Page 17 of Gray Dawn
I flew until I hovered at his nape, close enough to tell he still smelled like Clay, and drew on my power. As much as I hated to leave him here with Big Nose Baron, I didn’t have a choice. Rue couldn’t save him if she didn’t know where to find him.
“Hurry,” he said a moment later, hesitant, as if unsure how long a moth required to tinkle.
Sadly, he had stopped up my preferred exits. That left me with one option. A dangerous one. But it wasn’t like I was safe here. Not with the BNB next door.
Tub drain, it is.
“I love you,”I mouthed to his back then climbed down the pipe into the dark.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Fergal and Arden left ahead of us, but we weren’t far behind. The flight was quick, but the cost was high. And I don’t just mean the rush tickets for everyone minus Dad, who preferred his wings to the ones on the plane. The twenty-four hours I started with were dwindling fast.
Realistically, I had known I couldn’t meet the deadline with Calixta the second Isiforos broke the news.
As it turns out,knowinga thing andacceptingit are two different things.
The centuria had begun staging nonlethal skirmishes on Hael’s borders, but Calixta hadn’t reached out. To either of us. Them to broker peace or us to make apologies for bumping back our meeting while she handled the threat to her rule. There was the time difference to consider. I hoped that was the problem.
Please let that be the problem.
The faster the sand ran from the hourglass, the more frantic my heart banged in my chest, urging me togo, go, go. I spent the whole flight with sweaty palms, which Asa was kind enough not to mention while he held my hand. I was first in line off the plane, grateful to stretch my legs and burn off nervous energy.
From the grunts and muttered curses, the others were elbowing their way to me through the crowd.
“I smell Arden.” Marita’s eyes sparkled bright. “And…fish tacos.” Her eyes turned dreamy. “Mmm.”
“We’re not here to eat.” Derry made heart eyes at a pizza shop. “We’re here to work.”
“Get what you want but get it to go.” I shooed them toward the food. “Find us when you’re done.”
The courier angle Luca had been working wouldn’t fly in an airport, so the food ought to be safe.
Asa and I headed for baggage claim, not that we had any, but that was our agreed upon meeting point.
Sure enough, Arden waited for us behind a metal barrier set in place to herd passengers away from an ongoing construction project. She carried a drink holder full of frosty beverages in pastel tones that made my heart squeeze with memories of simpler times when I had sipped smoothies for breakfast on my way to work at Hollis Apothecary.
“Fergal said the food here is fine.” She held up the tray. “Airport security is a little tighter than what Luca is comfortable with.” She pointed to each cup. “Strawberry banana swirl, peaches and cream, and orange creamsicle.” She passed us each a straw. “Not the most inventive flavors, but they’re classics. I figured we couldn’t go wrong with them.”
“Thanks.” I reached for what I thought was orange creamsicle and slurped hard. “Peaches and cream.”
Asa, who had taken the other orangey-cream striped drink, offered his to me. “Trade?”
“You just want my straw,” I teased, a bittersweet twinge reminding me of when he wouldn’t eat unless I took a bite of his food first. We had progressed beyond that point in our courtship, and I missed it often. “I’m so tired, I can’t taste. You can keep the orange.”
“Fergal?” Asa stole my drink and replaced it with his before I could fuss. “He sent you to fetch us alone?”
The sun was up now, so he hadn’t had much choice.
“Um, no.” Arden shifted her weight. “He’s out in the SUV we had dropped off by a local agent.”
“That tracks.” I swallowed too fast and got a brain freeze. “He worries about you.”
“I like him.” Her cheeks pinked. “He’s like a cooler, deadlier uncle than Uncle Nolan.”
The mystery of what happened to Nolan barely rated a slot on my endless to-do list, but I would have to tell Arden what I suspected one day. Namely that he got in over his head after discovering the existence of paranormal creatures. As a wildlife photographer, it had opened up a whole new world to him. I had a gut feeling documenting what wished to remain hidden hadn’t gone well for him.
We would have to talk about him eventually, and the truth would go down easier if I had all the details.