CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

I walked into the house, where Gabriel and Ricky were waiting in the hall.

“Did that just happen?” I said. “Did this entire night just happen? Or have I moved from visions to full-on hallucinations?”

“It happened,” Ricky said. “Your mom broke out of jail to kill Gabriel’s mom, and you stopped her, and then Gabriel made her coffee while she toured your new house. I’m still not sure what’s the most unbelievable part of that.”

“I believe the part where Olivia stopped Pamela from killing Seanna,” Gabriel said.

I tensed. “I’m sorry. I know maybe you’d rather—”

“I was attempting to make light of the situation,” Gabriel said. “I wasn’t secretly hoping she’d do it.” He thought for a moment. “No, that’s incorrect. I didn’t want Pamela to kill Seanna because you didn’t want her to kill Seanna. The revelation of Seanna’s mark merely makes her a pathetic figure, rather than a nefarious villain. I do not wish to see her dead.”

“A pathetic figure,” I said. “That’s it exactly. I couldn’t condemn her to an eternity of suffering for that.”

“Of course not. I would neither expect nor wish you to do any different.”

He stepped toward me and then glanced at Ricky, as if remembering we weren’t alone.

“You know what?” Ricky said. “I’m suddenly very sleepy, and not at all in need of this.” He produced a bottle of Scotch from behind his back. “You two enjoy. I’ll go nap, and if Todd breaks out of prison to kill my father, please wake me up.”

“Don’t worry, I’d stop him,” I said. “Now, if he went after Gabriel’s father right now, that might be a whole other situation.”

“One which I might very well condone under the circumstances,” Gabriel said. “But no, presuming you aren’t actually tired, Ricky, and are only attempting to politely extricate yourself from an intimate situation, I’ll ask you to join us in the drink. I believe we could all use it.”

We’d barely poured the Scotch when the doorbell rang.

“I would hope that was Patrick coming to tell us Pamela got back safely,” I said. “But it’s a little soon for that.”

“Actually, he will text as soon as she does,” Gabriel said. “I sent him a strongly worded message to that effect, as well as a warning that he may not wish to contact you directly for at least forty-eight hours.”

“Good call.”

The knocker banged. I winced and said, “Tell me we can ignore that.”

“I don’t hear a thing,” Ricky said. “Lloergan? Get back here. You don’t hear it, either.”

Gabriel got to his feet. “I’ll answer and tell the caller, in no uncertain terms, to go away.”

Ricky grinned. “Dare you to say exactly that. Just open the door, give your best Gabriel stare, say ‘Go away,’ and shut it again. Better yet, slam it.”

“I don’t slam doors.”

“You should start. It’s very therapeutic.”

I listened to Gabriel’s footsteps. Then the click of the deadbolt, the whoosh of the door, and a very eloquent sigh.

“Pepper,” he said.

I went into the hall to see her standing in the doorway saying, “Gwy—I mean, Gabriel.”

“You may call me Gwynn, Pepper. I have told you that.”

He sounded deeply resigned, and I knew it wasn’t so much the name as general exhaustion from the endless evening, but Pepper stumbled over herself to apologize.

Grace wasn’t kidding about Pepper’s near worship of Gabriel. If Pepper were actually as young as she looks, it’d be seriously creepy. But it has nothing to do with that. To her, he is Gwynn, legendary king of the Fae, and while she could flip Grace the finger at her teasing, it was a whole different story when she stood in front of Gabriel himself.

“Hey, Pepper,” I said as I walked in, and I swear they both gave sighs of relief.

“Liv,” Pepper said. “I know it’s late. I know you guys must be tired. I wouldn’t come by if it wasn’t…”

She trailed off, and I said, “Important?” thinking she’d blanked on a word again, but she said, “Right, except I’m not sure it is. Maybe it’s just me. I still get confused and…” She inhaled. “I should talk to Veronica first. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bug you guys.”

I caught her arm as she went to leave. “Just tell us.”

She hesitated, then said, “I don’t want to second-guess you, Liv. You might have totally known what you were doing, and if so, just tell me to shove off, but you seemed really distracted, so I started to think…” She looked up at me. “Are you sure you should have sent the dryads to watch over Seanna?”

“Ah,” I said. “Come on in.” I escorted her into the parlor. “You’re right. That probably wasn’t a good idea. Helia volunteered, and while I did try to stop her, I should have insisted.” I looked at Gabriel and Ricky. “Maybe we should catch up and convince them they aren’t needed. Helia really shouldn’t be exerting herself.”

“I can do it,” Ricky said, pushing to his feet. “Lloe? You up to running beside the bike? Or should we take Liv’s car?”

Pepper nodded. “Checking on them is a good idea. Helia wasn’t in great shape, as hard as she tried to hide it. I don’t think she was up to this kind of mission.”

“Nor do I believe Seanna required extra guards,” Gabriel said. “But we take your point. If they wanted to help Walter, they won’t be swayed unless someone replaces them on their watch.”

“Help Walter?” Pepper looked from me to Gabriel.

“With Seanna,” I said.

“But I thought…I thought Liv sent them to watch Walter. Because she was suspicious.”

“Of Walter?” I said with a laugh. “That makes a whole lot more sense now. That’s definitely a mission I wouldn’t send Helia on, given her condition. She just wanted to go and help him watch over Seanna.”

“That’s not…” She trailed off and looked from me to Gabriel again.

“Not what?” I said.

“I overheard Helia talking to Alexios. She said they were going to watch Walter, that him taking Seanna away seemed suspicious. I thought that meant you were suspicious of him, but it must have just meant she was. She told Alexios that they needed to see what he was up to.”

“Walter?” I shook my head. “Then they’re the ones who misunderstood. Ida wanted him to take Seanna someplace safe.”

“Ida wasn’t there.”

“Sure she…” I thought. “Well, no, I didn’t actually see her, but…” I looked at Gabriel.

“She wasn’t there,” he said. “I presumed she’d given Walter orders before he came over.”

“Ida doesn’t know,” Pepper said. “Helia asked, and Walter said he hadn’t told Ida about Pamela, that she was sleeping when he left and she needs her rest—everything that’s going on is wearing her down. He wanted to handle this alone. Grace agreed. She grumbled about Ida always taking control, and she said if they could leave Ida out of it, that’d be easier for everyone. I ran after Helia and gave her my cell phone, because I remembered them saying they didn’t have one.”

“Good idea,” Ricky said.

I was already on my phone, listening to the line ring…and ring. Then Pepper’s voice mail picked up.

“Call Ida,” Gabriel said.

I dialed.