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  “Found it,” Drake whispered, waving us north along the wall.

  “Target located. En route. All clear.” I advised the waiting team before following Drake’s ethereal trail as he jumped about a mile north of our arrival point.

  The three of us materialized, hidden by a stack of rotting wood which appeared to have been dumped months past, considering the mold and the water damage. “People here don’t seem to care much for their stuff,” Drake muttered as he cocked a chin over to the property beyond our safehouse.

  Logan and I looked over, just as unimpressed with the cracked windows now partially boarded, curtains fluttering in the breeze. The property was occupied—from the smoking chimney and the lights from within casting shadows upon the windows—so it made little sense that the farmer hadn’t taken the time to keep his home in good condition.

  Beside the house, I spotted farm equipment covered in rust. Logan grunted. “This isn’t at all like the Mithras Saleem told me about. He always took pride in the fact that the djinn were a particular race, especially with cleanliness and maintenance.”

  “Not a good sign but let’s get the all clear for the team’s transition. Then we can poke around a little more. I dare say Aisha’s not going to be pleased either. Let me project inside the property. Be back in a sec.” I patted Logan’s arm and faded away.

  Logan nodded but I caught the widening of his eyes as my hand touched his arm, giving away my solid projected form—a secret I hadn’t yet revealed to anyone. I sighed, cursing my lapse in awareness and figuring that would be a conversation for later.

  One avoided if at all possible.

  I projected inside the farmhouse to find a man and his son, sitting at the kitchen table, shoveling dried wheat into little bags—likely preparing to send them off for milling. The pair worked quietly and I confirmed the man as our contact, a moon-shaped scar at the back of his neck matching Fathima’s description.

  I returned to Logan and materialized, saying “All clear. It’s him. We’re meant to arrive within the back room which doubles as his food store. Once arrived we’re to wait until the man comes to check on us. Which he will do in fifteen minutes, according to Mithras time.”

  Logan nodded. “Good. Let’s get the team and move out.”

  We returned to the waiting group and transported them over to the small stone-walled room which was thankfully cool and welcoming. The icy temperature of space was a plus considering we were now six warm bodies gathered in the small space.

  Drake shook his head and whispered, “I’m going to stand watch outside.”

  “No. We’re supposed to wait here. We don’t move until our contact says it’s clear. We received limited info but they must have a good reason to insist we wait inside.”

  “Yeah, like fish in a barrel have a good reason to be in a barrel.”

  In the darkness, I heard a few sputters and choked laughter in response but Drake fell silent as we waited with bated breath. Projecting into the kitchen, I watched as the man moved from the kitchen sink and handed the boy a warm drink—after dropping in a few herbs and stirring it vigorously.

  Seconds later, the boy began to yawn widely and his eyelids drooped dangerously. The man shooed the kid away and waited until the boy staggered up the stairs to his room. At the bang of the door, the man checked his watch and then sat back down. Deciding not to be complacent I shifted to the kid’s room and watched as he sank fully-clothed onto the bed and began snoring, drool already dribbling onto his pillow.

  Back in the food store I whispered, “All clear so far. The kid’s asleep and the contact appears to be waiting for the agreed time.”

  Aisha’s head bobbed and I returned to keep watch, pretty sure she must be doing her own recon as well. She was far too calm for my liking.

  Ten minutes later, footsteps echoed along the kitchen floorboards as the man approached the door to the larder. A shaft of brightness cut through the room, lighting a strip of the stone floor in golden light and the man entered, but not before everyone who could jump faded away and appeared together inside the kitchen behind the man.

  The last thing we needed was an ambush.

  The exterior of the homestead remained clear so far, and all seemed quiet outside so I was somewhat reassured that we were safe.

  The man cleared his throat and closed the door behind him. In the darkness a flame appeared, the djinn farmer generating his own fire to light a candle. His features were lit from below, providing us a macabre view of his face which would have easily been read as danger or at least ill-portent.

