Page 173 of Cherish

“Trees,” I answer Hudson despondently. “Lots and lots and lots of trees.”

“We’ll figure it out,” he tells me as he strokes my hair. “One tree at a time, if we have to.”

God, even the thought of it is exhausting.

I squeeze Hudson really tightly and wait for him to do the same to me, then pull away to see what everyone else is up to.

Jaxon is standing on the edge of the waterfall, looking down at its churning depths.

Flint has transformed into his dragon and is preparing to launch himself up and over the forest to do another layer of the reconnaissance I just finished doing, while Eden is already walking through the closest group of trees.

I get ready to take to the air again. But Macy, who has been talking intently with Remy for the last few minutes, calls Hudson and me over to talk to the two of them.

“What’s up?” I ask as we get closer.

“We want to do a location spell. See if we can narrow this needle in a haystack down a little,” Remy says as Macy hands him a pendant from her bag, which he hangs from a small branch.

“That’s bloody brilliant,” Hudson tells them.

Macy shakes her head. “Don’t start praising us yet. One tree in the middle of all this is not exactly easy to pin down—even with a spell.”

“Still, the fact that you thought of it impresses me,” I tell them. “What can we do to help?”

“Visualize the tree,” Remy tells me as he sends a steady pulse of power straight to the pendant, and it begins to sway back and forth just a tiny bit.

Heat blooms across my cheeks, and I tuck my chin as I admit, “I have no idea what kind of tree to visualize. I didn’t ask anyone for a description.”

“Hey, it’s okay,cher,” Remy says. “The Curator gave me a spell to get us close. We just need to find the right direction to walk in.”

I groan. “But I didn’t have the foresight to ask asingleperson what it looks like.”

A crooked grin splits his face. “Then it’s a good thing ol’ Remy here doesn’t need pesky things like details to work his magic.” He tosses me a wink. “Just think ofwhatit is. What it represents to you.”

I nod and close my eyes as I think of Mekhi. Of Lorelei and Liana and the pain of souls trapped together for an eternity. And then I hope—no, I pray—that getting this far isn’t just an exercise in hubris and the baseness of futility.

He adds more power, more pulses of energy coming from his fingers. But nothing happens. The pendant doesn’t deviate from its forward-and-back rhythm at all.

After a minute or so, the pendant changes directions, now swinging from right to left—east to west. Remy gives it an extra boost, energy once again pulsing from his fingertips. And still nothing happens.

Until it does.

All of a sudden, sparks of light fly off the pendant each time it swings in one direction, each point of light floating in the air like a constellation of stars, reaching out and out in a straight line. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“So it’s over there?” I ask, following the direction of the line of light pointing toward a huge grove of trees.

Jaxon looks to the trees and back again. “There’s still a lot of trees to choose from over there.”

“You are so observant,” Hudson tells him dryly.

“Still, it’s better than this whole area—”

“Relax.” Remy cuts me off with a laugh. “We’re not done yet.”

Now that we have the general area, Macy starts making a series of quick hand movements, swirling her fingers in tighter and tighter circles until she suddenly pulls them apart like she’s ripping open a present—and the swarm of floating lights takes off in one direction.

“Let’s go!” Macy shouts, and we run, chasing the lights.

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