“Rochelle,” Blackwell said. “Rochelle, you need to wake up.” His voice was distant, his words carefully formed and articulated. As if he might be talking to a rabid dog.
I opened my eyes.
The demon was hunched over me, blocking my view of … well, everything except the starlit sky.
I closed my eyes.
Okay, so Blackwell was talking the way someone would talk around a scary-ass demon.
“Where’s Beau?” I fought to stay awake, completely drained but exceedingly aware that now was not the time for a nap.
“You need to slowly sit up,” Blackwell said, ignoring the question. “Or even better, make it onto all fours and crawl toward the sound of my voice. Try to keep your movements to a minimum.”
“Really, Mot,” Win snapped from somewhere to the right of Blackwell. “I told you she’s bound the demon. We’re the only ones in immediate danger.”
“Where is Beau?” I asked again. I was slowly feeling more aware — and was therefore more liable to panic if I didn’t obtain some much-needed information quickly. “Did you kill him?”
Blackwell didn’t answer.
I sat up abruptly, and without completely thinking through the ramifications of doing so.
Blackwell hissed under his breath. I could hear him, but only saw darkness and trees stretched out before me.
The demon lurched back to prowl around me. All the candles that had defined the edge of the circle Win had ripped apart were snuffed out. I couldn’t see anything except the moonlit trees and the night sky. As it paced, the demon emitted a low growl that could have almost been mistaken for a rumbling purr. Except, you know, it was coming from a black-scaled, crimson-eyed terror that wanted to disembowel someone … soon.
“Look at it,” Blackwell whispered. “It’s changing. Adapting … to meet the needs of its new master? Does it look more catlike to you?”
“Blackwell!” I cried into the darkness. “Did you kill him?”
“Answer her,” Win said. “Did you kill the shifter?”
“No,” Blackwell said. “Thankfully Kai Win’s instructions were loosely interpretable. I merely relocated him.”
Relief flooded through me, pushing my mounting panic away. Strength seeped back into my limbs.
“I might be bleeding internally,” Blackwell continued wryly. “But the shifter is most likely on his way back already.”
Ignoring the sorcerer’s instructions to crawl toward him, I gathered my hands and knees underneath me and slowly made my way over to Ember. The demon continued its languid pacing, simply shifting its path around me as I moved.
The witch was unconscious but still alive. Her breathing was even. I checked her leg, making sure I hadn’t tied the scarf too tightly. It was warm to the touch, which I hoped was a good sign.
“We can’t just keep waiting around,” Win said from somewhere off to my left. “I need my brooch. The girl is too inexperienced to hold the demon.”
“Well, I’d say she’s performed at an unexpected level of mastery,” Blackwell said. “Apparently, she bound the bloody demon without sacrificing the witch. You might want to be asking questions, not making demands …”
“Blackwell,” I said, interrupting their stupid squabble. “I need you to take Ember to a hospital.”
“Of course,” the sorcerer said. “Just as soon as you dictate terms to the demon as to my untouchability.”
“No,” Win said. “I forbid it … for now. Rochelle, bring me the brooch. Then Mot will transport the witch wherever you wish.”
Henry stepped into my peripheral vision from the trees that backed the goat shed. He was moving slowly, favoring his right leg. “No, Rochelle,” he said. “All of us put ourselves on the line to get that brooch to you.”
The demon honed in on the marshal, hunkering down like a cat preparing to strike. It was moving differently than before, and the possible ramifications of that change were terrifying. So I just shoved the observation aside and focused on the here and now.
“No,” I said, clearly and with determination. “Henry is a friend.”
The demon rotated its head, pinning me with its red-ember slit-eyed gaze.
I shook my head emphatically.
The demon hunched its shoulders, then recommenced its perimeter prowl.
“Jesus Christ,” Henry said quietly. “That’s not terrifying and thrilling at the same time at all.”
Ignoring the sorcerer, I turned to address the night-shadowed trees where Blackwell and Win were concealed. “I’m not an idiot. I’m not giving you the brooch, Win.”