  Kai and Darcy moved out of the shadows, the pair dressed and armed enough to assure the man they were more than he dared to take on—in case this whole thing was a trap. But he merely nodded and said in a low whisper, “Please follow me. The last of the royal guards have completed their rounds and they aren’t scheduled to be back for another thirty minutes. You can use the rooms at the back of the house, which you will find should suit your needs.”

  “The boy?” I asked as he entered the kitchen.

  Startled, his eyes widened to see the group surrounding him, but he appeared to be neither weak nor afraid. In fact, his expression showed his satisfaction and relief. “He will not awaken until the morning. But we must take care not to be discovered by the guards. You should set your own watch to match the rotation of the royal guards to be extra careful.”

  I didn’t advise him that a watch was a no-brainer. “Thank you for doing this. When will our contact arrive?”

  The man smiled. “She will be two hours or so. She has suggested food and rest as the next day or so will be busy.”

  I nodded and waved at him to lead the way. As yet, Aisha had kept to the shadows for which I was glad. I was pretty sure the man would not be at ease knowing his queen was walking around his house.

  The man led us along the passage to a back room, crossed the sparsely furnished space and opened a wardrobe before waving at the interior.

  “Huh? What is this? Narnia?”

  I chuckled and followed the man who had now disappeared down a narrow flight of stairs inside the cupboard. Below the house was a subterranean level with four rooms, and a bathroom that contained a heated natural pool.

  Now that I had not expected.

  After directing us to the food and drink, bedding and towels as well as oils for cleaning our weapons, the man retreated respectfully.

  I glanced over at Aisha, wondering if she was okay, but the pained look on her face said otherwise. Though tempted to talk to her about what was troubling her, I decided it could wait until the team had settled and were on a rest/watch rotation.

  Because although the queen and I had things to discuss, there was a certain shifter who also had a confession to make.

  I just hoped it wasn’t what I thought it was.

  Chapter 27

  The team had split off into groups to eat and bathe and to take turns to catch some shut-eye and keep watch. The rest had proved to be far more important than any of them had realized as once the adrenaline had dropped the effects of the transition through the veil had shown itself in the team’s energy levels.

  I wondered if talking with them about how they felt would help at all, or if it would just remind them that we all still had that life process hanging over our heads. Which one of us would it be?

  Nobody really wanted to know.

  So they focused instead on the task at hand, and played the waiting game as hard as that was. The farmer—whose name had turned out to be Rubi—had supplied the team with the security rotation times, information he confirmed he’d obtained by keeping watch himself and then passing the details on to the rebel squad responsible for the south-east quarter of the city.

  Though Rubi had been friendly enough, he’d kept his interactions with the team to the minimum, whether out of distrust or extra care, I couldn’t tell.

  But, given that we were going to be stuck here for a few hours waiting for Fathima, I headed across the hall to chat
with Kai.

  My light knock on the door had the walker looking over sharply.

  I met Kai’s enquiring look with one of resignation. “I need to talk to you about something. I feel bad even thinking about it because it feels like such a traitorous thing to entertain, but if I don’t run the idea past someone else, I think I might explode.”

  And I wasn’t lying. My suspicions had begun to build within me like a cancer, eating away at my very thought.

  Kai smiled, her eyes filled with kind concern, and she leaned close to me. She reached for my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Mel, you should know by now that I’m here for you whenever you need me. I think it’s time we started leaning on each other. In the trenches, things get distilled like we’ve never known. Very soon, we’re all going to be pretty much down to basic needs. Life needs will be our priority on the mission and if we don’t attend to our emotional health now, and also ensure we are a unified team, we’re going to go into battle with weak spots. Best to build on those connections of trust now, I think.”

  I studied Kai for a moment, watching the green and gold of her eyes shimmer with the passion of her words. Then I nodded, “You’re only saying what I’ve been thinking for a while now.”

  “And yet you are still hesitant to share?” Kai asked, tipping her head to one side.

