the kitchen through the arched doorway on the other side of the room.

Airiana found herself smiling as she took her shower. She was afraid of what Damon was going to say to her, but it didn’t matter, because she had her family and they were already closing ranks around her.

She pulled clean underwear from her drawer, hurriedly donned them and shimmied into her oldest pair of comfortable jeans. She ran her hand lovingly down her thigh. The jeans were soft and just perfect after several years of wear, but they also had a few holes in them and she couldn’t wear them too many places outside the farm. Sighing, she found a T-shirt that was somewhat threadbare and could be sacrificed to the cause.

Airiana brushed her teeth fast, shoved her feet into her oldest, very cute combat boots and with hair still damp, ran down the stairs of her home, slamming the door closed behind her. The fog continued to roll in off the ocean, bringing a wet, cool feel to the air.

She ran along the path in the direction of the greenhouse. It was a good distance away, but all of them had resolved to walk as much as possible to help stay fit. She was nearly there when she had to stop. She couldn’t help herself, she spun around in a circle, arms wide open, welcoming the sea air. She felt as if she was completely free when she was in the open air. She thought it might be a leftover need from those last couple of years in the government school.

As she turned in her circle, celebrating her freedom, it happened again, patterns moving in the dense fog. At once a heavy dread fell over her and she ceased moving abruptly. She lifted her hands and shoved. Nothing happened. Always when she gave a little push, the fog opened for her, but this time, the mist seemed locked in tight. Her heart gave a startled jerk.

She began to run again, along the path leading to the greenhouse. The trail was familiar and well-worn, but in the thick fog, she found it slow going. Her heart rate increased, her mouth going dry. Something was wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

“Lexi,” she called.

Sound was muffled in the fog when it was so thick, and she couldn’t see much in front of her. For one moment she thought she heard the sound of male voices, and she stopped moving, holding herself very still to listen.

“I’m here. This fog is strange, it was thinning nicely and then all of a sudden it got like this again. It’s weird, but I thought I heard a helicopter and then the sound was gone,” Lexi added. She came out of the veil of gray mist and handed Airiana a thick sweater. “I knew you’d forget to wear one, you always do.”

Airiana took it gratefully. Her body was shivering, but not so much from the cold, more from the muted voices swirling in the fog. Those voices were not a figment of her imagination—or in her head. She was certain. She caught Lexi’s arm when her youngest sister would have turned toward the greenhouse.

“Let’s get back inside,” she whispered. “Into my house. Something’s not right. Has Lissa already left?”

Lexi didn’t argue. All of them had known danger and even if whatever Airiana felt was a false alarm, it was far better to be safe than sorry.

“I saw her car leave,” Lexi said, dropping her voice to a low thread of sound.

Airiana tugged on Lexi’s arm to keep her following. They moved in silence, trying to stay on the path leading back to Airiana’s house. With each step they took, the fog seemed to grow thicker, almost as if it were deliberately slowing them down.

Airiana lifted her hand and waved it toward the fog in an effort to clear a space so they could see better and wouldn’t have to move like snails. Her body was in full flight mode, fear clawing at her.

She could hear Lexi breathing behind her and knew she had to be terrified. Lexi had been through so much, and terror was never very far from her. She stayed on the farm because she felt safe there. Airiana felt the edge of anger, a slow boiling that started somewhere in the pit of her stomach. She might be afraid herself, but she was getting angry on Lexi’s behalf. The farm was their refuge and whatever threatened Airiana had no business coming to their home—and she was certain the threat was to her.

Something moved off to her left, something large. Her breath caught in her throat, and she tugged at Lexi’s hand hard.

“Move fast. Run.”

She began to sprint, veering away from the left side but angling toward her porch. She couldn’t even make out the house in the thick fog.

“This isn’t natural,” Lexi said as she kept pace.

No, it wasn’t. The fog definitely pressed back at them, as if something drove it, commanded it to slow them down or stop them altogether. Her brain screamed at her to stop panicking and think rationally. Airiana took a deep breath and stopped running, dragging Lexi to a halt beside her. She leaned in close to her sister and put her mouth to her ear.

“Someone is influencing the fog. We’ve got to get off this path and then stay very still. We can’t hear them, but that means they can’t hear us either. They’re expecting us to run for the house. If the air communicates with me, whoever is manipulating this fog is listening to it too. We can’t make noise or disturb it too much.”

Lexi nodded in understanding. They stayed very low to the ground, trying to slip through the dense veil as slowly and carefully as possible. Lexi touched her shoulder and indicated she would lead the way. She knew the farm better than anyone else, and she could find the best places to hide. She wouldn’t get lost no matter how thick the fog became.

Airiana allowed Lexi to crawl past her and they stayed close together, crawling low to the ground until they came to a series of bushes that ringed Airiana’s home. Where Judith’s property was mainly flowers and carefully cultivated plants and Rikki’s was all about fire safety, Airiana’s property reflected her personality. She had wild bushes and grasses growing everywhere, a virtual sea of color waving madly in the winds coming off the sea.

