Page 104 of Fool Me Twice

“After Cane was put away, she laid low for a while, before emerging again…under a different last name,” Cyrus said.

Cane froze.

“Layton,” he said to himself, but Cyrus heard him.

“I don’t want to know how you guessed that. ‘Sarah Layton, admitted to hospital on July 2nd, baby born at 4:55 but mother and unnamed daughter disappeared before being discharged. No sign of cursemark at birth,’” Cyrus recited. “Neither were seen or heard from again. No record of either of them anywhere. No jobs for Sarah, no school for Arianna. Not even the caster testing for her. There is still a search warrant active for Sarah under both known last names, but it’s been nearly two decades.”

“You’re not actively searching anymore,” Fix finished for him.

“Motherfucker!” Cane yelled, pushing off the counter, but he had nowhere to go. Nothing to take his anger out on.

“Arianna Layton is her daughter,” Fix said.

“I should have guessed it. Apparently being a fucking psycho is genetic. The MO is the same. Dismantling my life piece by piece. It’s what her fucking mother did before she tried to kill me and got me locked up,” Cane growled.

“Where are you guys?” Cyrus asked. “We need to debrief about this. If Cane knows where a wanted criminal is…”

Cane hung up the phone.

“Cane!” Fix scolded.

“I killed Sarah,” Cane said, stopping whatever else Fix was going to say. “After I got out of jail, I tracked her down and ended her for what she did to me. She’s buried in an unmarked grave in a village just off the border with Arcstead. The last thing she said to me was ‘You can’t take them from me.’”

“You killed her,” Fix repeated, the words sounding heavy on his lips.

“Yes,” Cane said. “It was kill or be killed and I’d already almost fucking died at her hands once. Wasn’t gonna do it again.”

“I didn’t need to know that,” Fix said, groaning as he threw his head back.

The phone buzzed between them as Cyrus called back. Cane braced himself for Fix’s reaction to the news, laying his cards on the table.

Fix didn’t reach for it.

“Okay…so the daughter grew up, she’s got some serious magic, and is now getting revenge?” Fix said, seemingly trying to shake the shock of the information out of his system. Cane nodded, a wave of relief washing over him when he realized Fix was on his side, or at least the side that put Hart as priority.

“It’s the only thing I can think of,” Cane said.

“It’s our best lead to help Hart.” Fix nodded. “We have to find her.”

“If she’s anything like her mother, she’ll be close by. What’s the point of burning down my life for revenge and not being there to watch it?” Cane frowned as the words left his mouth. The prickly feeling of phantom eyes on him surfaced, and he snorted, hating himself for being so stupid. “She HAS been watching me.”

“Sorry?”

Cane nodded. “I’ve felt for months like I was being followed. Watched. But I always thought… Loads of fuckers want me gone, so I didn’t pay it too much attention. I fucking should have.”

Fix nodded in agreement. “So how do we draw her out?”

“We provoke her,” Cane said grimly. “By paying a visit to mommy dearest.”

“You want to face off with her at her mother’s grave?” Fix asked.

“What better place?”

“It would certainly evoke a reaction. And maybe not a good one. If she’s as good a caster as she seems, she could do something much worse to you right there and then.”

“I’ll take the risk.”

“For yourself, or for Hart?”

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