Sarah reached out a hand to her daughter, the strain of movement obvious. “Baby, they’re not here or none of this would be happening. I don’t know where Myrddin managed to send them, and I pray to the goddess they’re still alive, but they can’t save us this time. Kelsey is gone, too, and I suspect their children have been taken somewhere safe. I saw Gray coming out of the penthouse, and he’d left Trent up there. I think he did what he could to save the kids.”
“Uncle Neil…” Mia insisted.
“If he’s done what we planned, he’s already working to get as many of us as he can out through the tunnels we built,” Sarah said with a cough that rattled her chest.
“We have tunnels?” I hadn’t known we had tunnels.
“Uncle Neil and Aunt Sarah built them years ago,” Evan explained. “They didn’t trust the hold Myrddin had over my dads. They built the tunnels as an emergency option if they ever got caught and needed a way out. Like this day. Not everyone has an Eddie. She looks so bad. How do I tell my mom?”
A light shone and suddenly Oliver and Felicity Day were in the room.
I breathed a sigh of relief. “I don’t think you have to.”
Felicity quickly moved around the couch. She was everything I viewed an angel should be. Delicate. Beautiful.
But now I could see that our gnome angel was right. Angels would be as different as the charges they protected, and it should be that way.
I glanced down at the gnome. “You aren’t here?”
He shook his head. “I’d only just joined them at this point. I stayed behind to ensure they didn’t get caught. We were told by the archangels not to be involved, but they couldn’t leave their brother’s family behind. So we made a plan.”
Felicity sank to her knees before Sarah while Oliver moved in to put a hand on Felix’s shoulder.
“You came,” Felix said, his voice unsteady.
“You are and will always be my brother,” Oliver replied solemnly. “I will do anything I can to help you, but you have to know we’ve been told not to interfere.”
Felix’s shoulders dropped. “Then there’s nothing you can do.”
“They can take Mia.” Sarah clutched at Felicity’s arms. “Please save Mia.”
Oliver’s eyes rolled as though he thought all the drama was a bit much. “As if Michael’s edicts can stop me. Felicity, if you please.”
Felicity held a hand up and pure white light pulsed from it and into Sarah’s body. She was whole again in seconds, the color coming back to her face. Felicity even got rid of the blood, and Sarah looked like she’d recently gotten dressed and was ready for work.
Felix dragged his wife into his arms, holding her tight. “Thank you. Thank you, brother. Thank you, sister.”
“She’s not entirely out of the woods.” Felicity reached down to hold Mia’s hand, bringing it up to her heart. “Sweetie, I need you to go and pack a bag of your favorite things. We’re going on an adventure. You have to be quick. Don’t worry about clothes. You’ll find some there, but I want you to bring your favorite toys and books and pictures. Okay?”
Mia nodded and ran off.
“Where are we going? What’s wrong with Sarah?” Felix asked.
Felicity’s lovely face looked grim. “She seems to have been hit with a spell that’s affected her heart.”
“He tried to pull it out of my body,” Sarah admitted. “Myrddin and I fought earlier. I managed to get away, but he knew where I would go. He wants my heart’s blood. I warded the whole building with it. He can get into all of the public spaces and there are some rooms he can easily fight the wards off, but some places like this apartment, he will never get through. Only Neil or Zoey can get in here outside my family.”
Felicity nodded. “That would do it. I can’t fix this here. But where I’m taking you, your body should heal over time.”
“We can’t leave,” Felix said with a shake of his head. “Our friends are out there dying. They are our family.”
“And you’ve done right by them.” Oliver pointed to the bag of holding. “You rescued the grimoire and the Sword of Light. Had they been left where the queen put them, Myrddin would eventually have found them. The grimoire would call to him. By leaving the bag here in this apartment, it is protected by Sarah’s heart’s blood. At some point in the future we believe the queen will return for it. It needs to remain on this plane, but you cannot.”
“Because of Sarah’s heart?” Felix asked.
Felicity nodded. “Yes. We were going to take you there anyway, but for a different reason. While we are willing to go against the archangel’s decree, we cannot flaunt our disobedience or we risk that faction taking action. We have consulted with our new brother and he believes if we are discreet, the archangels will view this as nothing more than two siblings helping their beloved brother. They do not see the patterns that are emerging.”
“Patterns?” Sarah asked.