Deserted Highways

Under the Same Sun

in danger too," he rushed out and Kaelie's eyes widened, she couldn't believe she hadn't already realized that. They left without her, Jace's mom would die, there was no doubt in her mind, the Illusion had no more use for her and they didn't tend to keep their trash around long.

"Of course," she said. "Of course, Jace. She's coming with us. I won't- we won't let anything happen to her. Call her. Call her now, let her know what's going on, let her know to pack only what she needs, we'll be there in twenty."

Jace stood, pushing away from the table and retreating back to Kaelie's room to find his phone. A few agonizingly slow minutes passed and his stomach was filled with a nervousness he hadn't felt before, an uneasy feeling filling his bones. He finally found the phone in the back pocket of his jeans that Kaelie had discarded on the floor.

He flipped it over in his fingers, grateful that it was still charged enough and scrolled to his mom's contact. He pressed the button, putting the phone to his ear and waiting as the dial tone started and the phone rang in his ear. It rang three times and then went to her voicemail and Jace's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. His mom always answered him, always, especially now.

He called again. And then again, and again, and again, and each time he was sent to her voicemail. "Mom?" he asked into the phone, willing his voice not to tremble. "Mom, it's Jace. If you get this, as soon as you get this, call me. We're leaving. You need to come with us, it's important. Mom, please call me back." He hung up again, forcing a shaky breath from his lungs and then he went to find Kaelie.

He found her still sitting at the kitchen table, talking to the rest of them, and she stopped, looking up at him when he came in, concern lacing itself in her mismatched eyes. "Jace, what's wrong?"

"My mom. She isn't answering the phone," he said.

"Isn't she at work by now?" Michael asked. "Maybe she got busy?" Michael said it calmly, but Jace knew him well enough to hear the uncertainty in his words.

He shook his head. "Never. She will always answer me, no matter what, she always answers the phone." Michael and Lilith glanced at each other and then stared intently at the table, Michael wrapping his fingers around each other, twisting and untwisting them, and Jace watched Kaelie's face as she noticed this, watched her eyebrow lift into her fiery hair, her mouth tighten into a line, he knew she was about to snap.

"What the fuck is going on with you?" she asked Michael and Lilith coolly. "We literally just had this whole heart to heart last night, where we shared all our secrets and apologized, so would you like to tell me why you two are sitting here looking at each other like there's something you don't want me to know?"

"I- Kaelie look, you have to understand-" Michael started and Jace heard Kaelie's short, derisive laugh.

"I don't have to understand shit and I don't have time for your placations. What is going on? You better tell me right now Michael, or I swear to God, I will beat your ass to kingdom come.

Michael flinched hard and then he focused his brown eyes on Jace. "Jace- we didn't- I didn't think- I thought she would- I just didn't think it would matter."

Lilith sighed audibly in frustration. "Oh give it the fuck up Michael and spit it out. It's too late anyways."

Kaelie rounded on her and she shrank back. "Too late for what?" she asked and her voice was low, calm, dangerous, a razor blade of warning and malice and Jace felt a shiver crawl up his spine.

"Jace," Lilith started, but she didn't look at him, she was focused on Kaelie's glare, her angry face mere inches from hers. "Michael and I were not the only ones that Jordan approached. We weren't the only ones that he found. He found your mom. She was at those meeting with us, listening to Jordan ramble about whatever plan he had. If he didn't know when he found her, he does know now that she was instrumental in our escape, our entrance to headquarters when Kaelie was taken. He knows who she is too, knows that she is your mother."

Kaelie brought her fists crashing down on the table, startling Jace out of whatever response he was trying to formulate. "You have got to be absolutely fucking shitting me," she cursed. "You guys were really that goddamn stupid?"

"Cool it, Kaelie," Michael snapped and she rounded on him. "You were part of Jordan's bullshit too."

