Watching with such anxious urgency was absurd in the end. When they arrived, the roar of Elias’s truck would’ve been audible from the back of the house with the stereo on full volume. He could’ve taken a nap and still had plenty of warning. Not that he would’ve been able to rest.

  He levered his stiff joints up from the chair, shuffled into the front hall, and flung the door open.

  Arden was the first to reach him at a run, nearly knocking him over with the force of his hug. “Gods! You’re all right. We were so worried. Zubayr said… well, he couldn’t tell us much. Are you all right?”

  Darius managed a grunt and reached for Zubayr next to receive a less painful hug. “Okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Zubayr pushed him back and searched his face. “Not like they roughed me up and tossed my house. Let’s get everyone out of the night air and we can exchange stories.”

  Elias trotted up on his blade legs with a bag over his shoulder and claimed a hug as well. “Dammit, old man. Can’t let you out of my sight, can I?”

  “Guess… not,” Darius whispered and allowed himself to cling a moment. He closed the door behind them and, after some awkward shuffling around people, recalled that none of them had been in his house before. He twitched a hand for them to follow and slouched to the kitchen.

  Zubayr began poking through the cabinets the moment he set foot on the kitchen tiles. “When did you eat last? Probably this morning. No wonder you look so tired. Don’t you have any food in this house?”

  With his bones turned to jelly from some species of relief, Darius collapsed in his chair at the table and took in the activity, numb and lost. Arden came to sit beside him and hold his hand, a gesture Darius would’ve found annoying before. Now he needed the anchor badly.

  Through some miracle of instinct and persistence, Zubayr managed to unearth a rice cooker and rice, beans, and a frozen steak that he had bullied into an actual meal in twenty minutes. No one made any comments about the late hour for dinner as they came to the table to join him.

  Zubayr kissed the top of his head before he sat down. “All right, I’ll start. I left you two to do what you needed to and headed up the trail. They jumped me in the parking lot, and some Air mage I’d never met took the O2 away. When I woke up, Arla Messer, you remember her?”

  The guild director of the Allegheny guild—of course Darius remembered. He offered a curt nod.

  “I was back home and she was there to tell me not to worry. You and Toby had been contained and safely carted away. For your own good, naturally. But she wouldn’t tell me anything else. So I worried.”

  “As you do,” Elias murmured.

  “So I went to Elias, and he shared my concerns that things were probably worse than advertised. And we took Elias’s truck to Arden’s place—”

  “Of course we were worried,” Arden broke in with a huff. “They were like rabid bloodhounds when they came to my house looking for you. I thought they were going to get out the rubber hoses and thumbscrews.”

  “But they didn’t. Your turn, Dar.” Zubayr rolled his eyes and slid his phone across the table. “Type it out if you have to. What happened after I left?”

  Darius left the phone on the table since his fingers trembled so badly, and then he began to type and type. He told them about the ambush at the top of the hill, nearly identical to the one Zubayr had sketched out. He wrote about waking up at home and about what John Whittaker had said. Fingers gaining momentum, he typed furiously about his determined search, what he had done to eliminate sites, and his final bitter despair when he’d failed to find Toby.

  He’s dying somewhere. I can’t find him and he’s dying. I don’t know what to do.

  His friends passed those last sentences around with varied expressions of sympathy and anger.

  “Are you sure he can’t be hidden away in one of the places you checked?” Arden tapped the table sharply with one finger. “We should check again.”

  Darius raised an eyebrow at him and took the phone back. Toby’s magical signature is unique, and I’ve had closer and more prolonged contact than anyone alive. If he’d been hidden, I would have felt him.

  Zubayr scrubbed both hands over his face. “It’s late. We know we have some time since he’s in hospice somewhere. It’s a slow process, starving someone to death. That’s how they justify it as not murder for wild mages. Hush, Dar. I’m sorry.”

  Stopping the sob that wanted out made Darius’s lungs burn, but he nodded and waved for Zubayr to go on.

