"There's the scent of Emrys at that house and on the Carroways themselves, but otherwise, nothing," Michael said.

Tegan glanced in Jax's direction and added, "The stink of Kin in that place is so deep, there's no telling who she left with."

Jax glared at her. Tegan never passed up a chance to take a dig at the Kin and seemed to especially resent the fact that Jax was sworn to one. Just then, his phone vibrated on the desk as a call came in. Of course, it was Billy. Jax hit the ignore button.

"Unless we happen to cross the girl's trail, there's nothing we can do," Michael said. "And if she's warded, there's not much chance of that."

Now Jax's phone buzzed repeatedly. He sighed and clicked into his texts to read them.

Billy: hey jax call me ive been kidnapped Billy: they say they want to talk to YOU Billy: this is so cool "It has to be a trick," Mr. Crandall insisted. "To flush us out of hiding."

"Billy's a moron. It's probably a prank," said A.J.

Meanwhile, Tegan was looking online for news reports about missing boys. Jax wanted to tell her to get off his computer, but she was searching faster than he could have.

"Call the boy's house," Mrs. Crandall suggested.

"If he's really been kidnapped, they'll have police listening on the line," Donovan warned them. "They'll trace the call."

"Jax can call from his email account," Tegan said. "It makes voice calls."

"What are you doing in my email?" Jax demanded.

"Can they track us through the service provider?" Mr. Crandall turned on his son. "I told Riley it was a bad idea to get a connection."

"Not a problem." Tegan's fingers flew across the keyboard as she leaned forward, her tangled orange hair a curtain around her freckled face. "Jax is using a service provider out of New Zealand right now."

"I'm what? What'd you do to my computer?" Jax peered over her shoulder, totally mystified by the windows of codes and nonsense symbols whizzing by. He guessed she was hacking into computers on the other side of the world, and although he was surprised to see Tegan demonstrate this kind of skill, he probably shouldn't have been. "Are you stealing credit-card numbers while you're at it? Draining bank accounts?"

Tegan stood and offered Jax the chair. "Shut up and make the call."

"No," Mr. Crandall said firmly. "No calls."

"They can't trace this computer," Tegan insisted. "I've hidden it." Then she launched into an explanation involving encrypted open proxy servers, dynamic IP addresses randomly routed through fifty different countries, and automatic port shuffling. Mr. Crandall listened with his mouth hanging open, then looked at her father.

Donovan shrugged. "She's smarter than you and me combined, Crandall. If Tegan says it's safe, it is."

"This is a terrible breach of security," Mr. Crandall growled. "Riley picked a fine time to jump over seven days!" But he waved a hand, giving permission.

Mrs. Ramirez was delighted to hear from Jax. She exclaimed about how much Billy had missed him and how Jax was welcome to visit anytime. The more she talked, the more everybody in the room relaxed, because no way was this the mother of a kidnapped boy.

"Can I speak to Billy?" Jax asked.

"Billy's at golf camp. He won a scholarship after someone saw him play at school. I always knew he had a gift for it," Mrs. Ramirez said. "His father and I are so proud of him."

The Donovan twins glanced at each other. "Billy almost knocked himself out swinging a golf club in gym class," Thomas whispered. Tegan nodded.

Mr. Crandall made a cut gesture, and Jax ended the call as fast as he could. "Someone's altered her memory," Mr. Crandall said.

"Dulacs," A.J. agreed. "It's gotta be."

"Why? What's the Dulac talent?" Jax asked.

Everyone stared at Jax like he didn't know the name of the U.S. president. "Dulacs can change a person's memory," Mrs. Crandall said.

"Like Miller Owens?" Miller had been one of Riley's vassals working undercover among their enemies, and Jax had experienced firsthand the unpleasantness of having Miller's memories stuffed into his head. Specifically the memory of pain.

"No," said A.J. "Miller could insert memories, but you knew they weren't your own. The Dulacs can change what you remember and believe. They can change who you are, practically."

Jax felt a chill throughout his body. "I gotta call Billy," he said to Mr. Crandall.

Mr. Crandall looked around the room unhappily. He was used to sharing his opinion-loudly and repeatedly. But Riley usually decided what was right for the clan, and that wasn't going to happen today. "Go ahead," he said finally.

Jax entered Billy's number into the computer. After several rings, a familiar voice answered. "Yeah?"

"Billy? It's Jax."

"Jax? This isn't your number."

"I'm calling from my email. Are you okay?"

"From your email? Cool! I've never tried-"

"Billy, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. But I'm so mad at you! A secret day of the week? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Where are you? Were you kidnapped or not? Who's got you?"

"I'm in New York City, and, well, I was sort of kidnapped. But it's not that bad. They explained why they needed me, and I agreed to go with them. This is so cool!"

Mr. Crandall made a twirly gesture next to his head.

Jax wasn't sure. This sounded pretty normal for Billy. "Who are they?"

"Your relatives."

"My cousin Naomi kidnapped you?" Maybe Mr. Crandall was right.

"No. The relatives on your dad's side."

Coldness swept through Jax's body again. "I don't have any relatives on my dad's side."

"Yeah you do. That's why we want to get you on a video call. Because they need to show you their tattoos. And they want to see yours."

Mr. Crandall yelled some more about what a terrible idea this was. Shouting seemed to make him feel better about being stuck with the final decision. "Arnie," his wife quietly interjected into his tirade, "we need to know for certain who has the boy. If he was kidnapped, it's because of us. We're responsible for what happens to him."