My grandmother appeared from between the cherry trees, melting out from the darkness. She was further to the left than I thought she’d been, as if she’d been moving around in the darkness to hide her location. Her face was a thunderstorm of anger and frustration. Her unmasked magic thrummed with a distinct, nausea-inducing energy that I would never mistake or overlook a second time.
The demon eagerly turned its attention to its archenemy, gouging the ground before me with its front claws.
“Marking its territory,” Blackwell said, stepping out to stand at Win’s side.
Seeing him so enraptured by the transformation of the demon, I realized that it hurt to see Blackwell so easily and casually aligned with my grandmother. I wouldn’t have thought myself attached to the sorcerer, but apparently Henry was right. No matter, though. That attachment could be easily undone.
I’d lost so many relationships in my twenty-one years that I didn’t bother to count them anymore.
“Apparently, everyone except me has a seriously short memory,” I called out, shoving the brooch into my back pocket as I retrieved my phone. “And I’m the only one haunted by the future in which all of you are slaughtered and eviscerated by this very demon.”
Henry snorted. “Don’t call 911.”
“Ember needs an ambulance —”
“I repeat my request.” Win flicked her platinum whip threateningly. “Give me the brooch and I won’t slaughter your ill-chosen friends. Starting with your mentor, Mot Blackwell.”
“Crap,” I said. “I’m not supposed to claim the whip too, am I? I’m pretty wiped.”
Everyone ignored my glibness. I had no idea why I even bothered trying to be witty. People seemed to prefer me sullen and nonverbal. Maybe I just couldn’t pull it off.
“You are misinformed, Kai Win,” Henry said, flipping his golden handcuffs in his right hand, “as to the oracle’s mentor.”
Win cast a withering look at Blackwell.
“I never laid claim to any relationship other than friendship.” Blackwell’s tone was flat. But on the word ‘friendship,’ he met my gaze.
I tried to look indignant in his direction. Geas or no geas, I wasn’t accepting an offhand remark in lieu of an actual apology.
“Are you going to enlighten me, marshal?” A smug smile had replaced Win’s ire. “Before or after I acquire your remarkable handcuffs … and your only real claim to any sort of remotely interesting magic?”
“The far seer of the guardians and his apprentice have been known to walk the earth at Rochelle Hawthorne’s side. Do you think either of them will look favorably on any attempt against her life? Or on threats against the lives of her friends?”
Disbelief flashed across Win’s face. Then she barked out a laugh that rang dully through the night-shrouded trees.
Silence fell. I could hear Ember’s soft, slow breathing.
Now? the demon whispered in my mind. It curled around my back, flattening its head in my grandmother’s direction.
I shook my head.
Never? it asked.
I didn’t answer.
“Dragons!” Win laughed harshly again. “Are you attempting to school me in morality with children’s stories and mythology lessons? Ridiculous.”
No one responded. She glanced at Blackwell, then looked back at me. The condescension and anger faded from her face. “Mot?”
“The marshal speaks the truth.”
“And you are still standing? With the blood on your soul? What mythical guardian would set its sights on you, then walk away?”
Blackwell shifted his head as if he was stretching his neck. “I suppose I must be thankful that I’ve not come under any guardian’s direct gaze. Yet.”
“I’ll not be lied to.”
“A feat you know I’m not capable of.”
Beau silently jogged out of the trees to my left, moving for the circle. But he stumbled to a halt as the demon stepped between us possessively.
“Oh,” he said. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
He raked his gaze over me, checking for injuries. He was shirtless and breathing hard, but his henna tattoo was still intact. He hadn’t transformed. He cast a measured gaze at Win and Blackwell across the clearing, Henry to my right, and Ember propped up just behind me.
Then he nodded his head. “So … the demon’s on our side now?”
“Apparently,” Henry said, heavy on the sarcasm.
“And you’re just standing around chatting with them?” Beau jerked his head toward my grandmother and Blackwell.
“No one expects you to speak, shifter,” my grandmother said with a sneer. “Your more alluring traits obviously lie elsewhere.”
Now? the demon said.
