Frost Line Read online

  Lenna peeked into their shopping carts when she could, curious about what the contents might be. Each cart said something about the person who was pushing it. One woman had collected nothing but sweets and makeup. Another had gloves and bananas and laundry detergent and chocolate—a lot of chocolate—in her cart. Yet another was buying dog food, chew bones, and coffee. Knowing more about Seven thanks to Caine allowing her to read him, she tried to imagine the lives of these women—and the one man who had nothing but potato chips, cookies, and ice cream in his cart. It was a fascinating place, and for the first time she resented not being able to regularly visit and observe this rapidly changing world. Why must the Major Arcana stay on Aeonia? Hunters could freely travel between all worlds, and after a short while in this Walmart place she fiercely envied them that ability. This was just one store. What other marvels did all the worlds hold, that the Major Arcana didn’t even know existed?

  A red-haired woman wearing a jacket that appeared to be made of pale blue fur, open over a bright yellow top that revealed almost the top half of her breasts, stopped in her tracks and gave Caine a long, lingering look. Lenna understood that; she had noticed several women watching him pass while they pretended—as best they could—that they weren’t doing exactly what they were doing. Looking at him was a definite pleasure. She did not, however, understand how the woman got her breasts to stand out like that, as if they were propped on a shelf. She had noticed that on a couple of others, and her curiosity got the best of her.

  She leaned close to Caine and whispered, “Is it a secret how some of the women get their breasts to do that?” She demonstrated with her hands, though her much smaller breasts couldn’t achieve the same effect, even with her help.

  He looked down at her and his gaze lingered on her breasts before flicking briefly to the other woman’s bounty. “It’s a garment called a bra. Support, and padding,” he said succinctly. “You don’t need either.”

  Elijah giggled. “I know what that is. Mom calls them her booby-traps.” The words came out without thought, but at the thought of his mother his eyes suddenly filled with tears and his little face began to crumple.

  Lenna laid her hand on his shoulder, calming him. “Concentrate, Hunter,” she said. “We’re on a mission.”

  Elijah’s lower lip still quivered, but he sniffed and nodded. Caine began pushing the cart faster, taking turns a little too hastily, and in no time the little boy was clinging to the cart and giggling as he said, “Go faster, go faster!”

  Lenna started to protest, but a look around told her that there were many children who rode in the shopping carts, or skipped alongside them, or clung to the front as Elijah was doing. She watched them, noting that most of the children were so full of joy, so energetic and … happy. Elijah should have that happiness. He’d had it in the past, and he would have it again. She swore it, on her standing as Strength.

  She barely looked at the things Caine piled into their cart, simply kept pace with him as he moved purposefully through the store, barely slowing down to grab goods before moving on. He knew what was necessary to get them through the next couple of days, and she trusted him to make the proper decisions—in this instance at least.

  Because Caine had promised, the last place they stopped was the toy section. Elijah hopped down from the cart and went to stand beside Caine, his expression solemn. The two males had bonded, if reluctantly so on Caine’s part. “I don’t know,” Elijah said, and heaved a sigh. “I got most of what I wanted at Christmas, and there isn’t much left.” To Lenna’s eyes there was still a plethora of toys, but this was Elijah’s decision. She wanted him to smile, to run and laugh and ask for silly toys as the other children did, but now that he was here he didn’t.

  Then something caught his eye, and he wandered over to a section of boxed games. “Magic,” he said, sounding out the word slowly. “Hey! This is a magic set! I wonder if it’ll teach me how to poof.”

  “You’re too young,” Caine said automatically, but he picked up the rectangular box and looked at it. “It has a cape, and a magic wand, and a book of instructions. I don’t know about magic—I believe more in powers—but you can give it a try if you want.”

  Elijah nodded eagerly, and Caine placed the box in the cart.

  She half expected them to pop out of Walmart the same way they’d popped in, taking their chosen items with them—somehow—but they stood in line with other shoppers so Caine could pay with the “Mr. Smith” credit card. The bill, for this trip and for the hotel, would be paid in the currency of this country, via computer.

  Because she had read him, she could put this in context. It was only fair, he thought, that the goods and services he used be properly paid for. To not pay would leave a small footprint on the world, and that needed to be avoided at all costs.

  Their purchases were stuffed into plastic bags—toiletries dropped into one bag, clothing into another. Elijah’s magic set went in one bag, then there was yet another larger one for a box that seemed rather heavy. She should have paid better attention to the things Caine had been adding to the cart. She’d been more interested in the people.

  At the last minute, she noticed Elijah studying a display of chocolate, and though he didn’t ask for a treat she reached out, grabbed a handful of the thin bars, and added them to their purchases just as the cashier was finishing scanning their goods. Caine turned to look at her, his brows lifting.

  “Chocolate,” she said. “I have a craving.”

  The look he gave her was one she couldn’t quite read. Maybe she shouldn’t use the word craving in his presence. After last night, she had to admit that she craved him much more than sweets from this world or any other.

  Frustration gnawed at Caine when they were safely back in the hotel suite. He wasn’t able to do what needed to be done with both Lenna and Elijah underfoot. He couldn’t do anything about Lenna; he had to keep her close by, at least until she could bother herself to tell him where the deck was.

  But Elijah—Elijah was a different story.

  Lenna was determined to protect the child, but she wasn’t battle-trained. He knew beyond doubt that if they had to fight Hunters as well as deal with a murderer, the child would need to be left in someone else’s care. There was no other choice.

  One of the day’s purchases was a small laptop computer, a cheap one, but it would do. Electronics didn’t fare well on jaunts between worlds, so he just bought a new one when and if it was needed. It didn’t take long to get the new computer set up and running. He’d done this before, many times.

  Elijah sat on the couch, eating a chocolate bar from Walmart as he intently watched cartoons. Cartoons seemed to be the child’s escape, Caine thought, a way to let reality go for a while.

  Lenna stood at Caine’s shoulder as he worked. “It’s fascinating,” she said in a lowered voice. “So much knowledge, right there for the taking with nothing more than a bit of typing.”

  “And Wi-Fi,” he added.

  Lenna nodded. Thanks to him, she knew very well what Wi-Fi was.

  He pulled up the local news website, and there it was, what he’d been searching for. A woman’s body had been found by a young man who’d lost control of his car on the ice and slid into a roadside park. He’d gone into the nearby woods—to take a piss, most likely, though the story didn’t get into specifics—and had found the body, which had not yet been identified.

  It would be, by fingerprints most likely. As soon as the police had an ID, Caine would be tripping over investigators right and left as everyone attempted to find the murderer. It would make his job—his secondary job, which had to be completed before he could get to his primary job—that much tougher.

  It was possible this body was a different murder victim, not Elijah’s mother at all, but … he didn’t think so. He also didn’t think the car sliding into that roadside park was coincidence. So little, in this world or any other, truly was.

  “We need to get busy,” he said.

  Lenna, wh