"Part of- Part of Jordan's? Are you serious? I nearly died, you ass. I didn't have a goddamn choice about whether or not to be part of his bullshit. I was, you're right. But you were too, you and Lilith and you had a choice. You were capable of saying no and you didn't and then you went and let Jace's mother- who saved us all multiple times, might I point out, because you seem to have forgotten- get involved with this psychopath?" Kaelie shouted, and her eyes glittered angrily, the energy that rolled of her skin was manic, rushed and cold and panicked, and Jace was nearly scared of her.

His own rage surged, searing his skin hot, and he shoved a hand through his hair in irritation. "So, you're telling me that not only did you get pulled into some revolution ponzi scheme, but that my mother showed up and not one of you thought to pick up the fucking phone and call me?" he said, and to his surprise, his voice was firm, calm.

Kaelie looked as surprised as he felt, a smirk settling across her features before the mutinous expression returned. "Jace, I'm sorry- I didn't think-"

"Yeah, you didn't fucking think. Jace's mom is human. Just human. You guys could have handled yourselves, but she couldn't. Jordan pulled her in because she's kind and gentle and she's a mother and all she wanted to do was see the good in people. He knew she would help him because she's helped the Illusion's rejects before and he knew what part to play," Kaelie said, her words biting and mean and Jace couldn't help but agree with her. 

"Everything just- it was all so fast. We lost you. Jace was a wreck, his mom was so worried about him, and then we found Jordan, and we thought if we could just finish this, if we could just find a way out, then maybe everything wouldn't be so bad," Lilith muttered.

"Well, that worked out well, didn't it?" Jace snapped. "Look. Whatever. I get it. You thought you were helping, for whatever reason, you thought that not telling me what the hell was happening, even after my mom showed up was the best way to protect me. You were wrong. And now we need to fix it."

Michael nodded at him. "Of course, Jace. You're family. Your mom is family."

"Kaelie," Sarah started, a thoughtful tone to her quiet voice. "Do you think that Mrs. Dae was the one who actually saved you?"

Kaelie sat down heavily, some of the fight going out of her. "Knowing what I do now, yes. If she saved me, that means Jordan found her first, knew that she would be the key to the rest of you, you guys trust her. We all do. That's how Jordan figured out where to find you. Ben would have told Mrs. Dae when he came back, that how Jordan knew he was going to be here as well."

"Well, first things first," she continued. "We need to find Mrs. Dae."

"Jace, you said she should be at work by now?" Sarah asked, and Jace nodded. "Okay. Kaelie, I think you and Jace need to go to the state hospital. See if she's there, if she came in this morning, or if she's been gone longer than that. Find a way to get into her office, see if she left anything there that could give us a clue about where she went."

Kaelie nodded at her, looking at Jace with big, serious eyes, and he knew she was trying to reassure him that she would be there, of course she would, but Jace couldn't shake the sick feeling in his stomach. "Okay, we will do that. Michael, get anything we can use out of this house, we can't come back. Not for a while, maybe not ever. Go to the first motel listed in the yellow pages, check in under Jed Roberts, they'll know what to do, you know what to do. You will be relatively safe there until we get to you, and then we're leaving. We'll be taking the first flight out of Phoenix, wherever it takes us."

Kaelie shifted her attention to Sarah and Lilith. "You two. Get to Jace's house. If his mom is there, take her and meet up with Michael. If not, you need to find anything that could clue us in, Mrs. Dae is smart, she would have left something, in her office, or at home, to let us know. If she isn't, trash the place. All of it, get rid of anything that showed who lived there, no one else needs to come snooping around, and we need to disappear until we figure out how to deal with Jordan."

Sarah nodded and rose from the table, everyone rising to stand with her. "Be at the hotel in three hours," she said and everyone nodded.

"One last thing," Kaelie said, and she had a grim smile on her face, putting her hand in the middle of their haphazard circle, and glancing around meaningfully until everyone had gripped her hand. "Five go in.