“Not yet,” I muttered.
Now!
“Not unless it’s a last resort.”
“Rochelle?” Though he kept his attention on Win and her undulating whip, concern over my one-sided conversation was laced through Beau’s question.
Want blood of enemy. Want now.
I reached out and laid my hand on the demon’s head. It curled around me and began to purr, the vibration shooting up my arm to set my teeth on edge.
“Okay there, oracle?” Henry asked.
“Yep,” I forced myself to answer. “Time to get Ember to a hospital.”
“Past time,” Beau growled.
Yes. Now.
I almost let the demon go.
I wanted to let the demon go.
Blackwell met my gaze across the clearing. A look of actual concern flashed across his face. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“I don’t forgive you,” I hissed.
The sorcerer grinned. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
He grabbed Win’s upper arm.
My grandmother was outraged by the unwanted contact. “Unhand —”
“We can’t continue this fight, Kai Win,” Blackwell said, cutting off the command he’d otherwise be forced to obey. “Not without fulfilling the vision. And we’ve already seen who the demon eats first. You.”
Win turned her glare on me. She was livid. I couldn’t imagine how pissed she would have been if I had set the demon on her ass.
They disappeared. Blackwell had apparently triggered his amulet without Win’s approval.
“Finally.” Henry pivoted, dropping to one knee by Ember and checking her pulse.
The demon homed in on him as he moved, but didn’t leave my side.
“I’m here,” she whispered. “I’ve been awake for a while. Biding my time. You know, until you needed me.”
Henry laughed. “I think you’ve done enough to secure Rochelle’s business and undying gratitude. Beyond her lifetime. Your children’s children will be dining out on what you’ve earned tonight.”
Ember scowled. “Kids? Ah, that ruins it.”
I looked over at Beau. He shrugged, then eyed the demon as it prowled across the clearing and sniffed all around where Win and Blackwell had been standing.
“So …” he said. “You tamed a demon?”
“Um, no. Not exactly.”
“Is it just me, or does it look different?”
“Yes,” Henry said, not sounding at all amused.
“I gather that’s bad?” I said.
“I have no idea,” the marshal said. “But it can’t be good. It’s a demon.”
“Send it home, Rochelle,” Ember said weakly. “You need to allow it to return home, then you need to never call it again … except don’t mention that part.”
“Just tell it to return home?”
“I would suggest we move out of the way,” Ember said. “So we aren’t perceived as an ongoing threat … or dinner. But … I can’t actually move myself.”
Beau stepped over and scooped the witch up in his arms without effort. She stifled a scream of pain.
The demon whipped its head in her direction. Now?
I swallowed, steeling myself against the creature’s invasive thoughts. “You’re right, it needs to go.”
“I’m sorry, Rochelle,” Ember whispered.
“What? Why? You seriously saved our asses.”
“Except … you’re tied to the demon now.”
“I’m pretty sure the blame for that lands squarely on my grandmother.”
Ember sighed, closing her eyes. “It’s worse now. The brooch is a responsibility. A legacy you can’t sell or dissolve.”
“So we destroy the brooch,” Henry said.
I pressed my hand possessively against my back pocket before I’d even thought to move it. Beau eyed me. I forced myself to drop my hand.
Ember shook her head. “Why do you think such things are collected and locked away by the Convocation, or the League, or whomever? They can’t be destroyed. So … I’m sorry, Rochelle.”
I nodded, ignoring the disconcerting flood of relief that had settled over me at her words. Apparently, the very idea of destroying the brooch made me apprehensive. That couldn’t be a good sign.
Beau carried Ember to the edge of the trees. Henry followed. Then they paused, looking back at me.
“You can go home now,” I said, facing the demon.
It lifted its wide head to regard me with its crimson eyes.
Blood of my blood.
I shuddered at the satisfaction I heard in its voice.
Blood of my blood, it said again, insistent.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Now go. Go home. Don’t come back until I call you.”
The demon opened its jagged-toothed maw in mimicry of a smile. Then it slowly faded away into the darkness.
