Pride, Mates, and Past Mistakes

In Which We Look For Adventures in Parking Lots

*Sierra*

I stared down at the map of New York on the kitchen table, my hands holding up my head. The words swam in my vision, all the roads and names blending together into one ugly, colored blob. My eyes glanced to the clock.

It was still 8:04 AM.

Just like the last twenty times I'd checked it in the past fifty seconds.

James, who was sitting across the table, lifted his head from his own map to stare at me. I ignored him.

My fingers dropped to the table, tapping agitatedly. I crossed my ankles one way, then another. My foot bounced on the floor, restless.

"Calm down," James said. "Jeez." He laughed. "You're making me stressed out."

"Who said I was stressed out?" I demanded instinctively.

He raised his eyebrows. "I didn't need to, you just said it yourself." He smirked at me until I was full on glaring at him, at which point he frowned, sighing.

"Sierra, the more you stress out, the less you're going to think straight. Calm down. Clear your mind. Remember? Rowena would always tell us, 'you think your best'—"

"—'when your mind is free of pests', I know, I know," I muttered, sighing. "I'm just so...I don't know...worried? Scared? James," I said urgently, "We only have around ten to eleven days left with Rowena's two-week time limit. How am I supposed to find Jacob and his gang, and take them down by then?" I let out a frustrated sigh, resisting the urge to crumple up the stupid, unhelpful map in front of me.

In the background, I could hear small grunts and noises every once in a while from the other room—Doreen was practicing defense and offense with Cody, Nolan, and Casey. Every once in a while, I could hear a groan from Nolan as Casey packed a hard one on him, or a grunt of frustration from Cody. Usually, this would have made me smile, but the build-up of worry and anxiety in me made even that impossible.

After a long moment of staring, James frowned. "Okay, I'm sorry for freaking you out the other day about the amount of days we have left. I didn't mean for you to—"

"No, no," I said, waving him off. "It's not you. I just don't think we have enough time to get this done...remember those agents who went undercover long-term at the IPKA?"

"Florence and Gale?" James asked.

"Yeah, them—they went undercover to find that one gang that was kidnapping witches in China? Do you remember how long it took them to find that gang?"

James paused, his brows furrowed as he remembered. "Uh, two years, I think?"

"Two years," I repeated, burying my face in my hands. "Do you know how long that is? There are fifty two weeks in a year. So one hundred and four weeks in two years. So basically, those professional agents took one hundred and four weeks to find a gang that's half the size of Jacob's and probably half as deadly. Did I mention they were professional agents? And what do we: the trainee agents have? We—have—two—weeks!"

My fingers dropped to the table again, tapping erratically.

James reached out across the table, placing his hand on mine to stop the tapping. "Hey," he said gently. "Let's just do the best we can, okay? And stop worrying about taking him down and everything after that—let's just concentrate on actually finding him now. One thing at a time."

I sighed for the umpteenth time, but this time forcing a smile on my face. My jittery leg finally stilled. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess. Thanks, James."

At that moment, there was a sound by the kitchen entrance. Cody appeared in the doorway, panting and looking elated. James made a sound of annoyance as he began to lift his hand away from mine, completely ignoring him.