She opened her mouth.
“Third, Doolittle just said that there is nothing he can do for him. Am I right?”
The medmage nodded. “We can only make him comfortable.”
“So, there is no pressing need to take him to the Keep.”
Dali pushed her glasses back up her nose. “I really hate you sometimes.”
“Welcome to the club.”
“He is special,” she said. “Sacred.”
Yes, in the same way she was. “I’m aware of that. That’s why I’m taking him home with us.”
Where I had wards and friendly homicidal neighbors to back me up.
“You’re welcome to visit any time you like, but you’re not taking him to the Keep, because you’d call me less than an hour after you got there and ask me to come pick him up. Let’s not move him more than necessary. He’s under a lot of stress as it is.”
She thought about it. “Who’s going to be watching him?”
“Adora.”
Dali wrinkled her nose. “Is she capable of watching him? You know how she is. What if she sees a butterfly?”
“I’ll pay her.”
A few months ago, Adora had figured out that when she did a job for the Guild, she earned money, which she could then spend however she pleased. After she’d repeatedly shown the money to me, and I confirmed several times that it was, indeed, her own money, she went out shopping for the first time and we got to find out what $1,200 of candy looked like. She ate candy for three days straight, then spent the remainder of the week on our couch with a stomachache. Now she worked as a merc, with the highest job completion ratio in the Guild. She took her gigs absurdly seriously. Through rain, shine, sleet, and hail, purple corrosive slime bubbling up from the sewers, or mysterious black snow that sparked when it hit metal, Adora would get it done. Dali knew that.
“Okay,” Dali said. Her tone told me she didn’t like it.
That was okay. I didn’t like a great many things, but the universe didn’t give a crap, so I didn’t see why it should bend on Dali’s account.
“You will take the best care of him, right?”
“No, I’ll drop him into the nearest sewer and throw dirt on his head.”
She sighed. “I’ve got almost two thousand smart-asses to manage every night. Just tell me you’ll take care of him, Kate.”
“He went to school with Julie. He’s been to our house. He isn’t a stranger. Of course I’ll take care of him.” I would’ve taken care of him even if he was a stranger, but she seemed like she needed more reassurance.
“I’ll hold you to that,” she said.
“You should growl a bit to let me know you mean business,” I told her. “Just in case you think I might miss the point.”
She flipped me off.
“Love you, too.” I turned to Doolittle. “Can you please take a look at Conlan?”
Doolittle gave me a look. “I saw him on the way in. He appeared to be in perfect health.”
“I know, but—”
Doolittle held up his hand. “Kate, the last time you brought him in was because he fell off his feet.”
“He had a bump on his head.”
“The time before that you mistook heat rash for chicken pox.”
“I understand, but something happened—”
“Something always happens. Your son is a healthy, active toddler. He is supposed to run, fall, climb, and occasionally try to eat things he shouldn’t. Your job is to keep him from the worst of it. It would do you and him a great deal of good if you just let him be a child and stop wasting my time.” He turned to Dali. “I’m ready to go.”
Dali stuck her nose in the air and opened the door. Doolittle wheeled himself out. Curran and Conlan watched them go.
“Thanks for the backup with Doolittle,” I told Curran, as the van pulled away.
He grinned at me.
Something crunched. I turned. Conlan spat half a turkey femur out of his mouth.
“Told you,” my husband said. “Cooked bones splinter.”
Argh.
CHAPTER
7
“THAT KID DRIVES like a maniac,” Curran said.
We’d set out from Cutting Edge in two Jeeps at the same time, but Julie and Derek had left us in the dust. I couldn’t even see their vehicle. That’s what happened when you let a vegetarian, half-blind weretiger with a passion for racing cars give your child driving lessons.
We turned onto the road leading to our street.
“She hasn’t wrecked so far,” I told him.
An explosion of blood-red fire shot up above the trees on our left.
Curran gunned it.
Please don’t be our house, please don’t be our house.
We took the turn at a dangerous speed.
The house came into view. A charred metal wreck sat on the curb in front of it, the inside of what used to be the Jeep on fire. Derek stood by it with a fatalistic look on his face. Damn it.
“Three minutes,” Curran growled. “They were unsupervised for three minutes.”
Apparently, three minutes was plenty of time to blow things up.
Curran steered into the driveway, shut off the water engine, and jumped out of the Jeep. I followed.
The stench of burning flesh and fabric filled the air. Ash floated gently on the breeze.
“What the hell happened?” I asked.
“Your aunt happened,” Derek said.
Oh no.
“She freaked out,” Derek said. Amber light shone from his eyes. He was not happy. “As soon as Julie and I got out, she made this red fireball and blew up the Jeep.”
“Was the creature’s body in the Jeep?” Curran asked.
“Yeah. And my gear. And Julie’s.”
She’d blasted the Jeep. And probably drained herself down to nothing in the process. It would take her several days to recover. Well, I’d wondered if she’d recognize the creature. I guess that answered that question.
“Was anybody hurt?” I asked.
“No,” Derek said, his tone flat. “The Jeep was the only casualty.”
“I’m sorry.”
At least she’d let them get out of the car. “Where is she?”
“In her dagger. She won’t come out. Julie’s with her.”
Derek reached out toward the wreck and pulled back.
“What are you doing?” Curran growled.
“My knives are in there.”
“Get the hose,” Curran told him.
Derek strode toward the house.
I pulled a sleepy Conlan out of the car seat. “Will you take him? I need to go and give Erra a piece of my mind.”
Curran opened his arms and I deposited Conlan into them. Once we were done with this, we’d have to install Yu Fong into the bedroom downstairs and I’d need to track Adora down, so she could babysit him.
The phone rang as I climbed the stairs to the second floor. Curran came in and headed into the kitchen. I heard him pick it up and braced myself. I was getting as bad as Pavlov’s dog.
“If you call me again, I’ll find this Sunshine Realty and shove your head up your ass.”
False alarm.
Erra’s room sat in the heart of the house, on the second floor, evenly removed from all the entrances. Daylight streamed through a single window, cut by the silver bars into a lattice. A breeze stirred the long gauzy curtains. In the middle of the room, Erra’s dagger rested in a wooden holder on the table, but my aunt wasn’t in it. When she withdrew inside the blade, the dagger emitted magic like a warm hearth.
Julie leaned against the wall, her arms crossed.
“Where is she?”
She nodded at the balcony door.
I glanced there and saw Erra on the covered balcony, standing with her hands wrapped around herself. Usually she manifested in blood armor, but lately I’d been seeing her in long dresses, sometimes the color of ruby, sometimes white or deep, rich emerald. She wore the red one now.
I left the room and went out on the balcony with her. The Five Hundred Acre Wood spread before us, verdant and filled with life, the trees rising in a solid wall just past the deer fence. My aunt looked tired, her gaze fixed on something distant on the horizon.