“Was that a thank-you, Ms. Lane?”
I thought about it and shrugged. “Yes.”
Behind me, he made a strange noise. “That’s it. You’re not going.”
“Because I thanked you? What kind of logic is that?”
“The kind of person that thanks another person never survives. Have you learned nothing?”
“He has my parents.”
“If he gets you, he could get the whole world.”
“He’s not going to get me. I’m going to do exactly what you told me to do. No deviations. No independent decisions. I’ll go into the house, snap a photo of whatever destination the Silver shows, and text it to you. Between that and my brand, you’ll track me. You’ll bring your … whatever they are in behind me or get there some other way, and you’ll rescue us.” And I would kill the LM. Bury my spear to the hilt in his chest. Maybe his eyeball. Stand there and watch him begin to rot. I hoped he died slowly.
“The Silvers are too unpredictable. Something could go wrong even in the brief time you pass from one to the next.”
“You wondered if I had the balls. Now you know. Besides, he needs me, remember? He’s not going to take any chances.”
“Anytime you use the Silvers, you’re taking a chance. Especially if you’re carrying OOPs. Power provokes change in places of unpredictable power.”
“I know. You’ve told me five times now. I’m to keep my spear hidden and the stones in the pouch.”
“With the holes in the prison walls, and Cruce’s curse … there’s no bloody telling what could go wrong. No, Ms. Lane, this just won’t work.”
“I’m going in, Barrons, with or without your help.”
“I could stop you,” he said, so softly that I knew he was not only seriously considering it but a breath away from chaining me up somewhere.
I inhaled sharply. “Remember the child dying in your arms?”
His nostrils flared. The thing rattled in his chest.
“Don’t make me live it, Barrons. Don’t choose my grief for me. You have no right.”
“They aren’t your biological parents.”
“Do you think the heart only follows blood?”
A few minutes later I was preparing to walk out the door, turn right, and head into what had once been the city’s biggest Dark Zone.
I knew that by the time I walked the fourteen blocks to 1247 LaRuhe, I’d be dripping sweat, but I was taking no chances. In case the Silver was icy, I’d layered my clothing deep. In case it was dark, I was wearing my MacHalo. In case I had to be there awhile before Barrons broke us out, and in case my parents needed food, I had my pack on my back, stuffed with protein bars, water, Unseelie flesh, and a miscellany of other items Barrons and I had taken turns cramming in. In case the LM insisted on seeing them, I had the three stones in a black pouch covered with delicately shimmering wards. My gun was over my shoulder and my spear under it. I had no intention of needing any of the items I was bringing, but I also had no intention of ever going anywhere without a fully equipped pack again until the last Fae had been wiped from our world. For the tenth time in the past two days, I wished I had V’lane’s name in my tongue and wondered again where he was and what had happened to him.
My cell phone was in my palm, ready to snap a photo and transmit it, so Barrons could see the LM’s destination in the glass. I glanced down at it. There was something nagging at me and had been ever since he’d told me his plan. There was an inconsistency lurking at the edge of my awareness. A fact that didn’t rest comfortably with the others.
“If I understand the Silvers, they all show destinations. And you expect the LM’s to show a destination, too. So why does your Silver show a pathway winding through what looks like a graveyard haunted by demons? That’s not a destination.”
He said nothing.
“You’ve linked more than two Silvers together, haven’t you?” I frowned. “What if the LM has done the same thing? What if his doesn’t show a destination, either?”
“He’s not adept enough to stack Silvers.”
When I get epiphanies, they come hard and fast. “Oh, God, I get it!” I exclaimed. It was no wonder he hadn’t wanted to explain the Silvers to me! “The mirror in your study connects to what’s beneath your garage! You ‘stacked’ mirrors to form a passageway filled with demon watchdogs so if anyone found their way into your mirror, they’d never survive the gauntlet you make them run.” Instead of one mirror instantly connecting to another, he’d arranged a multitude of mirrors to form a long, deadly corridor. “That’s how you get to the three floors beneath the garage. That’s why I couldn’t find the entrance. It’s been right under my nose in my bookstore all along!”
“Your bookstore?” He snorted. Then he laughed. “Walk out of this with your parents, the stones, and Darroc dead, Ms. Lane, and I’ll give you the bloody thing.”
I felt suddenly breathless. “Are we talking figurative or literal?”
“Literal. Lock, stock, and barrel.”
“Deed and all?” My heart hammered. I loved BB&B.
“To the store. Not my garage or car collection.”
“In other words, you’ll always be out back, breathing down my neck,” I said dryly.
“Never doubt it.” He gave me a wolf smile.
“Throw in the Viper?”