I felt oddly bereft for a moment. Then I sought out Beau. Pinning my gaze on him with determination, I crossed through the dark night until I could wrap my hand around his arm and walk away from a vision thwarted.
If it had been thwarted.
∞
We raced Ember to Kelowna General Hospital in Henry’s rental car, rather than Ember’s Smart car, which couldn’t seat all four of us. We immediately nixed the idea of going to the small hospital in Summerland, because we were fairly certain Ember was going to need surgery. Henry sat in the back with the witch stretched out on his lap, singing quietly to her. Turned out that he was muttering healing charms learned from his mother. The spells were customarily used to mend minor bruises and scrapes — such as the ones a hyper kid like Henry had probably dealt with on a daily basis — but the marshal figured any extra healing he could offer would be beneficial.
Beau drove, so the forty-minute trip took only thirty minutes. I kept my eyes off the road, desperately hoping the whole time that he remembered the highway well enough to drive so much over the speed limit.
En route, we tried to figure out how to present ourselves so as to make it less obvious that we’d all just been in a battle with a demon and two evil sorcerers. Then, when we accepted that wasn’t going to happen, we texted Gary and Tess with a list of clothing for Beau and Henry. At Beau’s behest and using his phone, I also texted updates to Eddie, Kandy, and Audrey.
Because I was the least bloody and grubby of all of us, I scored a wheelchair for Ember and escorted her through the emergency entrance. It was helpful that my tattoos apparently worked on nonmagicals as well as Adepts to help me avoid drawing attention to myself. Though I had a feeling that was for completely different reasons.
The emergency intake nurses took one look at Ember’s leg and carted her off. I didn’t even get a chance to offer up the ‘we got drunk and tried to climb a tree’ story we’d all settled on in the car.
I was pacing uselessly around the tiny waiting area, which was pretty much just a series of mismatched metal-and-plastic-wrapped chairs strung along a sickly green hall, when Tess swooped in. She crushed me in a hug without asking for permission first. Apparently, early morning calls from the emergency ward tore through all those overly familiar barriers pretty quickly. But though I was still feeling numb about everything that had occurred, I definitely squeezed her back.
She held me at arm’s length, gave me the once-over, then nodded as if she was satisfied that I’d survive.
“Beau and Gary went back to Summerland to get the Brave,” she said. Then, before I could ask for further explanation, she marched off and interrogated the first person she could find about Ember.
I slumped into a chair and continued waiting.
The hospital was quiet, and completely different than any other city hospital I’d ever had the unfortunate experience of waiting for a foster sibling in before. Except for that weirdly stagnant antiseptic smell and the annoyingly bright lights. Those were apparently universal.
Henry joined me shortly after Tess disappeared. He’d replaced his shredded shirt with a blue short-sleeved T-shirt, but he was still moving slowly, attempting to hide any injuries he’d sustained at my grandmother’s hands.
“Shouldn’t you check yourself in?” I asked.
He shook his head, carefully lowering himself into the chair beside me. “Nah. Ember should be okay. Tess says they have her in surgery for the break.” He glanced around, making sure no one was within hearing range. “They’ll have to give her blood, and it’ll affect her magic. Dilute her natural healing factors, but not as badly as it would for a sorcerer or shapeshifter. If it wasn’t for the leg, she would have just toughed it out until she could find a healer. Like I will.”
“Beau?”
“Beau and Gary are getting the Brave and dropping off Gary and Tess’s rental car. You four are going to Vancouver. They insisted. Ember and I will stay and call in a cleaning crew if necessary. And a healer for certain. Though I’m not sure there’s much to clean up.”
Putting aside that everyone was making plans without me again, I zeroed in on my most immediate concern. “What did you tell Tess and Gary?”
“Same story, just more players. That we got drunk, were fooling around, and things got out of control.”
“With my grandmother?”
He snorted. “Tempers got heated. Some nasty things were said, and you asked Win and Blackwell to leave.” He turned to me, then winced in pain. “You know they can’t know, right? It’s a fine line you’re walking with them.”
“Which is why we need to leave before you call any witches?”
