The Ruby Circle (Bloodlines #6)(51)
Author: Richelle Mead

It made as little sense to Ms. Terwilliger as it had to me, and she gave a great sigh, exchanging glances with some of the other witches. They didn’t look thrilled about releasing Alicia either. “Well, once the fire department’s finished, we’ll have to create a secure circle and release her to get some answers.”

Trey, who’d been standing off on the sidelines, suddenly cleared his throat. “You might not have to. I think I know where she’s at—or, well, at least who’s holding her.” All eyes shifted to him in astonishment, but he didn’t flinch under the scrutiny. “I think the Warriors of Light have her.”

Chapter 13

“WHAT DOES SALMON HAVE TO DO with the Warriors?” I asked.

Sydney shot me a wry look. “Psalms, not salmon. And I don’t know the connection.” She regarded Trey expectantly. “They’re a kind of religious poem, right? From the Bible?”

He nodded. “Yes. Well, that is, the ones the Warriors like to quote all the time aren’t actually in the Bible. They’ve made up a bunch of their own. But they recite them a lot on formal occasions, before meetings . . . stuff like that. If Alicia said Jill was hearing them, she’s probably being held by them somewhere. Believe me, they’d love nothing more than to hold a Moroi captive.”

Eddie turned toward Jackie incredulously and pointed at Alicia. “Unfreeze her like you did me! We need answers, and we need them now! Before it’s too late for Jill!”

I’d never seen him so worked up and was tempted to calm him with compulsion. Jackie remained remarkably unruffled. “I’m certainly not going to release her here—if we do it, it’ll be with a dozen other witches to secure her. And even if we do, don’t expect her to be forthcoming.”

“She’s right,” said Sydney slowly. “Even if we free Alicia, we don’t know that she’ll tell us anything.”

“I’ll make her talk,” insisted Eddie. “Or Adrian could compel her.”

Sydney didn’t look thrilled about that, but in my head, Aunt Tatiana was chomping at the bit. Yes! Yes! We’ll compel her into telling us things she doesn’t even realize she knows!

“There are spells to protect against that, and Alicia’s wily enough to have taken that precaution.” Jackie glanced at one of her witch friends. “What do you think? What time span would weaken her?”

The witch regarded frozen Alicia with a critical eye. “I’d leave her like that for a week, honestly. But if you’re in a rush . . .” She eyed Eddie before turning back to Alicia. “I’d say forty-eight hours.”

“Forty-eight hours!” exclaimed Eddie. “Jill might not have forty-eight hours if the Warriors are holding her! They could be performing some execution ritual as we speak!”

Jackie remained undaunted. “Being in that frozen state strips you of energy. Two days like that, and she’ll be physically and magically burned out. Much easier to question. Even then, I still wouldn’t free her unless we’re in an extremely secure location with extra backup. She’s too unpredictable.”

“Two days is too much,” Eddie reiterated. I couldn’t help but share his dismay. Sydney, however, looked thoughtful.

“Alicia will be less of a threat and maybe easier to interrogate by then,” she said slowly. “And in the meantime, we might be able to get some faster answers about the Warriors.”

“How?” Trey and I asked together.

“From Marcus,” Sydney said. “Or rather, from one of his contacts. She’s undercover in the Warriors. She might be able to uncover something before we could get it out of Alicia anyway. Let me check with her and Marcus. If they can’t dig up anything in twenty-four hours, the witches will release Alicia for questioning.”

No one seemed thrilled by that compromise, but they agreed to it. We all finally dispersed, with Eddie going to stay with Trey while Sydney and I returned to Clarence’s house. Sydney called Marcus along the way to explain the situation, and he promised to get back to her as soon as he could. When we arrived at Clarence’s, Rose and Dimitri were chomping at the bit to know what had happened. I let Sydney fill them in while I went to my mom and Declan. He’d only been in my life for a couple of days, but I was surprised by how much I ached to see him, even though he did little more than sleep. After the turbulent events of the day—and the panic I’d felt upon learning Sydney had faced Alicia alone—Declan’s presence was soothing.

Marcus called Sydney back a couple of hours later, saying he had news and would come to Palm Springs immediately to deliver it in person. Marcus was as much a wanted fugitive as Sydney, though, and in his usual cautious way, he arranged for a meeting away from both Clarence’s and Trey’s the next day.

The place he chose was a Mongolian restaurant outside of town. Rose and Dimitri, after much coaxing, agreed to wait at Clarence’s for an update so as not to create too large a crowd. We had Trey and Eddie join us, though, because Trey had useful insight about the Warriors and because no force on earth could keep Eddie from making plans about Jill. When we walked into the restaurant, Sydney exhaled in relief.

“Good. He brought Sabrina with him.”

I’d met Sabrina briefly but didn’t know her well. She was about my age and had been an undercover member of the Warriors of Light for years. Her first meeting with Sydney had involved holding Sydney at gunpoint, which didn’t thrill me, though we knew now that Sabrina had been trying to protect Marcus. Over time, we’d come to respect her and the important job she did. She didn’t agree with the Warriors’ philosophy, yet she’d remained among them because the intel she provided was so useful to others. I certainly hoped it’d be useful today.

“Good news and bad news,” said Marcus, which wasn’t exactly the opening we’d been hoping for. “The good news is that we’re pretty sure the Warriors do have Jill. The bad news is that we don’t know exactly where she is.”

Eddie crossed his arms. “Time to free Alicia and get some answers.”

“Not necessarily,” said Sabrina. Her long blond hair was pulled up into a high ponytail today, and she looked very much like an ordinary girl, not someone posing as a member of a fanatical anti-vampire group. “My guess is that Alicia doesn’t know where Jill is either. She most likely caught Jill and delivered her to the Warriors, then let them hide her away somewhere. I snooped around and found reports of a ‘high-profile Moroi prisoner,’ but they aren’t even revealing her location to members in our own group. They might work with someone like Alicia, but they wouldn’t trust her much.”