Mr. Crandall muttered unhappy words under his breath and pointed his finger in Tegan's face. "Are you sure? And don't bother telling me about proxy port decryptions."

Tegan cringed at his mangled terms. "Not even the government could trace this call," she assured him. "Maybe, if they put all their resources on it, they could track the connection over six months. But only if it was in constant use."

"Keep it short then," Mr. Crandall barked.

Thomas laughed. "Less than six months, Jax. Got it?"

A.J. and his father rearranged the furniture so Jax could sit in front of a blank wall that gave no clue to his location. Jax stood off to the side and watched.

His dad had lied to him. Outright, barefaced lies.

There was a lot of stuff his dad had failed to tell him-such as what the tattoo on his wrist meant. Or how Jax had a 50 percent chance of being a Transitioner. He'd never mentioned his life was in danger, or that he'd signed custody of Jax over to a stranger in the event of his death. Jax had spent months fuming over all those untold truths. But because he'd learned that his father had wanted to protect Evangeline, he'd slowly been getting over it.

Now there were lies on top of the omissions, and Jax was seething with rage.

A hand fell on his shoulder. "Are you okay?" Mrs. Crandall asked.

"Yeah. Fine."

She sighed, and Jax belatedly remembered her truth-telling talent. "Put two chairs in front of the computer," she told A.J. "I'm sitting with him."

"You don't have to," Jax said.

"I'm not letting you face this alone."

So he ended up sitting with Mrs. Crandall in front of the computer, his stomach flipping somersaults while an electronic bleeping signaled the incoming video call. His hand shook as he clicked ANSWER on the screen. Then he expelled his breath in relief, because it was just Billy.

"Dude!" they said at the same time.

"You jerk!" Billy exclaimed. "An eighth day. You should have told me!"

"I couldn't! Are you okay? Your parents think you're at golf camp!"

"I know, right?" Billy laughed. "Hey, where's Riley?"

Jax didn't need the chopping gestures from Mr. Crandall and A.J. to know he wasn't supposed to talk about Riley. "Billy, are they keeping you prisoner?"

"If you can call it that when they've got a huge TV and a billion channels." Billy dropped his voice to a whisper. "And one of your cousins is hot."

"Dude," Jax protested. "Ew."

"Look, they want to talk to you. But later, I want to know everything."

Billy moved offscreen, and several people took his place. A man and a boy sat down in front of the screen. A woman and a girl stood behind them.

Jax had to grab the edge of the desk. The man looked so much like his father, it hurt.

Before speaking, the man held up his left hand so Jax could see his mark. It was identical to his dad's mark-probably done by the same tattoo artist. The boy showed his mark too, but Jax barely glanced his way. The man absorbed all his attention.

"Jax, I'm Finn Ambrose, your dad's older brother. I know this must come as a shock, since Billy tells me you didn't know your father had living relatives."

Not as shocking as you kidnapping Billy. Jax wanted to say that, but he couldn't make his mouth work. And it would've been a lie anyway. Seeing the ghost of his father in this man's face was more shocking than Billy's abduction.

Because Jax had been kidnapped twice since becoming a Transitioner, but he'd never seen anybody come back from the dead before.

10.

"THIS IS MY SON, Dorian," Finn Ambrose said from the computer screen. "My wife, Marian, and my daughter, Lesley."

The woman showed her mark. "Hello, Jax. My word, you certainly are an Ambrose. Anyone can tell by looking at you."

Lesley, who was probably about fourteen years old, gave a brief wave but didn't show her mark. Dorian said, "Hi, Jax," and stared through the screen like he was surprised by what he saw. Still stunned by the whole situation, Jax couldn't think at first why the boy looked so familiar, and then he realized where he kinda-sorta knew him from. The mirror.

Oh, crap. He looks like me. Jax found his voice. "My name's Aubrey, not Ambrose."

"No," said Finn. "That's a made-up name. It might be on your birth certificate, but you're an Ambrose. Although I do need to see your mark to be sure."

Jax tried to swallow, but his mouth was too dry. My name is a lie, too. He held up his left hand for the webcam.

Finn and Dorian leaned close to the screen. "Is that an eagle?" asked Dorian.

"Rayne let someone change your mark?" Finn sounded shocked.

Jax glanced at A.J., who shuffled his feet. It was supposed to have been a falcon, but A.J. thought a bald eagle was cooler. "No, Dad wasn't . . ." Jax broke off even before Mrs. Crandall nudged him. He didn't want to explain how his dad had died before he was marked, leaving him totally ignorant of his heritage.

"But you have the inquisitor talent," Finn pressed him. "That's what I've been told."

By who? "Yeah," said Jax.

"The Ambrose talent wasn't affected, then." Finn sat back in his seat.

The Ambrose talent. Was he really Jax Ambrose? That name sucked. Suddenly he was furious again. "You kidnapped my friend."

Finn laughed. "We invited your friend to come to our home in Manhattan and help contact you. He seems to like making an adventure out of everything, though."

Jax had to admit this was true. But Mrs. Crandall said, "Kidnapped or not, his mother doesn't know where he is."

"We couldn't tell his parents the truth." Finn eyed Mrs. Crandall through the screen. "Are you going to identify yourself?"

She held up her hand. "Gloria Kaye," she said, which was the first time Jax had ever heard her family name instead of her married one.

Finn nodded, as if he wasn't surprised. "And is Pendragon going to show himself?"