Page 41 of Back in the Hunt
“I have to get that,” Nelson said once he had found it in Tony’s bag. “It’s his mother. Tony wouldn’t want her to worry.” He gave his tie a tug and cleared his throat. “Ms. Costa!” Nelson said brightly when he answered it. “It’s Agent Grady Nelson. Remember me?” There was a long pause as he listened and Everly could hear a woman with a strong Italian-American accent from across the room. “No, no, no. Everything’s fine,” Nelson said calmly. “Tony’s with the Professor. He had a surprise for Tony. It’s some academic thing and you know I really don’t understand any of that, but Tony will explain when he gets back… I’m not sure. They’re at the school, working out the details… I will… We might keep Tony with us if they run late. No point in him driving all the way to Silver Spring tonight if he’s got that meeting early in the morning… Tony didn’t tellyou about that? Department emergency,” he said with a sarcastic laugh. “I’ll make sure he texts you, at the minimum… Talk to you later, Celia,” Nelson said, ending the call and pushing out a hard breath.
“Do you think that worked?” Everly whispered.
“For a few hours,” Nelson said, then looked around the room. “No one breathes a word about this to Nox until he gets back. Do we understand?” he asked everyone but Everly shook his head.
“Why don’t you want Nox to know? He loves Tony and he’ll want to get here as fast as he can to help,” he said.
Nelson pointed at Everly, his expression severe. “That’s why. Nox is already on the way and Bryn is doing everything he can to get them back as quickly and as safely as he can. If Nox finds out, he’ll go nuclear.”
“Nuclear?” Everly whispered and Nelson nodded.
“How many times have you heard me use hyperbole?” he asked, glancing at the bed and then at Arawn. “Do whatever you can to…heal him before Nox gets back. I’ll do what I can to keep Nox and Celia from finding out anything is wrong.”
Luckily, Arawn and Fletcher were able to bring Tony around a few hours later. The first thing Tony did was call his mother and reassure her that he was alright.
“The Professor got us funding for a secret research project. We’ll be gone for the weekend and reception might be crap.” He gave them a limp thumbs up. “Maybe, Ma… Itmightbe connected to that thing you saw about the aliens, but I can’t talk about it right now… I love you too. I’ll call as soon as I get a signal.” He dropped his phone on the bed and closed his eyes again. “I’m so tired. I don’t know why, but I’m so tired.”
“Can you tell us what happened?” Nelson asked him. Tony mumbled something as he drifted off but they gasped and swore when he mentioned a child and shadows. Nelson gave his cheeksa few sharp slaps. “Tony, I need you to wake up and repeat that last part,” he said loudly.
“Okay…” Tony blinked as he struggled to focus. “I came to drop off the Professor’s mail and I saw a child hiding in the alley, in the shadows. I asked if he was okay and he screamed and attacked me.”
Everly’s stomach dropped and turned sour, he was afraid he was going to be sick. “He attacked you?”
Tony answered with a weak nod. “You know him?”
“Not yet, but—” Nelson stopped when Everly raised his hand.
“I saw him! I’m so sorry I didn’t tell anyone. I thought the evil shadow child was just after me or I imagined it. But I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want Bryn to worry or say I couldn’t go outside,” Everly confessed in a rush. “It’s my fault. I’m so sorry!”
“Not your fault. You didn’t attack me,” Tony said and this time, they let him drift off and moved the conversation into the hallway.
“This isn’t your fault, Everly,” Nelson repeated and gave his shoulder a shake so he’d listen. “You should have told us so we’d keep a closer eye on you and the street, but you had no reason to suspect it would attack anyone.”
“Why did it attack Tony?” Fletcher asked. “The only other being we know of who’s seen it was Ronan O’Sullivan. He said he was attacked by a shadow child, but he’s not a human. Right?” He raised his brows at Arawn and he nodded in confirmation.
“A merrow has just a little more magickal ‘nutritional’ value than a changeling, but a human like Tony? It doesn’t make sense.”
“And why now?” Nelson wondered out loud. He checked his watch and swore. “Nox will be back in a few hours. Tony’s conscious so we’re halfway out of the woods. Keep cleansing and purging and pouring tea down his throat,” Nelson said to Arawn and left them to make some calls.
Everly helped as much as he could, rushing up and down the stairs for fresh towels and items from the kitchen pantry. Eventually, there was nothing left to do but wait and let Tony rest. Everly returned to his post in the foyer and Arawn came to keep him company while Fletcher kept an eye on Tony.
“How are you holding up?” Arawn asked Everly.
He shrugged, not at all concerned with himself at the moment. “I’m worried about Tony and I just want Bryn to come home so I can stop worrying about him and Nox and Merlin.”
“They’ll be fine! We were born not far from there and Nox is an expert hiker and camper,” Arawn said as he attempted to comfort and distract Everly.
“How were you born?” he asked without taking his eyes off of the front door. “Bryn said there wasn’t much to tell and that your childhood was a blur.”
Arawn muttered under his breath about his brother being a knucklehead. “It was a blur, but there’ssomethingto tell. Not much, but something,” he said wearily. “A healer found us in a field after a terrible storm. She said she saw smoke and went to investigate and found two screaming babies laying in a crater. There were no towns, let alone houses, for miles. Except for hers, but she was also the first person people blamed if a child went missing and they had yet to turn up. She figured out quickly that we weren’t normal because we were crawling and then walking within days. Bryn and I looked almost like we do now within a few weeks, much to her dismay,” he added with a sympathetic grimace.
“He said you grew up fast but not that fast!” Everly replied in awe.
“We were lucky she was the one who had found us. She kept us hidden until we were ready to find our own glory. We went back when it was her time and carried her spirit on together.”
“That’s really nice,” Everly noted. “You two were adults within weeks?”
Arawn nodded and shrugged. “We aren’t sure what stopped it or what causes us to age so slowly now. Aside from our ancestors and our destinies, obviously. But we reached…this.” He gestured at himself. “And time began to move at a crawl for us.”