  “We’re all tired. Dar’s exhausted. I say we start with the guild in the morning. We have witnesses at this table who saw the first glimmers of Toby’s channeling. If they don’t take Dar’s word for it, maybe they’ll listen to a delegation. If they’ve tested him and he managed to prove his channels on his own, wonderful. But from what you’ve said, Dar, it sounds like he was still unstable and probably needs guidance to his Arcana while he’s learning. And we still need to find him. Montchanin’s territory is a single county in a single small state. Between us, we should be able to figure something out.”

  Darius nodded miserably. A lot of wild mages struggled the first few times, though the younger ones tended to do better. Toby was the oldest student he’d ever had.

  “Bed, then.” Elias took dishes to the sink. “You have somewhere for us, Valstad, or are we sleeping in a puppy pile in your bed?”

  Any other day, Darius would have laughed. Now, he could only think about who wouldn’t be in his bed that night. He hoped Toby wasn’t awake and frightened. “There’s… room.”

  He bypassed Toby’s room when they trooped down the upstairs hallway. A spare few days Toby had slept there and he couldn’t bear to see anyone else occupy that bed. He pointed Arden to the corner guestroom at the front of the house. It still held all of Aunt Eva’s bird ceramics, so it struck him as appropriate. Zubayr and Elias he put in the room that had been reserved for visiting nieces and nephews with its two sets of bunk beds. Neither of them was tall enough to need more than a twin, and they wouldn’t want to murder each other as they might Arden, who would, Darius was certain, fuss interminably before going to bed.

  Wait for me, Toby. Darius sent the desperate thought out into the night as he kicked off his slippers and climbed into bed. Give me time to find you. I have help now. Just give me time.

  Chapter Fourteen

  THE DAMN sun shining right in his face woke Darius the next morning. No mage could control the weather, but certain Air mages could move clouds. A few clouds would’ve been good right then.

  He froze when a crash sounded downstairs, followed by raised voices. For a terrible heart-hammering moment, he thought he had intruders until he recalled he had a house full of intrusive guests instead. No. Unkind, Valstad. Friends who rushed to help.

  Not ready yet for human contact, Darius took the time to shower and dress in jeans and a flannel shirt before he headed downstairs. Whatever disaster or altercation had occurred was long over when he poked his head in the kitchen. Zubayr stood at the stove with several pans going, no surprise, while Arden made biscuits and Elias manned the cutting board. Though Darius had only been away a few days and the food left behind would have been perfectly fine to use, he didn’t recall even having mushrooms and cheddar. Wait. No. He’d bought cheese for Toby.

  A heavy sigh shuddered through him. Every corner of his house had Toby in it.

  On his way out to the driveway to make sure Elias’s truck wasn’t blocking the garage, Darius stopped short on the front porch. A honeysuckle vine had crept up the steps and lay as if it were reaching toward the door. Had he been that neglectful? He didn’t have honeysuckle in the front, did he?

  He crouched to examine the vine. It moved, climbing up his jeans, and wrapped around his wrist. Darius lost his balance in his shock and landed on his ass. “Arden! Arden!”

  Three sets of feet pounded down the hall from the kitchen, though with his longer legs, Arden reached the doorway first. “Dar! What is—what in the world?”

  “You’re… seeing this?” Darius demanded. “Haven’t lost it?”

  “I see that you have a vine wrapped around you. What are you doing?”

  “I didn’t….” Darius huffed and knew his next sentence would sound ridiculous. “It attacked.”

  The vine yanked at him, leaves rustling as it tried to pull him down the steps.

  “Well, fuck. That’s not normal.” Elias bent to stroke a leaf. “I don’t think it’s attacking, though.”

  “Oh? Little Viney’s trying to tell us Timmy fell down the well?” Zubayr’s exasperated voice came from just inside the doorway.

  Arden cocked his head to one side as he held a palm out over the honeysuckle. “You know, that might not be far off.” He closed his eyes, head tipping one way, then the other as he stroked the vine. “Dar, I’m not sure how to say this.”