Lexi moved confidently between the large willowy bushes, weaving in and out between low branches. The leaves caught in their hair, and vines slapped their faces, but they kept inching forward as quietly as possible.

It was impossible not to disturb the fog. Airiana whispered to the air, asking for aid in keeping the dense mass of vapor as still as possible. She knew how to manipulate fog and even hold it still in one place, but whoever commanded the dense vapor was far more experienced than she was. Still, she kept the tiny droplets from displacing too much, enough, she hoped, that whoever was hunting them wouldn’t find them, not without first thinning the fog.

Someone cursed, the male voice muffled, but his foul words still discernable. Beside her, Lexi winced and sat very still, pressing her hand to her mouth to cover her ragged breathing.

Airiana put her arm around her and pulled her close. Lexi trembled continuously. She had been taken as a child from her home, snatched right out of her bed at the age of eight, kidnapped and systematically abused emotionally, physically and sexually by a cult leader and his followers. She had worked on their farm by day and been forced into slavery at night by the male members. Airiana knew she had to be terrified. She pushed aside her own fears to try to wordlessly comfort Lexi. She felt if she conveyed absolute confidence, Lexi might not break down.

“Where the hell is she?”

Lexi shuddered and Airiana turned her into her arms. Lexi buried her face against Airiana’s shoulder. She’d spent nine years in captivity, living under the threat that her captors would kill her family if she ever tried to leave. This had to be hell for her. She had finally found a way to escape the cult and had made it back to her family. Airiana imagined that Lexi had to hide many times on that farm out in the middle of nowhere.

Anger welled up that anyone would hunt them this way. She felt like prey for a large predator, huddled there with her terrified sister. Damon Wilder was coming around noon. There were far too many hours between now and when he would show up, and everyone else was out for the day.

“Stop whining.” The voice cut like a knife. Hard. Merciless. An authority.

Airiana closed her eyes and inhaled slowly, concentrating on slowing her breathing, not wanting to take any chances that she could be heard. It helped to slow the wild beating of her heart and hopefully that would keep Lexi from a full-blown panic attack.

Her younger sister rarely left the farm unless it was for business, and then she never went alone. She still suffered panic attacks, and their counselor had said it was possible she always would, but that Lexi would find the tools to better handle them. Hiding in the bushes with men hunting them was not going to help.

Footsteps drew closer. Lexi pushed her palm into the ground. She was bound to earth, and Airiana had noticed that often, when Lexi was agitated, she would press her palms into the soil and that simple action seemed to soothe her, just as she spun in a circle with her arms wide and embraced the open air.

Lexi’s teeth began to chatter. Airiana couldn’t blame her. The footsteps were getting closer. She could hear the one who had been swearing. She couldn’t hear the second man, and it was that man who scared her the most. She felt his power in the air around her, in the dense fog surrounding them.

She lifted Lexi’s face, framing it with both hands, love welling up. “Listen to me, little sister. I believe these men only want me.” She whispered the words, let the scant inch of air separating their faces carry the thread of sound to her sister. “I want you to stay right here. Don’t move. Stay here until Lissa comes for you. Don’t even come out for Damon. Just Lissa. She’ll find you. Do you understand me?”

Lexi frowned and pressed her forehead against Airiana’s, shaking her head slightly as if she knew what Airiana was going to say.

“I’m going to lead them away from you. I’ll make a run for Judith’s house. Thomas has all kinds of weapons there. I’ve gotten pretty good with a gun.”

Lexi shook her head adamantly and clutched at Airiana’s arm.

“I can’t let them take you, Lexi. I can’t. I wouldn’t survive it. And they could use you against me. This is for me too. If they get me, Judith can unite all of your gifts and you’ll find me. But if they have you too, I’ll do whatever they ask me to do and they’ll kill us both faster.”

Her project. That horrible, wonderful project she’d begun all those years ago. Someone knew about it and they wanted it. There was no other explanation. Her mother had died over that project. Damon’s assistant had most likely been killed over it and Damon’s legs had been crushed. How many more people had been affected? She had no idea, but Lexi wasn’t going to be one of them.

“Do you understand? I’m not abandoning you. I can’t let them take you,” she repeated fiercely. They’d talked too much. Even though she’d been careful, whoever had the power to manipulate air the way this man did would probably feel that slight disturbance eventually.

Airiana leaned forward and kissed Lexi’s cheek, squeezed her hand and put her mouth up against her ear. “I love you. I love all of you.”

She leapt up and ran for the path leading to Judith’s house. Twigs snapped, vines slapped at her legs and leaves crunched beneath her feet. She ran as if her life depended upon it, and it probably did.

Behind her, she heard running footsteps slamming into the ground. He was following her, the one who had done the swearing, Lexi was safe if the other followed as well.

She hit something hard, so hard she thought she ran into a tree. There was no give in the trunk and her breath left her lungs in a long, painful gasp. Arms closed around her—strong arms—the kind that didn’t feel when she punched and kicked and struggled, trying to execute just one of the self-defense moves she had learned. He simply lifted her off the ground, slung her over his shoulder without a word and strode through the already thinning fog.