  “I think if it were something personal to me, like my family or my love life, then I wouldn’t have felt that hesitation.”

  “So it’s not Ari or Drake or Steph?” I shook my head, thankful that my brief blink at her mention of my sister’s name went unnoticed as she continued with a cheeky smile. “Saleem then?”

  I sighed. “Getting warmer.”

  How I lied.

  Kai’s eyes widened as her mouth formed an O. Then she blinked and squeezed my shoulder again. “Okay, okay. Maybe sit and we can talk about what’s going on.” Her tone had gone from cheeky and teasing to serious at the insinuation of the djinn queen’s connection to what I was about to spill.

  She waved me to the seat beside her and reached for her backpack to withdraw a bright pink kid’s drink-bottle and two expandable—environmentally safe—steel cups. She shook them both out then clicked them into place. Then she winked at me, opened the bottle and poured a golden liquid into each of the waiting cups.

  I reached for mine and then lifted it to my nose to take an experimental sniff. “What’s this? Bourbon?” Sure smelled strong enough.

  Kai grinned, her eyes glittering with mischief. “Something like it,” she replied rather mysteriously. Then, with about the same amount of self-restraint that I possessed, she broke and leaned forward conspiratorially to say in a hushed voice, “This is a Fae moonshine. Grams sourced it from who-knows-where, and she gave me a couple bottles to hide away. Apparently, I have to make my stash last because it’s not easily available.”

  I smirked. “Of course, it isn’t,” I replied, the laughter in my throat all too clear. But there was something else in Kai’s expression, something rather similar to what might have been the look on my face only moments ago.

  I jerked my chin at her, then sipped at the honeyed, though eye-waveringly strong alcohol. “Looks like you also got something on your mind.”

  Kai laughed softly and nodded. “I sure do.”

  “Is it Ivy? Is she recovering well after her injury?”

  Just the thought of Ivy’s injustice made me weak. Even my own impaling couldn’t hold a candle to the elderly walker’s injuries, the missile being at least five times larger in both length and diameter, with a resulting wound not much smaller than the width of her torso.

  A wound with which lesser mortals were known to have been severed in half. Not Ivy Odel. So if it wasn’t the grandmother who managed to escape certain death then what was bugging Kai so much?

  Leaning forward, I met her eyes. “Or is something wrong with you? Please don’t tell me those zaps melted your brain? Or is it something to do with your new bling?” I flicked a glance at her sleeve pulled low on one wrist.

  “That’s an interesting tale all by itself. Raincheck on the bling?” Kai asked, lips forming a thin line for a brief moment and then she said softly, “How about we play swaps? You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine.” Then she twisted her lips. “Well, I might actually have two for the price of one.”

  Since she was likely now to talk, I decided to let her tell me first, before I told her what I saw in the ether. I shook my head and replied, “Okay, what if we do two for two?”

  “You have more?” Kai asked, brows waggling. Then she grunted. “What in Ailuros’s name am I thinking? Of course, you have more. We seem to have more shit on our heads than we can handle, Mel. Seriously, I’m not sure how long we’re supposed to survive this way.”

  She sighed and shook her head, then reached for her drink. I noticed she didn’t mention a word about the Ni’amh, a topic that seemed to have been relegated to the not-to-be-spoken-aloud category.

  Then, raising her cup into the air between us, Kai said, “Here’s to skeletons and laundry and chests. May they be revealed and aired and…fuck. I knew where I was going with that before I started but I was just about to say ‘gotten off on’ and I’m pretty sure that doesn’t work in this context.”

  I choked on my laughter as I said, “How about we go with shoulders, and unburdened?”

  Kai squinted at me then responded with a grateful grin, nodding vigorously as she said, “Yes. Let’s go with that.”

  I rolled my eyes, “Alright already, do I have to swear on a grimoire or something?”

  Kai chuckled. “No, what I meant was what I have to say is also related to…those two subjects.”

  “They are?”

  “Yep.”

  “Wanna tell me already?”

