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I looked over at Gerri but she looked as clueless as I did. I pointed to the glove box and she popped it open. She frowned at the old flip phone and picked it up gingerly like it might explode.
“What's this?” She asked.
I looked over to make sure she was real but she was.
“A phone. Open it, press the button under Contacts. Tell me what you find.”
It took her a moment and when she finally got into the contacts, she shook her head. “Nothing.”
She flipped it over and on the back there were labels. One of the labels read The Cove with a phone number after it. I was passing silent streets and knew that if I pulled over right here, it would look suspicious.
Instead, I waited another ten minutes until we got to a convenience store. I pulled in and dialed the number on the back.
On the other end, Eli picked up.
"Yeah?” He said.
"where are you?" I asked.
"Driving. Where are you?" He asked. He was smart enough not to say where he was exactly. I was dumb enough to ask.
"Also driving. Are you guys okay?" I asked.
"That's up for debate right now," he said and the way he was breathing backed up that fact. He sounded ragged and if I listened close enough, I could hear how it sounded wet too.
“How is Celia?" Eli asked and then pulled the phone from his mouth and coughed.
"Unconscious, in the backseat."
Eli was quiet. “Well, call me when she can talk. Until then, don't contact us."
He hung up without another word and I stared at the phone.
"Why did he do that?" Gerri asked.
"I'm sure they have a system. Safe words, that sort of thing, so they know exactly who they are talking to. Celia would know them, I wouldn't," I said.
"Where do we go?" Gerri asked quietly.
I looked over her. "If you want to, you can go. You can go back home."
She shook her head. "I can't. I need a place of strong magic, preferably the one that I came through."
So she was stuck here too. She stared at me and I stared back.
I put the car in gear. "We'll drive until Celia wakes up. Then we can figure out where to go."
It wasn't much of a plan, but it was all we had.