Page 79 of Girl, Unseen

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

A farm without farmers was just land waiting to die. Ella had searched every inch of Old Acre's fifty acres and found nothing but entropy in action.

The chicken coop housed zero chickens. A few goats watched her with rectangular pupils. Three cats that looked feral enough to take down a coyote.

But no Felix Blackwood. No sign of his father. Just animals going about their business while their owners played hide and seek with the FBI.

Ella’s legs burned from an hour of searching, and she’d covered every square foot of tillable land and checked outbuildings that looked ready to collapse if she breathed too hard. She’d even climbed up to that barn's hayloft where she and Felix had played their game of cat and mouse yesterday.

Nothing. Just dust and the sense that she was running out of both time and options.

The makeshift laboratory in the third barn had yielded its secrets, but those secrets only led to more questions. Someone had been cooking in that barn, someone who knew their chemistry and understood evidence disposal.

But who? Felix? His father? Some other player in this game of elements and sacrifice?

Then an intrusive thought took hold. Could Clive – Felix’s dad – be a part of this? It wouldn't be the first time Ella had seen the 'sins of the son' shtick play out to its bloody conclusion. Nature and nurture were tricky bitches, always ready to drag an unsuspecting parent along for the ride on the crazy train.

Doesn't matter.Ella shook off the speculation.Clive, Felix, the mailman. They're all just pieces of the puzzle. Focus on finding the edges, worry about jamming them together later.

Sage advice, straight out of Quantico's ass. But it didn't change the fact that she was rapidly running out of real estate to search.

Since she’d come up short everywhere else, the farmhouse drew her back like a magnet. Last resort or just plain desperation, she wasn't sure anymore.

The screen door still hung open, still tapped that same rhythm against the frame. Inside, nothing had changed. The same dishes fossilized in the sink. Same mail breeding on the counter.

‘Felix? Mr. Blackwood? Anyone?’

Ella pushed inside. The living room was empty except for some rotten furniture. The kitchen still looked like its occupants had evaporated mid-routine. The dining room table was set for ghosts that never showed up for dinner.

Upstairs then. One more sweep before she had to admit defeat and try another avenue.

The bathroom was a carbon copy of every other neglected bathroom she’d seen. Too much rust, not enough white. Towels that looked like they could stand up on their own. Nothing that suggested a hasty departure.

Master bedroom - stripped bare except for heavy furniture too big to move quickly. Mr. Blackwood's closet hung open, showing empty hangers and bare shelves. A life reduced to vacant space and gathering dust.

Ella stopped cold. The father too? First Felix goes radio silent, now his dad's closet looked like someone had evacuated in a hurry. What the hell had spooked them both enough to clear out? The Blackwoods knew something. something that made them run.

Then Felix's room. Black walls, black bedding, flags baring band logos that Ella presumed were heavy metal given the barely-readable fonts. Papers on the desk, books lying on the shelves and bed. Nothing had changed since she’d came here yesterday. Hell, the psychic book was still laying on the bed where Luca had dropped it. The cover showed a woman with enough hair for three people gazing into a crystal ball that probably came from Party City.

Ella plucked it off the bed and, perhaps through some masochistic urge, leafed through the first few pages. It felt cheaply-produced, with the kind of paper that yellowed if you looked at it too hard.

And there on the title page was something that caught her attention.

Beyond the Veil.

Lydia Soulwright.

Then, in a handwritten note:Sanguine, Felix. Love Lydia.

Ella’s heart jumped into her throat. Goosebumps prickled along her forearm.

A personal inscription. Not just a random copy picked up at the bookstore.

And Luca had told her that he’d seen this same book in the cult’s meeting place.

Ella slotted the pieces together in her head, moving facts and faces around like chess pieces on a board.

Earth. Air. Fire. Water. Four down, one to go. The elusive Fifth Element, the quintessence, the unifying principle that bound the rest together. Spirit into form, will into flesh.

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