  She grunted. “Okay, sorry,” she replied then cleared her throat. “Okay so, after the whole repeated zapping and repeated passing out, my father insisted on doing an MRI. I was against it but I guess I had little choice. And he got me when I was too weak to protest. So I was curious about the results because I…er…I mean—”

  “Out with it, walker,” I snapped.

  Kai raised an eyebrow but she obeyed. “I had a few…episodes.”

  “Episodes?”

  “Yeah. Fainting spells. Etcetera.”

  “Do you even know the concept of explaining?”

  “Yeah, I do. When it’s not my problems,” she muttered.

  I folded my arms and sat back in my chair, deciding that waiting in silence was probably the best option. Kai seemed to be willing to use every interruption to stall or change the subject.

  She sounds a lot like someone else I know.

  Kai continued, “So I had a few seizures and figured it was likely best I get ahead of Dad because he in his infinite wisdom had decided that I wasn’t allowed to travel through the veil without his all-clear. And I suspected that whatever was wrong with me would come up on the MRI and thus nix any possibility of going to Drakys to see Logan.”

  I rolled my eyes. “And I bet you wanted to get your hot little hands on the results before your Dad saw them? A little bit of waylaying of information couldn’t have hurt right?” I smirked.

  Kai gave me a glare and continued as though I hadn’t even spoken but the spots of heat on her cheeks told me I’d hit the truth.

  Goddess knew this walker was exactly like me.

  “And sure enough the results were far from what I’d wanted to see.”

  “Which means what exactly?”

  “Which means I have bleeding in the brain.”

  “What the actual fuck, Kai?!” I yelled, not even caring that I was a little too loud.

  Kai winced and sat back, raising her hands as though that was enough of an apology. “Look, it’s not as bad as it seems. I’ve had Sienna do a session with her healing fire and I’m going to convince Darcy to get in there and have a nosy around, see if she can do anything to help ease things just until we have the sexy djinn dude back home safe and so
und.”

  “And then what?” I snapped. “You just up and die because you pushed too hard and didn’t take care of yourself?”

  Kai pursed her lips. “I’m taking care of myself. I’m not stupid or reckless.”

  “Could have fooled me,” I muttered, tightening the hold my folded arms had on my torso.

  I couldn’t deny that her admission had scared me. I hadn’t thought of losing any of my friends even when we’d acknowledged the possibility that with the dangers we were likely to face on the mission, we may not all come home safe. Still, death seemed to be something all too permanent to contemplate. Especially when we all had so much more to do. Especially with the Ni’amh holding that responsibility over our heads too.

  There was a short taut silence before Kai continued, “Anyway, I’ll be fine. I do have the odd headache or two, and I may or may not have a seizure and pass out, so we’d need to watch out for that. But otherwise everything is just dandy.”

  “How can you be so fucking calm about this?”

  Kai shrugged. “‘Cos calm is better than freaking my shit?” She stared eyes wide and innocent but in them I saw her fear. It was the same fear I felt, the fear that held such power over you, the fear that if you admitted to it then it would gain a total hold on you. So you deny it and keep going as if nothing had even happened.

  I cleared my throat and said, “Well, I know we agreed on 2 for 2 but I’ll see you two and raise you one more.”

  “Oh?” Kai frowned. “What happened?”

  I shrugged. “It’s just a memory of something that I didn’t even know had been lost in the first place.”

  “Huh?” Kai shook her head. “This sounds familiar but please go on,” she said making a rolling motion with her hand.

  I cleared my throat. “So I had a memory of my mother’s voice but I don’t remember her or my father at all.” I went on to explain to Kai in detail what I’d told Drake, and for the first time I felt lighter, even lighter than after I’d shared my burden with my gargoyle BFF.

  It wasn’t that his shoulder hadn’t offered me the comfort I’d been looking for but rather Kai, was somewhat of a kindred spirit. Maybe it was the sisterhood of the Ni’amh and our shared mystery responsibility.