Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Rime takes his turn in the shower while Leo heals Topaz’s various wounds: scratches from rolling in the underbrush, teeth marks from dogs, coyotes, and—oh god—are those small ones from rats? She has a nasty dagger slash on her thigh and a bruise already forming on her left cheekbone.
“Juniper ended up in the river,” she reports. “And I lured Burdock a good half-mile up the mountain and bit him.”
Leo passes a hand over the gash in her thigh. “How much time do you think you’ve bought us?”
She shrugs. “Two hours, maybe? Depending on how far downriver the current took Juniper. Even if she washed up close to where she fell in, it would take her at least an hour to hobble to Burdock.”
Avery and Aaron tell her about River. She shrugs again. “I thought I heard a gunshot.”
Beside me on the sofa, Liv nibbles on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
She’s calmed down since I emerged from the shower healed and no longer spattered in blood, but she hasn’t left my side.
I cling to her too, like she’s a security blanket.
A warm symbol of normality, even though I’ve dragged her into this never-normal-again life.
“Is Rime gonna be alright?” I ask her. Apparently, the two of them spent the last half-hour out in Avery’s stairwell, talking.
“Yeah. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I guess, that River guy wasn’t the first person he’s killed.”
I croak, “He wasn’t?”
“No.” She shakes her head, eyes on her knees. “Just a couple of months ago, some guys tried to take hostages from his clan, and Rime ended up having to kill one of them.”
Hostages? For Brier, I’m guessing, but I don’t ask. Because right now I can’t face what Leo’s going back to in Nàdar. Rime and Topaz, too, for that matter. I watch Leo as he sits at the dining-room table, talking—healthy and alive—and I start to panic.
Like he can sense it, he looks over at me. “What’s wrong?”
My throat is so tight, I can’t answer. The moment he reaches my side, I grab him and kiss him. I should tell him what Liv just told me, but he probably already knows. And shit, I don’t want to talk about it. I just want it all to go away.
He asks, “Do you need me to calm you?”
Mutely, I shake my head.
Avery’s bedroom door flies open with a thunk, and Rime appears, damp blond hair combed back from his high forehead. Wasting no time, he perches on the armchair and rests his elbows on his knees. “What’s the plan?”
Avery thinks aloud, “You’ve still got, what, another two weeks of this cat-and-mouse game?”
“Twelve days until the equinox,” Leo confirms.
“Go someplace really far from here,” I suggest, even though my heart is screaming no, no, no, stay here. “Like, I dunno, Japan?”
Aaron snorts. “Try getting that thing—” he gestures toward the kitchen, i.e., to the bracelet in the freezer, “—through airport security.”
“Oh, yeah,” I say, seeing his point. “Or customs.”
“Head out west, then,” Avery proposes. “You need to be at a ley line on the 21st, right? So go to Sedona. You’re guaranteed enough energy there to get back home.”
“That might be too obvious, though,” Aaron says with his humble smile.
“What about staying close by?” When both Rime and Avery frown skeptically at him, he holds up a hand.
“Hear me out. They’d expect you to go far away.
You could even fake like that’s what you’re gonna do.
Then you stay right here in this area. Jump from town to town—Asheville to Marshall to Hot Springs.
It’s the last thing they’d think you’d do. ”
Rime’s eyebrows shoot up. He obviously likes the idea. “Leo?”
Leo’s fingers twitch between mine. He’s been steadily calming me since he sat down, even though I said I didn’t need it. Because, yeah, I’ll admit, I do.
He rubs his chin and says in that low, soft voice of his, “There’s something I’d like to try.”
Rime’s lip curls like he’s caught a bad smell. “Something you want to try? We don’t have time for an experiment.”
“We don’t have time to be rash either. There’s too much to consider.
” The warm energy coming from Leo’s hand fizzles.
“What about them?” he asks, gesturing to the humans dominating the room.
“The second we leave, Juniper and Burdock will know we have the bracelet. And what’s the first thing they’ll do—? ”
“Take them hostage,” Rime finishes with a frown.
Beside me, Liv stiffens, her fear cutting into me like wind-driven sleet. I want to kick both Leo and Rime for dredging up her trauma, but what they’re saying is true, and it needs to be addressed, no matter how scary it is to talk about.
Like the ninja she is, Topaz appears out of nowhere, freshly showered.
“And that’s why I’m staying here,” she announces.
She scans every one of our faces as she crosses the room and takes a seat at the table beside Avery.
“To guard the Subwor… to guard our friends until we’re absolutely certain they’re not in danger anymore. ”
“Perfect,” Leo says, smiling. “But you might want to get your own phone.”
Avery shrugs. “She can keep using mine.”