Henry grimaced, but nodded.
“What if they already know? Gary and Tess?”
“Explicitly?”
“They aren’t stupid. Tess in particular. I don’t want anyone screwing around with their heads. In Southaven, Blackwell said something about how witches take care of stuff like this. It sounded as though their taking care of it comes with bad side effects for nonmagicals.”
Henry shook his head, thinking. “You’d have to claim some familial connection or prior knowledge … some magical connection … or …”
“Or what?”
“You’d have to … claim them.”
“Claim them, like how. Like … land or property?”
“Yeah, like servants, really. It’s an old loophole, and I’m not sure the Convocation would let you get away with it. Except you do have an in with Jade.”
“Jade’s on the Convocation?”
“Her grandmother, Pearl, is the chair. Not that I’m really supposed to know that. She’s not the sorcerers’ League official liaison. And Adepts like their secrets.”
“I’m not sure you can call my connection with Jade an in.”
Henry side-eyed me. “I’ve barely met the woman, but Kandy knows her well. She’s not going to turn down any request from you. I’d keep your mouth shut around the guardians, though. It’s a lifetime contract, and that sort of thing — even if claimed solely to protect someone — wouldn’t fly with them. They’d prefer to remove the problem rather than encourage morally questionable behavior. Honestly, I have no idea how Blackwell still walks the earth.”
“He’s beneath their notice,” I muttered.
“He’d better hope so. But his connection with you … and Jade … makes that position very tenuous. I just hope …”
“What?”
“I hope it makes him a better person.”
Tess came hustling around the corner. Henry levered himself out of his seat, crossing toward her. They met a few feet down the hall. Henry bowed his head, listening and smiling as Tess filled him in. Her expression was determined, and her hand gestures were expansive. She was in her element.
I knew that we had put Gary and Tess in a terrible position, just by being friendly and maintaining a relationship with them. But I was insanely glad they were here for us, and for Ember.
I just felt really, really tired. Drained, and with a generous dose of need-to-be-babied. Though I’d never admit that out loud. And I really, really hoped that Beau would show up soon.
∞
When Beau and Gary finally returned with the Brave, it was after eight in the morning. I’d been propped up in the hard plastic chair, sleeping fitfully on and off for over three hours. Beau settled down beside me without a word. I rested my head on his shoulder, wrapped my hand around his bulging bicep, and managed to sleep deeply for another thirty minutes or so.
The scene in the orchard started playing out in my head over and over again, forcing me awake. And the brooch in my back pocket was feeling heavy — malignant, yet compelling. I tugged it free of my jean pocket, wanting to see and touch it, then immediately wanted to throw it away.
“I almost gave in,” I whispered to Beau. “I almost used the demon against Win. I wanted to do it.” I looked down at the brooch I was rolling between my fingers, jabbing each fingertip with the pointy edges of the ivy.
Beau turned his head to look at me. He’d been leaning his head back against the sickly-green wall of the hospital corridor, trying to nap. “I know.”
His acknowledgment only increased the anxiety pooling in my belly.
“But you didn’t,” he added. “That’s what makes us different … from Cy, from Win … from Blackwell.”
I shifted in my seat so I could shove the brooch away in my back pocket. I wasn’t completely certain I was the person Beau was describing. I also wasn’t certain he thought so either — since he’d so quickly identified me as the woman in my mother’s drawing. But if I pushed the conversation, I knew he would admit as much to me — because when really pushed, we didn’t lie to each other.
Even though some part of me wanted to be lied to.
I understood how messed up that was. But first Ember arriving, then Win, had really screwed with our lives. Yeah, it had all been just waiting to happen, but I found myself wishing that the scales hadn’t been tipped three days ago. Another year or two of stability would have been nice. Well, my idea of stability.
“I’m actually upset about leaving the chickens,” I muttered.
Beau instantly wrapped his arm around my shoulders, tugging me close to his warm chest.
I felt bad, just for a fleeting moment, for playing the woe-is-me card. Then I remembered that Beau liked comforting me as much as I needed to be comforted. And not just about the chickens.
