Page 72 of Professor and the Seer

“How do we locate her?” Enyo rose to stand by her sister. “Should we pray or chant?”

“I can see why Betsy told me to come. It’s like you can’t even think of the basics.” Fraussa rolled her eyes. “Hold hands and concentrate.”

“It can’t be that simple,” Dina muttered, even as she reached for Enyo’s hands.

But it was. The moment the sisters held tight and closed their eyes, they started speaking.

Enyo’s lips parted, “I see Frieda. She’s pacing in a bedroom, a nice one. Are we sure she’s a prisoner?”

“The door is locked. She’s kicking it and cursing,” Dina murmured. “Hold on, let’s see if she can hear us. Look out the window, French fry.” A nickname for Frieda that John knew she hated.

“Well, shit,” Enyo uttered in surprise. “She’s looking out the window. She’s in some kind of a tower that overlooks a seriously high mountain. I can see clouds below the edge.”

“That’s all well and good, but we knew that.” John couldn’t help but complain. “Where is the mountain?”

As one, Enyo and Dina turned to point. “That way.”

To which Bane snorted. “Well, that was helpful.”

John almost let out an unmanly yelp when a new voice dryly said, “Thanks for narrowing down the direction.”

Despite the door remaining closed, Reaper stood with them, kind of. John could see right through the man in the wispy cloak.

Enyo uttered a yell and dove at him with a sword, passed right through, and would have slammed into the wall if Bane hadn’t snared her around the waist. Dina, thankfully, kept her lightning to herself but pursed her lips.

“Whoever that is, he’s not here,” she mused aloud.

“Observant.” Reaper’s dry retort.

“Who the fuck is this?” Enyo pointed with her sword and glared.

“Take a guess. I’ll give you a hint. I’ve been away a long time,” was Reaper’s sarcastic reply.

Before they could keep going around in circles, John blurted out, “You made a bargain with Frieda.”

“Yes.”

“What did you threaten her with?”

Reaper shrugged. “Nothing. She wanted your life spared during the battle at your college. I asked for her aid in locating my enemy in return.”

“Having her kidnapped doesn’t seem a fair trade,” John sputtered.

“She won’t come to harm.”

“How can you be sure?” John wanted desperately to believe she’d be safe.

It helped when Reaper added, “Because we’re going to save her.”

22

The summons came late in the day after I’d picked at the meal tray sent to my room by my kidnapper, who I’d taken to secretly calling Whipped, as in Pussy Whipped, because he obviously stuck by his wife despite her being a liar and a psycho.

The walking tin can wore armor despite being inside the fortress of evil. As he led the way, I studied him from behind: the salt and pepper in his hair, the chainmail he wore, the strange neck brace of dull metal that didn’t match the intricate styling of his other gear. If I didn’t know he abetted the megalomaniac, I’d have described him as unhappy.

“Where are we going?”

“To see her.”