Rime nods. “So, that’s one problem solved.” He reverts to thinking mode, chin resting on his thumb and one finger curled over his mouth.
Desperate for a get-out-of-jail-free card, I nudge Leo with my elbow. “So, what’s your experiment?”
“It’s not really an experiment.” He sits up straighter. “More of an alternative solution that may or may not work.”
Alternative solution is music to my ears. I wave him on.
“What if there’s a way to get home sooner?” he proposes, slowly and thoughtfully. “Or even better, what if there’s a way to disable the bracelet right away, like tonight or tomorrow?”
Rime’s expectant expression morphs into an aggravated scowl.
“You can’t be serious.” Avery looks at Leo like he’s sprouted eyestalks. “Did you forget what happened to Henry Browne?”
“I’m not talking about melting it down,” he says. “I’m talking about reversing it.”
“We need the caillecha for that,” Topaz interjects. “Next idea.”
It suddenly dawns on me where Leo is going with this. The caillecha are priestesses, performers of spellwork and rituals. “Jean,” I breathe, turning to Leo.
“Jean.”
Rime crosses his arms and arches a brow. “The granny lady?”
“Granny woman,” Avery corrects.
Leo fesses up, divulging everything he’s been withholding about Jean: that she could see through his glamour, that she knows other sidhe, that she’d attended the births of halflings. “I think there might be a community here,” he reasons. “A mix of humans and fae.”
“That’s impossible,” Rime protests. “That would mean Nàdarians are traveling here unsanctioned.”
“Evidently, they are.”
Rime jumps to his feet, his sizzling indignation consuming the entire room. “Who would allow it?” His glare cuts to Leo. “The old lady’s lying.”
“Then how does she know so much about us?”
“She wasn’t lying,” I assert. “I would’ve felt it.”
Rime studies me, a storm of confusion in his blue eyes. But he doesn’t argue. Maybe he’s more inclined to trust me than to trust Leo.
Aaron drums his fingers on his knee—in perfect rhythm, of course. “So you’re thinking this community might have a different mode of travel?”
“They must,” Leo says. “Some sort of backdoor method no one else knows about.”
“And if not, there’s still a chance they might know a way to reverse the bracelet,” Topaz points out. “Sounds like it’s worth a try.”
Rime is about to give her an earful when his rant is cut off by Liv, who turns to me and squeaks, “Halflings?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Half-human, half-fae.” I think. Who knows what else is out there? I’d believe anything at this point.
“Oh.”
“Okay.” Avery claps her hands once, loudly. “So now to get in touch with Jean West.” When she makes her way over to us with her laptop, Liv rises and motions for her to take her spot on the couch.
“Thanks.” Avery plops down next to me and unlocks the screen. “Okay, so she’s a midwife, so she should be used to people trying to contact her at all hours.”
I look at the clock on the top of the screen. I wouldn’t exactly call nine p.m. all hours, but maybe it is for a septuagenarian.
Restless and agitated, Rime rises and announces he’s going out to check on his sparrows. As he shrugs into his jacket, Liv goes to him and lays a hand on his arm. “Maybe you should have something to eat first?”
His eyes snap up from the floor tiles to land on her hand. When they drift to her face, the ice in his blue irises melts. He nods. “Alright.”
“Come on.”
We all watch in awe as he follows her. And once they’re out of sight, we exchange knowing looks.
Avery whispers. “Maybe he has a weakness after all.”
“She’s sweet,” Aaron says, wheeling the desk chair closer to the couch.
Yes, she is.
“Hey look!” Avery blurts, making all of us jump. “Jean West is on Instagram!”
“Instagram?” Facebook I could see. But a senior citizen on Instagram?
“Yeah, look.” Avery scrolls through Jean’s account. Post after post about Appalachian folklore and history. And she has over four hundred followers. Avery adds herself to the list, then checks her DMs. “She’s active right now. I’m gonna message her.”
Leo leans over me, watching every letter Avery types until she shoves him back with a hand to his face.
“I’m just inviting her to chat,” she says.
“She has to accept before we can have any kind of conversation.” But she mentions Leo and me in the message, referring to us as the ‘young Nàdarian and his blond girlfriend.’ “Anyone not in the know will just think we’re trolls or something,” she explains, tapping away on the keyboard.
“What about the church phone?” Aaron proposes. “Pastors would check their messages a lot, wouldn’t they? You know, in case one of their flock is in crisis?”
“Good idea,” I say, taking out my phone and looking up Redemption Baptist Church.
Liv and Rime return from the kitchen. “I’ll be right back,” he mumbles through a mouthful of PB&J. He slips outside and Liv joins us by the couch.