Though they were my responsibility.
“We’ll come right back,” Beau said. “Leanne and Eddie will look after the chickens while we’re away. We’ll get Tess and Gary home. Then we’ll spill our guts to Kandy, and she’ll mediate with Jade. They’ll send Win a formal reprimand … or whatever the guardians do. And we’ll be back in time to help Leanne and Eddie open for the long weekend.”
“What if Win comes looking for me again in Summerland? And I’m not there?”
“Even if she’s stupid enough to look for you while you’re in control of her demon, she won’t go to Summerland. Most sorcerers aren’t dumb enough to tangle with the pack. In fact, we probably played into her hand without realizing it by having the Thompsons leave. We leveled the playing field.”
“It got the kids out of harm’s way.”
“Right.” Beau brushed his fingers down the snake henna tattoo I’d drawn on my right arm. The dried dye flaked off underneath his touch. “We’ll go back. If Summerland is where you want to be.”
“And all the piles of property and money that Ember’s uncovered?”
Beau shrugged. “You sell it. Buy yourself a big hunk of land somewhere.”
“No. Not me. We. We buy a big hunk of land somewhere.”
Beau nodded, swallowing hard.
“We build a house and a chicken coop,” I said. “With a garage big enough to get the Brave under cover in the winter.”
“Okay.” Beau nodded again. “I wasn’t going to ask you this … not right now, I mean. But …”
Henry and Tess hustled around the corner toward us. Beau shut his mouth and straightened in his chair.
“She’s fine,” Tess said. “They think the leg will be okay. Months of healing, of course. But okay.”
I rose out of my seat, happier than I would have imagined. I’d been concerned about the witch, of course. But still, the degree of my relief surprised me.
Maybe I was unknowingly getting attached to people. That was something to think about later.
“Can we see her?” I asked. “Before we leave?”
“Technically, it isn’t visiting hours,” Tess said. “They’ve been trying to stonewall us, but Ember listed Henry as her emergency contact, so they’ve had to talk to him.”
“I think you should go,” Henry said. “I know it’s early. But, ah …” He glanced at Tess, who was watching him closely. “I think you should put some distance between you and Summerland.”
“You really think that Win will cause a fuss … again, if we stay one more day?” Tess asked.
“Let’s not risk it.” Henry eyed me expectantly. “Right, Rochelle?”
I nodded, because I couldn’t think of any lie that would smooth the situation. I didn’t want Tess and Gary anywhere near Win. Getting on the road, then staying safe in Vancouver, was the best option.
“Though you two could fly back,” I said.
Tess lifted her chin. “We’re perfectly fine in the Brave, thank you. I have some marking to do, and Gary has his iPad. It’s only a four-hour drive. Indulge our nostalgia.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Henry drawled. Then he tipped his hat in her direction.
She smiled at him, then touched my shoulder lightly. “We’ll wait in the parking lot.”
Tess hustled off down the hall without waiting for my acknowledgement.
“I like her,” Henry said. “You know, for a nonmagical.”
“Right. For a human.” I laid on the sarcasm.
He grinned. “The Convocation will provide a healer. It’s nothing instantaneous, of course, but it’ll get Ember walking. A few records will need to be doctored, which, of course, Ember can do herself. This kind of break usually takes multiple surgeries for a nonmagical, but I imagine we’ll be in Vancouver in a couple of days.” He looked at Beau. “The pack will want to send up a couple of enforcers if you aren’t here.”
Beau nodded. “Audrey is sending Lara and another wolf I haven’t met yet. The Thompsons are already on their way back to Summerland, or about to be.”
“So … we’re just leaving?” I was feeling completely unsettled for some reason, even though I was actually getting my way for a change.
“Yep,” Henry said. “Your elders have spoken.”
I snorted.
Beau shook Henry’s hand. The sorcerer leaned into him reassuringly. “Blackwell won’t come anywhere near Vancouver.”
“Why?” I asked. “What are you worried about?”
“The geas,” Beau said. Then he shoved his hands in his pockets and wandered after Tess without elaborating.
