She seemed to think for a moment. “He said they had to find her mom. It was complete chaos, but I got the impression that Mia’s mom had something important to do and they were meeting her at their place. Mia was crying because she wanted to get to Lee, the king’s son. He was her best friend. She was insistent on getting to the royal apartments because she didn’t want to leave without Lee.”
Poor Mia. By then Albert and Trent and Eddie had gotten the royal kids and were probably on their way to Venice. It had been the first stop on their long road, the stop that had brought Sasha into the group because he’d been staying there. “I don’t think it would have been a good idea to go to the penthouse. The first thing Myrddin did was attempt to get control of the king’s children.”
“Mr. Day wouldn’t let her go. He said her mom had a way out.”
That was what I needed. “She had a physical way out of the building?”
“That wasn’t the impression I got. I think it was magical. He promised Mia they would come back and find Lee, but they had to go…what did he say? It was weird. He said they had to go visit family first, and that she shouldn’t be afraid,” Jade explained. “I thought it was weird that she would be afraid of her family.”
But Mia Day’s family included angels. Had Sarah Day found a way to contact her in-laws? Had they gotten her out?
“Here you go,” Ben said, putting a big tray of food between us. The heavenly scent of burgers and fried food assailed my nose and proved that even when I was faced with a hell of a conundrum, I could still eat.
Because I was fairly certain I knew where the Days had fled.
The Heaven plane wasn’t a place I could buy a ticket to. Well, not a physical one, and punching that particular ticket was usually one way unless one had brothers and sisters up there.
And Heaven was exactly the place Myrddin intended to close us off from. The only weapon that could take the fucker down might end up on the other side of that door.
I had to find a way to get to Heaven. I prayed Sarah Day had left a map behind.
“Hey, is that a ladybug?” Ben stared down at my arm.
Sure enough, my friend from before was there. “Yeah, I noticed it earlier. I guess it followed me.” There was suspicion again. “I don’t suppose it’s real. Is it a spell? Is it tracking me?”
Jade frowned and reached over, putting her fingers out. The ladybug had been walking down my shirt sleeve and simply continued its walk onto Jade’s hand. She brought her hand up, carefully inspecting it. “I don’t sense any spell.”
Ben sniffed the air. “Nah. That’s natural. It’s just a bug, but not one we have down this deep. It’s the weirdest thing. The last couple of weeks we’ve had some odd visitors. I think someone’s playing pranks.”
“Visitors?” My instincts were flaring again. “What kind?”
“Animals,” Jade said, still looking at the ladybug. “First it was a couple of butterflies. We made sure they were real. Then about a month ago it was a bunny. We would have tested it, too but, well, Fen ate it.”
I was going to have such a talk with my son. “How would a rabbit get down here?”
The bugs I could understand. They could come in on a visitor’s clothing or in their suitcases. A bunny would be hard to miss.
“Oh, there are lots of animals in the Under,” Ben corrected. “The primals have to eat, after all. That particular rabbit wasn’t the species we grow down here. We grow Flemish Giants. They get up to twenty pounds. It’s easier that way or else the primal needs two or three smaller ones a night.”
Okay, ick. But they did have to eat. “And this bunny wasn’t one of those?”
“No. It was much smaller and white. The Flemish Giants are brown.” Jade settled the ladybug on her shirt and picked up an onion ring. “This ladybug might be from the gnomes. They sometimes have helpful bugs brought in. Not sure about the rabbit, though. There should be records. The primals keep tons of records. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
But worrying was all part of the job.
I still ate those onion rings.