“Yeah,” Evan said. He hopped over to my other shoulder. After a moment he moved up to the top of my head.
“Evan,” I said. “That’s not quiet. Is there a problem?”
“Nope. Sorry.”
He took off, flying through my open bedroom door.
I heard Maggie, and briefly shut my eyes.
“She’s awake,” I said.
“She slept even less than you did, if she slept at all. I’m not sure, but I think something might be bothering her.”
So much for peace and quiet, getting my bearings.
“Rose…” I started.
“What?”
“Have you noticed anything about Maggie?”
“Noticed? No. Why, have you?”
“Gut feeling. Something’s off.”
“You paid more attention to her than I did. Why?”
“Just,” I said, lowering my voice to be sure that Maggie wouldn’t overhear, even if she happened to appear in the doorway. “How much of the wording in Midge’s ritual was Maggie’s?”
“You think she sabotaged us?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “There’s nothing I can put my finger on. But maybe… be wary? In case?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah,” I said. I couldn’t ask for anything more, because I wasn’t sure what to ask for or how to figure it out.
I pulled on a black t-shirt. I crossed over to my bathroom, with the shattered mirror. I glimpsed Maggie sitting on the futon. She’d taken off her jeans, sleeping in shirt and underwear, and while she was too far away for me to make out, I saw her adjusting her blanket to cover her lap.
Rose was talking. “I spent the night working on the rules for the summonings. Wordings, covering more bases. It’s more thought out. I’m confident moving forward.”
I took a deep breath. I found myself at a loss for what to say or do.
How could I say I didn’t want to take the risk again, without essentially telling Rose that I wanted to strip her of one of the only resources she had in the midst of all this.
How could I describe what I’d seen in the nightmare?
I took my time answering, washing my face more carefully and thoroughly than I otherwise might. I ran my damp hands through my hair, to get it out of my eyes for at least a little while.
“Yeah,” I said, when I’d finished. “We can go over that in a little bit.”
I made my way to the living room.
Maggie had pulled on her jeans while I’d washed my face. She said, “Evan’s saying he wants to go for a motorcycle ride.”
Oh. When he’d wanted to do something good and healthy, that’s what he meant.
“Plenty of time for that later,” I said. “We’ll be spending a while on the bike, I think.
“Aw.”
“Aw,” Rose echoed him. “Maybe you are heartless after all, Blake Thorburn.”
I ignored her. “Evan, why are you so into the motorcycle when you can fly?”
“Because it’s a motorcycle?”
“Hard to argue with that kind of reasoning,” Rose commented.
“It’s easy to argue with that kind of reasoning,” I said, without any hostility. This normalcy of this was like a breath of fresh air. “Be careful about lying, we don’t need a hit to our power now, in the middle of all this.”
“I’m not lying. I’m not talking about the reasoning. I’m saying the kind of reasoning, that of a young boy, is hard to deal with.”
“Nuh uh,” Evan said.
I offered a noncommittal groan by way of response. Too early in the morning.
“Did you have any luck brainstorming while you lay there all night, or did you actually sleep?” Maggie asked.
“I didn’t have as much trouble falling asleep as you’d think. It was waking up that sucked. Did you sleep?”
“No. I spent the night thinking. Big day ahead of us.”
I nodded. “You want food?”
■
In the end, we hadn’t ended up eating at the apartment. Fell had reached out to us, and we’d agreed to get started.
All forces assembled. We’d collected Ty, Alexis, and Tiff from their camps in the spirit world, Tiff taking watch near the real-world side of the gateway in the garage, stopped for donuts, breakfast sandwiches, and coffee, and got ourselves sorted out before we split up again.
Maggie and Fell headed out for a brief visit to the junkyard, in the hopes of catching goblins.
Rose started her refining of the summons, and we took it as a learning experience for the new recruits. They did the diagrams and physical work, Rose did the actual invocation.
I stood watch, standing on the balcony outside the apartment.
A figure landed on the next balcony over. So massive she might have knocked it to the ground, if she hadn’t become human in the process of landing.
Theatrics.
I was tense, but the approach hadn’t been hostile. Had she wanted to pounce on me, she might have been able to.
Even now, I was reasonably confident I could duck into the apartment behind me.
“Hello, Isadora,” I said.
“Thorburn. You look better than you did last night.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Is there a particular reason for the visit?”
“I’m thinking of the trick that circus performers do, spinning plates balanced on fingers and sticks.”
“I know what you mean.”
“Not quite so hard as it looks, to keep them spinning in place. But when something sets things off balance, the fallout is dramatic, even catastrophic.”
“Yeah,” I said.
“You seem very intent on upsetting a balance we have been working to maintain for some time.”
“Maybe the balance needs upsetting?” I asked.
“Who are you to say what should or shouldn’t be disturbed?”
I hesitated.
She seemed put off by that. “I relieve you of the consequences of my riddle. You’re free to answer.”
“I’m a mortal man,” I said. “Isn’t it our prerogative to screw with the status quo?”
“Just as it’s your prerogative to establish it?” she asked. “I’m not making that a riddle either. It’s a rhetorical question. I will say that in the myths of my time and birthplace, it was traditionally those with divine blood who had the power to affect change. All were at least somewhat Other.”
“I was under the impression that all practitioners were at least a little bit Other,” I said.
“You’re not entirely wrong.”
“I don’t like the idea that the ignorant, non-practitioner mortals are powerless, though.”
“Mere mortals are among the most powerful, in a sense. But we could debate that for days or weeks on end, and that’s not why I’m here.”
I shrugged. “Why are you here?”
“Two reasons. One hostile, that may inadvertently help, one helpful reason that may lead to disaster for you.”
“Oh,” I said. “I’m going to say ‘Great‘, with all the sarcasm I can muster.”
“Hostile: I’m making a formal declaration of war, in fairness. I will attack you in the next day.”
I exhaled slowly. “You couldn’t put it off?”
“No. Not really.”