The Found Herondale

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Olive's POV

I felt the magic waver as Raleigh used the compass.

The Los Angeles Institute was thriving as I entered it.
The potion and shape-changing might actually trick the half-angels after all.
I walk into the entryway, only to get bombarded by new people.

"Who are you?" One with dark brown hair and headphones asks.
"What do you want?" A girl with dirty blonde hair asks.

"My name is Kylie," I reply, lying. "Kylie Bridgestock. I have travelled far and I'd like to continue my training here."
The blonde's eyes waver suspiciously at me, and the headphones guy watches me carefully.

"Come on in," He says. "We'll let you talk with my parents and maybe get you a room set up."
I smile, using my barest slips of magic to make sure my potions were in place still.
"Follow me," The blonde says.

I watch as she walks through the room, following her carefully.
Blondie leads me to the kitchen, where Emma and Julian Blackthorn are speaking with Diana ap Nudd.

"Mom," She says. "She appeared on our doorstep."

Emma's brown eyes look at mine, scanning for lies and deceit.
I make them show innocence and loyalty.

Emma lets out a breath.
"Take her things upstairs, Eleanor. Show her to a guest room, and we can speak more tonight at dinner."
Blondi-Eleanor watches me with a glare before taking my bags and motioning me to follow her again.

It's going to be a long day.

***

I sit on the surf with a bunch of children from the Institute.
I can't seem to get a reading on Addison from any of them. But the emotional scars that she left were visible.

"What have you guys been up to recently?" I ask, trying to make a casual conversation.
"We were in New York," John says, the brunette with headphones. "Some bad shi-stuff happened. Some people were badly injured, and we came back afterwards."

The girl with black braids, Lissa, whacks John upside the head for almost swearing.

"Oh," I say, lying. "That sounds horrible, and I wish I could have helped you guys."

I have no desire to help these mortals and I already know what happened in New York.
I'm just here for intel about Addison.

I mess with the sand around my toes while looking at the audience around me.
I learned all their names earlier, which helped a ton.
There's Lissa, Gwyn and Diana's daughter, John, Ty and Kit's son, Eleanor, Julian and Emma's daughter, and Alessa, Aline and Helen's daughter.

"What do you guys want to do now?" Alessa asks, jogging up to the group. "Mom sent me to check on you."
"Where do you want to go, Kylie?" John asks.
"Yeah," Eleanor adds tauntingly. "Where do you want to go?"

I roll my eyes.

"How about you guys show me your favourite places in Los Angeles? But I would like to go to the Shadow Market afterwards if it's not too much to ask."

Eleanor curses under her breath, while Lissa nods.

"That sounds manageable," John says, smiling. "Now come on, we are headed to my favourite place."
He offers me a hand, and I blink at John's naive kindness.
I take it, standing.

"Thanks," I say. "Is anyone else coming?"
Alessa nods, and so does Lissa.

Eleanor scoffs but nods as well.
"Someone needs to make sure that she isn't evil."
I chuckle, turning it into a hacking cough.

"Yeah, no Sebastian Morgenstern on us," Lissa says, leading us to the garage near the beach entrance.
I shiver at the thought.
"I would never do that. He was horrible."

They all nod, and we make our way down the street.

***

We reach the entryway to the Market, where Hypatia Vex is being the bouncer/head of security.

"Hypatia!" Lissa calls, running over.
The group embraces her one at a time, and her eyes narrow when she sees me.

She is a well-known warlock, and only those who are the most talented can see through my glamours. From the way that she's looking at me, she definitely knows.

Crap.

"Hypatia, meet Kylie," Eleanor says with her usual annoying tone.
"Kylie?" Hypatia asks, humour building in her eyes.

"She's unusual, I'll admit," John says, backing me up. "But she's new to the Institute, and we're showing her around L.A."
Hypatia snorts and I glare at her.

I invisibly pass through her mental shields, and telepathically communicate with her.

"What are you doing here, Olive?" She thinks, sounding pissed.
"You know who's clues I am searching for," I think back. "Raleigh Herondale herself sent me clues to here."
"Raleigh?"
Her thoughts sound shocked.

I nod subtly.

"I saw her in New York," I think back. "Don't blow my cover."
"Don't blow up my market,"  is all I get back before she severs the connection.

"Kylie?" Alessa asks, looking at me.
I shake my head.
"Sorry, I had a dizzy spell."

They all nod.
Eleanor eyes me suspiciously.

"Come on in," Hypatia says, gesturing to the bustling marketplace behind her.
"Thank you," I reply.

The five of us walk in, seeing all the stalls.

I smile big. So many opportunities to be discovered here.
"I will meet you guys in half an hour," I say.
Eleanor grimaces and looks to Lissa.

"No funny business, newbie," Lissa says. "Be safe, y'all."
John and Eleanor disappear together, while Lissa and Alessa go back to speak with Hypatia.

I walk down the alley, eyeing stalls that could be useful.
I eye one with old artifacts and walk up to it, changing my appearance. 
There's a young girl manning the booth, definitely no older than eight.
Where is her guardian? I wonder.

"How may I help you?" She asks, her voice sounding like bells.
I clear my throat.
"I was wondering if you had any knowledge regarding a young woman named Addison Campbell."

I pull up a photo of Addison from my magical reserve, and hand it to her.
The girl runs a careful eye on it before nodding once, and motioning with her pointer finger for me to follow her behind the booth.
I keep my defensive spells on my mind while I follow her. You can never be too careful.
She watches the area around the stand before snapping her fingers once.

A young teenage guy runs by, kissing the girl on top of her head before going and swapping places to manage the booth.
Then the girl pulls out a knapsack and opens it.
She gets our different objects: a few photo albums, a few historical books, some tattoo pens, notebooks, and-

I gasp.

In the tiny girl's hand are two time-travelling compasses.