Chapter Fifty-One

Adrian awoke in the pale morning light to find Sophie’s side of the bed empty. He rolled over to look around. She sat at the kitchen table in the Airstream, a blanket around her, her face turned toward the window. Kiri lay curled at her feet.

He got out of bed and approached. “Hey.”

She glanced at him and his heart constricted. Tears shone on her cheeks and reddened her eyes and nostrils. “Hey,” she said, in a strained squeak. “Look. It snowed.”

He swiftly checked out the view: indeed, the outside world had put on a layer of white, beneath quiet gray clouds. “Wow, look at that. Um. You okay?”

She planted her elbows on the table, leaning her eyes against the heels of her hands. “You said it wasn’t so bad. You said it could be worse. How could you say that?”

Of course. As he dreaded, she had finally reached those memories. He slid onto the padded bench beside her and hugged her. “Well. It could have been. At least we were together. At least Hekate survived.”

“It was terrible! Her finding us…and K-Kerberos…” Her mouth twisted in fighting another bout of crying, and she looked away from him, out the window. She drew in a hitching breath. “And I have to take a final today. How am I supposed to do that?”

Adrian leaned his cheek on the blanket over her shoulder, the wool catching against his morning stubble. He inhaled the wafts of warmer air rising from her neck. Below the table he found Kiri’s furry side, and wriggled his toes under it. With his gaze upon the snowy ground outside, he spoke softly.

“When I first got to that memory, it was in a dream. I was fully asleep. So it felt more vivid, as real as the memories ever feel. You’re right, it was horrible. I dreamed it all the way to Hekate and Kerberos grieving at our feet. Then I woke up. I was still paraplegic at the time, at home with Dad. It was almost dawn. I was on my back in bed, as usual. Could only move the upper half of my body.”

Sophie sniffled, holding still, listening with her gaze cast down.

He pulled his foot from under Kiri and stroked the dog’s back with it. “I sort of gasped like I was drowning,” he went on. “Kiri slept in my room with me, and when she heard me she got up and came over to see what I needed. She always did that if I woke up. I leaned over and hugged her and…just started crying into her fur.” Though he felt a bit silly about confessing it, a lump formed in his throat at the memory.

Sophie leaned her head against his. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

“I’m not. It’s true. I was quite pathetic.”

“How’d you get through the rest of your day?”

“Did the things I had to do. Tried to remember it was ancient history and we’d been given a second chance now. Still…” He nestled his arms more snugly around her. “I wished I could go see you. I went straight to your blog, hoping you’d put up a new post, and luckily you had.”

She lifted her reddened eyes to him, a hint of curiosity in them. “What was it about?”

“Kumquats,” he said. “And the season finale of ‘Nightshade.’” He had watched that show too. Her face softened with a smile, and he added, “I commented extensively upon both.”

She turned so her forehead rested on his cheek. “I remember.”

“Also,” he said, “I had Zoe come over so I could hug her.”

“I want to hug her too.”

“She does as well. She just got to those memories the other day. I would’ve told you, but…”

“But then you’d have had to tell me how it ended.”

“Right,” he said.

“God,” she groaned suddenly. “My chem final. I just cannot.”

“Yes you can.” He kissed her eyelid. “You’ll get out there in that snow and you’ll be fab.”

“It’ll do.” Betty Quentin looked around inside the small, secluded house. “Hard to get to, hard to find, not a neighbor for a mile or more. Handy having people in the group who own cabins, isn’t it.”

Landon smiled through his shivers. All three of them were cold, despite their coats and scarves. The old house hadn’t been occupied for months, and the baseboard heat was taking a while to warm up. But it truly was ideal: less than an hour from Carnation, out in the labyrinth of Forest Service roads that snaked all over the Cascades and foothills. Nothing but huge trees, muddy creeks, and the cries of eagles out here.

Krystal glanced out the window with a smile of triumph. “And that fire pit outside is nice and big. We can build a good hot fire and throw in whatever we need to.”

The young woman’s bloodthirst spread to Betty with a dark thrill. “If it comes to that, indeed we will.” Betty rubbed her chilled hands together, smiling. “Feels good to be setting things in motion. So. This fellow you’ve found in Seattle, he’s ready?”

Landon and Krystal glanced at each other and nodded. “He’s an untested commodity,” Landon said. “Only Krystal’s met him in person, and we suspect he’s a little…” He looped his finger by his temple.

“They often are, if they’re willing to take on this work,” Betty remarked.

“But he’s focused,” Krystal said. “And he keeps the details straight. So I think we should give him the go-ahead.”

“This Tabitha does seem to be doing an awful lot,” Landon said. “If her posts are any indication. Money and fame everywhere suddenly. A new car yesterday—an expensive one. She posted pictures. And she’s still friends with Sophie. There are comments between them; ‘likes’ and that kind of thing.”

“More and more likely.” Betty nodded. “Then tell this fellow not to hold back. We might as well make our intent clear to Sophie and Adrian.”

“It’ll be pretty clear after we hit the farmhouse.” Krystal caressed the gun in her holster.

“Then this will help make it extra clear,” Betty said.

Sophie was not fab at her chem final. Tired and achy-eyed, she couldn’t remember electron configurations or molecule shapes, forgot everything she knew about ionization energy, and was almost sure she screwed up basic math on calculating percentages and pressures. At the end of the two hours, she turned in the barely-finished stack of torturous questions and her Scantron form, and plodded out of the crowded, quiet lecture hall. She didn’t even know anymore which part of life was making her more miserable: finals week or the memories.

Waiting for her outside the building, flinging snowballs at each other, were Adrian and Zoe.

Surprised pleasure washed through Sophie.

“There she is,” Zoe greeted.

Sophie hurried through the slush to meet her, and hugged her.

“Goddess, how much did those memories hurt, right?” Zoe asked.

“Right.” Sophie sighed. “Thanks for coming.”

Adrian tossed a snowball up and down in his bare hand, as if waiting for a good opportunity to pelt Zoe with it. The evidence of their battle stood all around in smashed dots of snow against walls, benches, and tree trunks, not to mention each other’s coats. “Way to be inconspicuous, you guys,” Sophie said.

“We are,” Adrian defended. “This is exactly what everyone’s doing out here today.”

“We blend in,” Zoe agreed.

“So you came to help find our enemies?” Sophie asked as they crossed the campus street.

“Yeah. I was hoping to use magic, but…” Zoe flicked a line of snow off a mailbox—without her fingers actually touching it, Sophie noticed. “We don’t have anything belonging to Quentin, as far as we know. And we don’t know who’s with her. So I can’t trace them unless I think of some other way. Still, I can look round, do some research, be a spy, the way Freya and Niko are.”

“And you can give us good luck, right?” Sophie asked hopefully. “Like on finals, too?”

Zoe grinned at her and placed a cold fingertip on Sophie’s forehead as they walked. “Zap. There. You’re smarter.”

Strangely, Sophie did feel a boost of mental acuity, like instant-acting coffee. “Dang. Wish I’d done that before the test.”

“Have any more exams?”

“Yeah, one tomorrow.”

“We’ll do it before that.”

“Thanks.” Sophie smiled, but looked down at her hiking boots, which weren’t keeping her feet quite warm enough on the slushy sidewalk. She felt deeply inadequate, accepting magical protection time and again from these awesome immortals, while she had nothing to give them in return. Unless love counted.

“Your job is to rock your exams,” Zoe said. “You do that, and let us worry about the nasties.”