I looked at Henry. “He’s afraid Blackwell will snatch me if Win tells him to?”
The marshal watched Beau thoughtfully. “Yep. Mot Blackwell traded a lot to train with your grandmother. I hope it was worth it for him, but I would hazard a guess that it was his family that benefited the most and now he’s tied to Kai Win … till death.”
“Adepts are always obsessed with the accumulation of power. So there’s no reason Blackwell’s family would be any different than Beau’s, or mine apparently. Other than having more money.”
Henry looked surprised. “Not always, Rochelle.”
I let the subject drop. Henry, Beau, and I had obviously had very different childhoods and therefore very different understandings of how families treated each other.
“Will the demon come back?” I asked instead. “Say, if I just think about it at the wrong time or place?” Between the skirmish in the orchard and having to race Ember to the hospital, I’d barely been able to think about the ramifications of binding the demon at all. “My expert on contracts is kind of out of commission.”
“I doubt it’s that easy,” Henry said. “But I don’t have experience or personal history to reference. The magic in my family is young. Darkness can hit at any time, of course. But I suspect centuries of accumulating power make it more difficult to resist. I’ll ask Ember to text you. I’m fairly certain you can’t call it during the day. I don’t think it can stand sunlight.”
“Right.” I probably should have known that. From the visions.
“Don’t call it, Rochelle,” Henry said, terribly serious all of a sudden. “It’s not worth your soul.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said, turning away from the sorcerer and his moral high ground. “But is it worth my life?”
Henry didn’t answer. But then, I wasn’t really waiting around to continue the conversation.
“Rochelle,” he called from a half-dozen steps away.
I turned back to look at him but kept on walking sideways.
He tapped his chest, right over the henna tattoo I’d drawn for him. “Let’s make it permanent. Please.”
“I know just the place,” I said, grinning. “Meet me in Vancouver. We’ll get inked together.” I lifted my right arm, showing off my henna snake.
“Looking forward to it.” He tipped his cowboy hat in my direction. “And oracle? Thank you.”
I nodded, turning away and crossing through the glass of the emergency-ward doors into the morning sun.
I had wanted to say something glib about our debt — from when Henry helped us through the situation with Beau’s family — being evened out, or void, or something. But I was pretty sure that Henry, along with Ember, had just almost sacrificed themselves attempting to keep me out of Win’s clutches.
Yeah, the demon, the whip, and the cloak were pretty bright signposts, even to someone who was supposedly blind to her own future. Or perhaps the correct term was destiny.
A possible destiny envisioned by my own mother, captured in black ink on paper. And possibly thwarted by her death.
Except what if it hadn’t been thwarted?
What if it had simply been delayed, and what had happened last night had been another possible divergent point?
Was destiny like that? Signposts on every corner? A loop back, then around and forward? Over and over, never ending until we died? What was it Chi Wen had said to me in Oregon? ‘Destiny is immutable. The future is fluid.’
So then maybe destiny couldn’t be thwarted. Not really. It could just be avoided, each and every single day. Did it come down to the smallest of choices? Or did I have to worry only about the big-picture questions?
Questions like: How far was I willing to go to protect the people I loved? How far was I willing to go to survive?
I already knew I wasn’t a hero or a coward. So did that inherently make me a villain? How big a step would it take to cross that divide, to join my grandmother on the other side?
I’d bet heavily that Win would have proclaimed that anything and everything she’d ever done was for her loved ones. For the betterment of her family’s lives. That she didn’t see herself as the villain, not even remotely.
The Brave was sprawled across four spaces on the far side of the parking lot. Beau was standing near the nose of the RV, looking back toward the hospital for me. He held his hand over his brow, shielding his eyes from the low but already intense sun.
I smiled at him and picked up my pace.
I wasn’t sure I could ever pay back the kind of debt I was accumulating — to Henry, to Ember. Even to Blackwell. I wasn’t sure I was going to win the war against my destiny.
But I’d keep putting one foot in front of the other until I couldn’t any longer. At least I was good at that part.