  “Spit it… out,” Darius growled.

  “It’s Toby.”

  Elias stared at Arden as if he’d lost his mind. “The vine is Toby?”

  “No, you idiot,” Arden snapped before he turned to Darius with a pleading look. “Don’t you feel it, Dar? That’s Toby’s life signature driving that vine.”

  Zubayr came forward to touch the plant too. “So little Viney is trying to tell us something.”

  “That…. No one…. It can’t be.” Darius shook his head, though at the same time reached for the plant’s Animus. “Fucking hell. Toby.”

  “So let me see if I have this straight.” Elias took a seat on the top step. “Toby sent the vine. Somehow. He wants us to follow the bouncing plants to him?”

  “Not sure it’s… conscious.” Darius unwound the vine gently from his wrist. “His connection. Plants. So much stronger….”

  “He’s a walking generator, we get that.” Zubayr stared out along the driveway as if he could discern where the vine led. “We all felt it. Dar, why don’t you stay here with your plant friend. I’ll bring you breakfast.”

  “But we—”

  “No. You eat first. This could end up being a long, long day.”

  They ended up eating together on the porch while the vine tapped and prodded at Darius, clearly impatient with his lack of action. Not usual behavior for plants, who normally limited their movements to helio- and geotropism, but a Toby-driven plant couldn’t be labeled normal.

  Elias brought Darius his jacket, while Arden brought his boots, and within thirty minutes of the honeysuckle attack, they were ready to set out. Somewhere. The expedition didn’t feel sane at all, but they couldn’t ignore Toby sending a plant telegram.

  “So what’s the plan, Professor?” Elias asked as he closed the front door and handed Darius his keys.

  “You.” Darius pointed to Arden and Zubayr, then waved to the trailing vine. “Follow. With me.” He turned and stabbed a finger at Elias. “You bring… your truck.”

  Elias’s frown rivaled thunderclouds. “I have my hiking legs. Don’t do this.”

  “No.” Darius shook his head, trying to convey his frustration and his apology at once. “When we… find him. I’ll need… that.” He pointed at the truck. “Can’t… carry him… back.”

  “Oh. Oh.” Elias shot him a crooked grin. “Got it. And you don’t know where the plants are taking us, and my truck’s better off-road than your fancy Brit machine.”

  “And no one else can drive your truck,” Zubayr added.

  “Not my fault you’re all losers who don’t know how to use hand controls.”

  Darius took Elias by the shoulders and pulled him into a hard hug. “Yes. All that.”

  “Thanks, teach. We love you too.” Elias said it in a teasing way, but his cheeks and ears darkened in an obvious blush. “Zu, stay on the phone with me so I don’t lose you.”

  With Darius and Arden following the vine, Zubayr on the phone, and Elias following slowly in the truck, they set off down the drive. Once they reached the point where the vine lay in the grass, Darius picked it up to follow its length.

  “This makes no sense. It’s impossible,” Arden grumbled.

  “Hmm.” Darius allowed him half an ear as he concentrated on Toby’s magic. “Elias? Also… impossible. Me alive? Impossible. Your house—”

  “Hilarious. I get it. But this vine can’t extend far enough to lead us to wherever Toby’s being kept. Vines don’t grow that far. I don’t understand how this is all physically possible.”

  “Mmm.” Darius reached the point where the honeysuckle joined its brethren at the hedge beside the road. Difficult to follow Toby’s signal through the tangle of vines, but not impossible. For a moment he panicked, thinking he’d lost the trail, until he leaned his hand against the oak beside the hedge. “Because… it’s not.”

  “What—oh!” Arden had placed a hand on the bark to steady himself down the hill. “Dar, the trees.”

  “Yes. Trees.” He motioned for Arden’s phone, where he typed, Trees communicate across great distances. Chemical communication. Communication through moss networks. We have to be careful since the signal may spread out as we go.

  Darius put his hand to the tree’s roots, reaching into the earth where his magic was strongest. Yes. Toby’s call went from root system to root system here. He straightened and crossed the road to the oak on the other side, which had passed the message to the one on his property. “This way.”

