Page 41 of Artemis

“Okay.”

Once he was out of earshot, she asked, “What is it? Did you find him?”

Augustine removed the box off the cake. “This is almost worse,” he admitted. “We have not touched it, but we got everything for you to dust for prints.”

Chloe chuckled. “I think I’ll leave that for the forensic team. I’m not trained in that.”

“That’s my knife,” Demi said hesitantly.

“Then we’ll need your prints too, so we can eliminate them easily,” Chloe reassured her. “Let’s pack that up as evidence and take it to the station. You’ll come with me, Demi.”

“I’m going to see if I can find the kidnappers,” Finley announced to nobody in particular.

Chloe put her hand on his arm and he had the urge to shake her off, but all she said was, “Keep checking in every fifteen minutes,” which he appreciated. He had to dosomething, and waiting in the backyard was killing him.

He nodded abruptly and took off into the air, hoping to find a clue, a hint of Alexander somewhere... anywhere. He thought perhaps Alexander had been taken in a car, so he’d be further away when he was moved. Finley stretched his hearing to its limits, but even he couldn’t hear across Purgatory.

And what if the little boy had been taken topside?

That thought made him pause for a moment, hovering in midair.

Didn’t the portals to topside record the person who passed through?

In which case, they’d know whether they needed to expand their search. He made a mental note to mention that possibility to Chloe when he returned next time and continued on his search. She would know how to get that information from the various portals scattered throughout the Underworld.

A car... Finley frowned—a scary thing to see on a dragon—and wondered why that was ringing a bell. Probably due to the black sedan and the man with the snake tattoo on his hand that had tried to kidnap Alexander a couple weeks ago.

His innate sense of time tingled; he’d been in the air for fifteen minutes and he needed to return.

Maybe they’ve found a clue.

CHAPTER11

Artemis was panicking.All her power, and there was not a thing she could do. Alexander was probably scared and wanting her and...

She couldn’t think like that.

Swallowing down the lump in her throat, she focused on the game she was playing with Atlanta involving all the stuffed animals in the daycare and the play tea set. Every time Artemis put something down, Atlanta would frown and say, “No, not there.Here!”

She really needs to learn the power of the “yes, and”,Artemis thought, amused in spite of herself.

Finley dashed into the daycare from the back yard, and Artemis’s heart leapt in hope, but he didn’t say anything to her, only grabbing a paintbrush from the easel before cleaning it vigorously at the sink. Seemingly satisfied, he then dried it, grabbed the baby powder from the change table, and ran out the door again, Damien following behind.

When Artemis moved to retrieve the boy, Hestia shook her head. “Maddie’s out there. Damien’s safe. She’ll keep an eye on him.”

Biting back the retort that Alexander had vanished whileeveryonehad been outside, Artemis resettled herself on the floor. “Would you like me to read you a book, Atlanta?”

“No. Play tea party,” the little girl replied, continuing her placement of the tea cups and toys meant to be cookies.

Artemis shrugged her shoulders and held in a sigh. “Whatever you want.”

Halfway through the interminable tea party, in which Artemis wasn’t one hundred percent sure what was going on half the time, the rest of the adults returned to the backyard. From what she could see through the back door, they didn’t have any news for her. She slumped back against the leg of the couch, feeling defeated.

Damien burst in through the door, followed by his parents, and led them around the room, showing them all the art he’d made recently that he hadn’t brought home yet.

His boisterousness cut into her heart and Artemis got to her feet, hurrying out of the room. The hallway led her to a quiet room where four cots were tucked away and a plush rocking chair was in the center of the room. She took off her glasses, holding them loosely in one hand, and sank into it with a stifled cry. Drawing her knees up, she pressed her face against her thighs. Only then did she let her tears flow. All her anxiety, her worry for Alexander, her panic... She let them all out through her sobs. At the end, she felt calmer, but shaky.

“What was it that Alexander said Lee, no,Finley, taught him?” she whispered to herself. “Put my fingers together until I’m calm, and then find one special thing to look at.” Artemis pressed her fingers together, one at a time, taking deep breaths with each fingertip that touched. To her surprise, she did feel better afterward. Then she looked around the room for something special about it. The room was pretty sparse, but then she spotted a leftover blue blanket on one of the cots. It wasn’t folded; thrown haphazardly over the cot as if tossed there by a child, which was probably the case.

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