Page 38 of Soothsayer

Tears welled up in her eyes. “But who will keep them safe if I’m not there?”

I shook my head. “They’re a lot safer without you around right now, okay? Go. You have to go. Thanks for the stuff, but you have to go now. You’ve got to run.”

“Fine.” To her credit, she didn’t draw it out any longer. She just grabbed her Taser, tossed me a nasty look, and got back into her pony rainbow car. She drove away, and I rubbed a hand over my face.

I’d barely looked into her future, but I knew she’d at least make it out of Missouri. That was a good start. I reviewed the scene in my mind, seeing through Charlotte’s eyes as she drove past the entrance, past the big black SUV, down to the exit where she could get back onto the—

Big. Black. SUV. With a tall blond man in the front seat, wearing a black suit.

It could be a coincidence.

Yeah, right.

Chapter Twenty

You weren’t supposed to bring a firearm into an amusement park. The rules might be different in a place like Texas, but in Missouri the prohibition stood. More than that, I wasn’t comfortable carrying and possibly firing a gun in a place where a lot of children were going to be running around. There was disregarding my own safety, then there was being okay with copious collateral damage, and I wasn’t that.

So fine, no gun. It didn’t matter. I just needed to find Sören and get out of here. Hopefully I could snag him as he came off a roller coaster and get him out before his brothers got close.

Yeah. And how often did things work out for me like that?

I moved the Electra closer to the entrance, keeping my eyes open for any sign of a black SUV.Ha, this was the land of Sport Utility Vehicles?the only things there were more of in this parking lot were trucks. There were way too many cars to mark, so instead I kept a weather eye out for enormous Icelandic bastards in suits as I made my way to the front of the line.

“Hi there!” the lady behind the counter said as I stepped up. “One for the day?”

“Half day,” I corrected absently as I pulled out my money.

“Right! That’s twenty-five dollars. Are you interested in any of our special rides? The water park is open, and we have an exciting paintball course.”

I wasn’t, actually, but I knew someone who was. “Sure. I’ll play some paintball.”

“That’s an extra forty dollars, then.”

That was fucking extortion, but I didn’t care enough to rail at unforgiving corporate gods. I forked over the money and got a stamp on my hand and a special ticket for my troubles. “Our paintball field is straight back through the rides, on the right-hand side,” she told me. “Just give one of our team members the ticket, and they’ll get you the equipment you need.”

“Thank you—” I glanced at her nametag. “—Alta.” I looked into Alta’s smiling face and past the warm brown glimmer of her eyes and saw her mild concern when, in about fifteen minutes, a bunch of cop cars suddenly pulled up at the front gate. Okay then?that was my timeline. “Have a nice day,” I said, heading off into the park.

There were two kinds of crowds—well, no, there were a million different types of crowds, every situation was slightly different, but for me, the distinction was simple. There were crowds in which you could hide, blending in like one of the herd. Then there were crowds in which you stood out no matter what you did.

This particular crowd? I stood out like a streak of blood on a plain white canvas. With no kid accompanying me, tattooed and pierced and in a hurry—folks stared as I walked by. I was tempted to stare back, but I didn’t have time for them. I had to find Sören as soon as possible. I was hedging my bets, going after him at the paintball course first. If he was on a roller coaster andI had to backtrack, we could be in trouble, but my gut said he was in the mood to shoot things today. Fuck, I knewIwas feeling that way. First Charlotte, and now the Family Egilsson. How had they found us so fast?

That was a question for Sören. I had to keep reminding myself he wasn’t on my side, no matter what he’d already done for me?or to me. He wasn’t on anybody’s side. He was the prize, and we were the fools fighting over him, like goddesses battling it out over a golden apple meant for the fairest. Only in our cases, it was a matter of life, death, and sanity. There was still so much I had to work out, so many things that had to come together for me to end up victorious...for a given value of victorious, of course. My Sören was bound to the landvættir, and before I could think about separating them, I had to win them both.

Those were issues for tomorrow. Right now I needed to solve my immediate problem, which was finding Sören and getting the fuck out of here.

Apparently a paintball match had just begun, because there was no line when I got to the entrance to that part of the park. Behind the shed that held all the equipment was an open field scattered with bits and pieces of old rides, the sort of thing that would look incredibly creepy if it was dark out. Beyond that was a heavily wooded area where I saw people running around and heard the quietpop-popof their guns.

“Hey,” the guy manning the booth said disinterestedly. “Gotta ticket?”

“Here.” I handed it to him, and he grunted before adding another stamp to my hand. “You wearing that out into the field?” he asked, gesturing at my suit jacket. “It’s gonna get messy.”

My suit was destined for the trash at this point anyway. “I’m fine with that.”

“Yeah, okay.” He passed me a muggy face protector and goggle set and then handed over the paintball gun. “There arepreloaded hoppers back here if you need more ammo, which youshouldn’t,” he emphasized. “Just gotta wait until some of these games are played out, then you can go in.”

I leaned in a little. “Actually, I’m looking for a friend of mine. Really pasty guy, tall, not the most patient person ever…”

“Oh,him.” I saw the memory play out in the guy’s head. “Yeah, he’s part of the King of the Hill game over that way. Gotta wait to get in on that so we can reset the field.”

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