“He definitely works with Engel,” he whispers, “but he’s been interacting with her for a long time. I can’t tell which of the memories I’ve seen are the most recent, and none of them showed how to get to the house from here—or even for sure that the house I sawisall that close to here.”
“Could you tell how many other guardians there might be around?” Zian asks, scanning the forest with a worried expression.
Andreas grimaces. “He definitely had memories of talking with her while there were one or two others with him, so I don’t think we should count on him being here alone.”
I hug myself. “Did you see anything about him hearing that we might show up?”
“No, but I can only narrow what I see by direct interactions. He’s never seen us in person. If someone talked to him about us or showed him pictures, I wouldn’t necessarily find that.”
Dominic frowns. “We could simply sneak past him and try one of the paths, and if that doesn’t get us anywhere—”
His suggestion is cut off by a sudden blare of electronic noise that makes us all startle. As it resonates through the woods, Jacob slaps his hand to his pocket.
“The phone. What the fuck? I had it on silent.”
Andreas motions at him wildly. “It’s got to be some kind of emergency alert. Shut it off!”
But it’s too late. Even as Jacob jabs at the screen, the door to the hut thumps open.
“Jake!” Zian growls, low and urgent, and I know he isn’t hassling him about the phone now.
Jacob spins toward the guardian who’s marching toward our side of the forest with gun raised and whips out his hands.
The rifle hurtles away in one direction. The man crashes to the ground in the other, letting out a startled grunt.
We rush through the trees to the weedy path where the guardian fell. He glares up at us from beneath the brim of his helmet, his hands wriggling where Jacob’s power has pinned them away from his sides.
From the twitching of his lips where they’re pressed tightly together, I suspect Jacob is holding his mouth shut too. Only muffled sounds of consternation seep out.
“Check him for other weapons or anything he could communicate with,” Jacob orders, with just a hint of strain in his voice.
We all dash in. Andreas hauls off the man’s helmet. Zian jerks open his metal vest and pats down his shirt while Dominic checks his hip pockets.
I yank off one boot and then the other, peering inside them for knives and then tossing them away into the forest. Wouldn’t want to make it any easier for this asshole to run.
The guys retrieve a walkie talkie and a pistol. Zian hands the second of those to Dominic, who needs the offensive boost the most.
As he clutches the walkie in his broad hand, Jacob glowers down at our captive. “You’re going to answer our questions, or you’re going to die very slowly and painfully. I think that should be an easy choice.”
It wasn’t for the guardians we interrogated before, though. This man doesn’t look like he’s going to be much more talkative. His eyes narrow, dark with anger even though I can smell his fear at the threat.
“Where would we find Ursula Engel’s house?” Jacob asks.
He must have loosened his grip on the man’s mouth to give him the option of speaking, but when the guardian’s lips part, it’s with a hasty inhalation that sets all my nerves on edge.
Only a fragment of a shout of warning slips from his mouth before Jacob has slammed his mouth shut again. The man lets out a frustrated whine and squirms as well as he can against the ground.
“Wrong answer,” Jacob snaps, and swivels his fingers. The man’s thumb twists with a crack of breaking bone.
A fresh whiff of stress pheromones tickle my nose—and an idea sparks in my mind. Maybe there is a way my usual talents could help get us some answers.
“Wait,” I say, holding out my hand.
I expect Jacob to argue, but he goes silent, watching me. I walk up to the man and step over him so I have a foot planted on either side of his chest.
Setting my hands on my hips, I stare down at him, getting to be the taller person in a confrontation just this once.
This man doesn’t know what powers I might have. Even the guardians who were in charge of our captivity must realize by now that we’ve shown skills we kept hidden from them before.