  “It’s like following the world’s strangest bloodhound,” Zubayr murmured before he waved to Elias. “I’ll tell you when we cross the next road.”

  The old truck rumbled as Elias pulled onto the shoulder to wait. Darius led his puzzled but intrepid party off into the trees.

  TOBY RAN through hallways littered in glass, glittering shards and sheets of it that broke as he ran. The glass was all over the floor, then was the floor until it wasn’t glass at all but mica. He had to find Darius. That was the important part. Now the mica had turned to steel, which had something to do with Darius, but he couldn’t quite remember what.

  The metal, which might have been steel or might’ve been something else, came apart in his hands when he pulled on it. The shapes were strange, and he thought they were words or runes, but he couldn’t read them. The twisting hallway wasn’t one anymore, and he ran through strange caverns. He tripped and fell, coming down hard on the uneven floor.

  Underneath his hands were ropes, strangely fuzzy and unyielding. No, not ropes, roots. The whole tunnel was made of roots, and he had to pick his way carefully now or risk breaking an ankle.

  All the while he called out, though his voice made no sound—Darius! Darius! Darius!

  THREE HOURS and four backtracks along the trail later, Darius was tired, sweaty, and had no way to know how much farther they had to go. They’d been traveling in a roughly northwesterly direction, sometimes crossing roads or small creeks. His hands were bleeding in several places from fighting with thorn bushes, his boots were soaked, his right knee ached abominably, and he was more than done with Arden’s running list of complaints.

  To put the icing on this anxiety-layered irritation cake, they’d reached a boggy part of the woods where he’d lost the trail. Too much water interference. “Zubayr.”

  “Me?” Zubayr twitched around to face him, eyes wide. “I can get the water out of your way, I guess? Though I’d rather not disturb things more than we have to.”

  Arden stalked to the edge of the waterlogged land, cocking his head to one side, then the other. “I’m on Zubayr’s side of the web. If he helps me with the Water part, I can find the Toby signal for you.”

  “By our powers combined,” Zubayr muttered. “Very Captain Planet.”

  “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “Really? Didn’t you watch any cartoons as a kid?”

  Arden’s sniff was a hair shy of melodrama. “I had more important things to do than turn my brain into mush.”

  “Gods, you must’ve been a miserable child.”

  It pleased Darius more than it should have when his growl echoed over the bog. “Less snark. More finding.”

  Zubayr had the grace to appear shamed as he crouched by the water’s edge and placed a palm on the soggy ground. Arden glared in offense, but he took Zubayr’s hand, and together they began to cast out among the bog plants.

  “Anything?” Darius cringed at the snarl.

  “Give me a minute, Mr. All Powerful,” Arden murmured. “What I’m searching for is a little more subtle than your direct Animus connection.”

  “Watch your feet,” Zubayr said a moment too late as Arden stepped in a deep depression.

  “I’m never going to be dry again.” Arden shook something off his foot as he stepped back onto higher ground. “My feet are going to rot off.”

  “Shut up, Arden, and concentrate.” Zubayr tugged at his hand to get him moving again.

  Darius followed slowly, waiting each time they moved forward only to stop and switch direction again. Their progress across the mats of bog plants was agonizingly slow but always eventually forward. He clenched his fists hard against his rising impatience. Every step, every inch, we’re closer. Just keep walking.

  The bog crossing couldn’t have been more than a few hundred yards. It only felt like miles. Finally, Darius picked up the trail again at an ancient holly at the edge of the spongy, sodden ground. The holly had received the transmission from a nearby maple—and they were off at a better clip again.

  Elias met them when they next hit a winding country road. He waved Darius over and leaned out of his truck’s window. “You’re moving in a pretty straight line now, Dar. I’m driving to the next road on your course to see if there’s anything. Might speed things up if I see a likely place.”

  “Do that.” Darius patted the hood of the truck as he strode around it and plunged back into the woods.