“Good move.” We stood looking at each other, unwilling to take that next step. “You probably shouldn’t use the transport in the living room.” His voice cracked.
“I’ll make a new one.” I kissed him like it was the last time, my own tears tasting of salt and bitterness, my arms trying to memorize the feel of him.
“It’s just for a few hours, until the meeting is over,” he said. “Once Mace is exposed, Zrakovi will listen to reason. We might even be able to get your uncle to side with us.”
I hoped he was right.
“Destroy the new transport as soon as I’m gone,” I told him, pulling a vial of salt out of my bag and forming a slapdash interlocking circle and triangle on his dining room floor.
I stepped inside and powered it with the staff. “Rivendell,” I whispered, trying to smile at Alex as I felt myself sucked into the transport. Rand wasn’t home, so it was my perfect base of operations.
First, I called Rene. “Change of plans,” I told him, explaining what had happened.
He whistled. “Babe, you are in some shit. You wanna come out to Plaquemines and stay with me till the meeting is over?”
I’d been thinking about it on the way to Rand’s and decided I wasn’t letting Alex throw himself on Zrakovi’s mercy by showing up without me as his prisoner. “No, I’m going to that meeting. It’s almost five. Can you pick me up a block behind Rand’s and we can go on to the park to set up the transport?”
“Sure thing. Give me fifteen minutes. I’m still at the pirate’s suite. Need me to bring anything?”
I thought a second. “Get Eugenie out of there—see if Jean will take her to Barataria to keep her safe. Is Adrian still there? If so, see if he’ll come with you to the museum. He can stay hidden, but if something happens to me, he can make the transport and get Jake out.”
Rene’s voice grew muffled as he talked to whoever was still in the Monteleone suite. “He’ll do it. And, DJ. Ain’t just gonna be Jake we’re gettin’ out.” He spoke a few more muffled words, then, “We’re not leaving you there if things go bad.”
I let the tears fall as I ended the call and stuffed the phone back in my pocket. But only for a minute. It had never occurred to me that I might actually be forced to leave for real. When I’d been faced with the loup-garou crisis, Jean had offered me a home in Barataria, where I’d be safe from the wizards and not endanger those around me.
The thought of leaving my house, my job, and, most of all, Alex—those had been the things that made me most desperate. That, and protecting Jake, had been what drove me to agree to Rand’s bonding proposal in the first place.
Rand had done the bonding out of greed and the desire for power. I’d done it out of love—not for him, but for my life and the people in it.
I laughed a little as I picked out another garden-flag babushka scarf for my walk to meet Rene. My house across the street was gone. Within a few hours, my job might be gone. Maybe even my freedom. Alex would do what he could, but I wouldn’t let him throw everything away to save me if it came down to it.
Then my wallow in self-pity took a hard veer to the left. I wasn’t a run-of-the-mill wizard and I needed to stop thinking of myself that way. The Elders could strip away my wizard’s certification. They might even be able to strip away my limited physical magic. But I doubted anyone in Edinburgh’s hallowed wizarding halls had a clue how to get rid of my elven magic. I had skills they didn’t know about, as well as one righteous elven staff.
It made me stronger, and it made me a bigger target.
I rambled around Rand’s greenhouse and pinched off a few herbs, just in case I needed to make a potion on the fly. Then I slipped out the back door and walked as fast as I could back toward Tchoupitoulas Street and the river. I saw Rene’s black pickup waiting and wasted no time climbing inside.
“You okay, babe?” He reached across the front seat and pulled me into a hug.
“Rene, if you don’t stop being nice to me I’m going to cry.”
“Damn, don’t want that.” He pulled carefully onto the road, skidding into an icy U-turn, and drove toward the Quarter. “So shut up and fasten your seat belt, witch.”
I laughed and watched the white world glide slowly by as the snow crunched under the tires of his heavy truck.
“So what’s the next step?” Rene asked. “The pirate took Eugenie to his house, then he’s gonna meet us at the council meeting. What are you gonna do?”
“Get Jake’s escape hatch set up,” I said. “And then get myself arrested by one surprised enforcer.”
CHAPTER 30
The entrance to City Park was barricaded, with a sign announcing that Celebration in the Oaks was canceled this evening due to weather. About half of the sign was already covered in snow. The closure made our job both easier and harder. Easier because there were no humans around; harder because there were no humans around. Rene and I were the only things moving.