The Five

8. Divinity

Takuma, please be okay. Please be okay.

Freya repeated these words over and over, inside her head, like a mantra. The situation inside the room looked grim for him. He was tied to a chair, slumped forward, and the side of his head was bleeding. His face was pallid and gaunt. To make matters worse, his wand was laying on a table far out of his reach, along with Joe's and Sara's. How had this woman had taken down all three of them? At least Takuma was the only one who was out. Joe and Sara were both awake, and unharmed, as far as she could tell. The woman with the red hair was pacing, her head lowered.

"You're not going to get away with this," Joe growled. He was visibly struggling against his ropes.

"Sure," the woman said. "Whatever you say."

"We can help you," Sara told her.

"I'm fairly certain one of you attacked me. Nice try."

Joe looked over at Takuma. "Can you at least treat his wound?"

"No. I'm terrible at healing spells. Besides, I'm not going to help someone who was hunting me like a dog."

"He wasn't," Sara insisted. "He works for Ignis."

The woman stopped pacing. She turned toward her. "Is his job supposed to impress me?" She lowered herself to Sara's eye level. "I don't care." She rose. "Besides. He seemed pretty impressed by the two of you. He was spying on you."

Freya's forehead creased. She and Addey turned toward one another at the same time.

"Why would he be spying on Joe?" Addey whispered.

"I don't know, but that's what I saw in my vision, remember?" Freya said. There was only one reason he would be. "Maybe Mom and Dad told him I was with him."

"Makes sense." She sighed. This whole situation seemed hopeless. "How are we going to get them out of there?"

"There's two of us, one of her," Freya pointed out. "We could rush her."

"And risk her capturing us, too? No thanks."

"Where did your sense of adventure go?"

Addey pressed her lips together. She realized she'd been a bit overly cautious lately, but she had good reason. The cottage opened her eyes to the kind of danger they were going to be facing with Serus on the loose. "It's on hiatus. Can we get back to the task at hand?"

Freya felt like she'd been stung. "Sorry."

"You know what I mean." Her voice had come out a little sharper than she'd intended. "We need to focus."

A groan of pain interrupted their conversation. They turned their eyes back to the room. Takuma slowly raised his head. His eyes fluttered open.

"Ow. Uh...what hit me?" he asked groggily. When he saw the woman standing in front of him, he narrowed his eyes. "It was you."

"Yes. You and your friends confess which one of you have been hunting me, and I'll let the other two go."

His vision was still a little blurry, but her face was slowly coming into focus. "Dad always warned me redheads were dynamite wrapped in a small package. I believe him now." He took a quick sweep of the room. He knew he had to get out. He tried to get up but realized he was restrained.

"The more you try to escape, the tighter they get." She tilted her head. "Just ask your friend. I'd reckon his ropes are about to cut off his circulation because he's moved around so much."