But that didn’t matter. His happiness was all that did. She touched the sleep charm in her pocket, assuring herself it was ready. Isen and Rule Turner were protected in some way, but Isen had no defenses against a simple sleep charm—especially one with the power of a god behind it. And his men had no defenses at all.
She giggled again and turned Steppenwolf back on.
JULIA brushed her teeth as slowly as possible. She already had her pj’s on, so toothbrushing was the only thing standing between her and bedtime. And she did not want to go to bed. There was too much going on. Though it was not likely, she thought bitterly as she spat toothpaste spit into the sink, that anyone would tell her much. But if she was awake when Mr. Turner and Lily got back, she’d surely learn something.
Eavesdropping on the grown-ups’ conversation in the great room hadn’t worked all that well. Carl turned on some music, for one thing, so she only heard little bits of what people said, but everyone had seemed to be talking to someone she couldn’t hear. It took forever for her to figure out that the dragon must be talking to them in their heads.
To them, and not her, when she was the one who’d had all her memories stolen. It wasn’t right. They made all the decisions and didn’t tell her anything.
Not much of anything, anyway. She did know why Mr. Turner left with Lily. Someone had been killed and they were supposed to investigate. The gorgeous man who wanted her to call him Cullen, not Mr. Seaborne, had gone with them. Then Grandmother wanted to leave so she could protect the people at Mr. Turner’s house, who were in a different clan and couldn’t come here, where it was safer. The scary one—Benedict—and his girlfriend, who had a weird name Julia couldn’t remember and a ton of curly red hair, had given Grandmother a ride. As soon as they left, so did the woman with all the tattoos and the beautiful little baby, and Julia never got a chance to ask if she could hold the baby.
Julia spat one last time and rinsed her mouth with water and sighed. Everyone had important things to do and no one wanted her to do anything but go to bed. If she were really fifty-seven . . .
The bathroom door opened without anyone knocking. Julia turned and scowled—but it was Li Qin. That made Julia’s eyes widen. Li Qin was the politest person ever, and not in a fake way. It was just how she was. She breathed out courtesy the way a rose gives off scent.
Li Qin held her finger to her lips and motioned for Julia to come.
Curious and a little bit scared for no reason she could tell, Julia did. That crazy guy who sang because he couldn’t talk right was in the hall, waiting. He patted her on the shoulder. Li Qin made that shushing gesture again, and the come-along gesture, and limped to the door to Toby’s room. She had a big boot on her broken foot now, but she still needed to use one of her crutches. She opened Toby’s door.
Were they going to have a secret party? Stay up late after all, only Toby’s grandfather wasn’t supposed to know? Julia grinned and paused in the doorway.
Toby was just sitting up. He looked bleary, as if he’d been asleep, which maybe he had been because he’d had to go to bed half an hour before Julia. “What—” he started.
Li Qin hushed him.
Hardy pushed on Julia’s back, getting her to move all the way into Toby’s room. He closed the door.
Li Qin whispered, “A very bad person is coming. Hardy tells me we must leave.”
Toby whispered back, “If it’s someone bad, we have to warn my grandfather.”
Julia entered into the whispering. “How could Hardy tell you anything? He can’t talk. And how would he know?”
Li Qin smiled. “The angels speak to Hardy, and he sings their meaning. Toby, your grandfather will need our help. We must not be caught here, or we cannot help him. How do we leave without being caught?”
Angels? Li Qin thought the crazy guy listened to angels?
“Grandpa says Hardy walks with angels.” Toby gave the man a careful look as if he might be able to see angels hanging around him. He bit his lip, then nodded. “We could go out the window. The guards will hear us or smell us, but we aren’t hiding from them, are we?”
Li Qin looked at Hardy. “Hardy?”
He tilted his head. His eyes looked sleepy, not like he was worried or anything. After a moment he hummed some song Julia didn’t know.
“We wait for the bell,” Li Qin whispered.
“What bell?” Julia whispered back.
The doorbell rang. Julia jumped.
“Quickly.” Li Qin limped to the window. “Toby, you go first, please.”
THIRTY-NINE
WHEN Friar had Lily turn onto an all-too-familiar road heading out of town, she knew where they were going. Rage swam up hot and strong. Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel, making her turn jerky.
She wasn’t the only one. “You son of a bitch,” Cullen breathed. “You knew where it was all along. You knew, and made sure we didn’t call and warn anyone.”
Lily didn’t dare take her eyes off the road, so she didn’t see exactly what happened. One second Cullen was staring at Friar. The next there was the smack of flesh on flesh and Cullen bounced back into the seat, having left it so abruptly Lily missed it.
“Cullen,” Rule said. “No.”
Cullen subsided, breathing heavily. “I didn’t swear to anything.”
“I did,” Rule said. “And you’re under my authority. You will not cause me to forswear myself. And neither,” he added in a voice dropped straight into arctic cold, “will he.”
No question who he was. Lily flexed her hands on the wheel, encouraging circulation to return. “You might as well admit it,” she told the bastard in the backseat. He was gloating. She was sure of it, though she couldn’t see his face. “The knife’s at Clanhome, isn’t it?”
“I did warn you,” the bastard in question said in a silky voice. “I said the next victim would probably be one of your people, and where else does one find your people?”
Yeah, he’d known all along where the knife was—and he’d made sure they didn’t call and warn Isen. That had been part of the goddamn deal. Lily breathed deep, trying to keep calm. She was driving. She couldn’t fling herself over the seat the way Cullen had tried to do.
“Perhaps we don’t need you now,” Rule said. “We know where we’re going.”
“Clanhome’s a big place, and time is short. Do you want to waste some of that time hunting the knife?”
“Cullen,” Rule said, “will the knife’s holder need a node for the rite?”
Cullen was silent for a long moment. “I don’t know. I don’t bloody know. I’d think they would want one, but that damn dead god managed to open gates without a node.”
“You see?” Friar sounded much too smug. “You can’t assume you can go straight to that node of yours. What if they’re using a ley line instead? Plenty of them to choose from.”
Lily wanted to grab his tongue and yank it out. She could imagine doing just that. Get a pair of pliers, grip that slimy, lying tongue with them, and rip it out, then watch him choke on his own blood and . . . and what in God’s name was she thinking?
She’d long wanted Friar dead. She could have killed him, given the chance. Right or wrong, she knew she was capable of that, but to imagine torturing him . . . that wasn’t her. Surely that wasn’t her. She shuddered and wished she knew how to pray, but the only one she remembered from her religion-averse childhood started Now I lay me down to sleep, which was no help at all.
What do you believe in?
Try. And keep trying. “Now that we know roughly where we’re going, we can start making plans,” she said in a voice that surprised her. She sounded a lot more level than she felt.