One Salt Sea: An October Daye Novel

“Yeah.” He wiped his nose with the back of one hand, looking at me with wide, wounded eyes. “You always were Devin’s favorite. I guess I finally see why.”


“Good-bye, Bucer.” I started for the door. Quentin and Connor followed me, neither of them saying a word. I’m pretty sure they had no idea what they should say. That was fine by me, because I wouldn’t have known how to answer them.

Bucer closed the door behind us.





TWENTY-EIGHT


I WAITED UNTIL WE WERE BACK in the car before I called May. Filling her in only took a few seconds. It would have taken longer, but there were no troops for her to send out, no backup for her to offer. Like it or not, my army was already in the car.

She did try, once, to convince me to call Shadowed Hills. “Let Sylvester send his knights with you,” she begged.

“I can’t wait that long. Etienne can’t open gates for them all—not when we’re not going into a knowe—and if Rayseline’s reached the stage where she’s chopping fingers off the kids she needs to keep alive, who knows what she’s going to do to Gillian.”

May’s silence told me she knew I was right. Finally, she sighed, and said, “Just be careful.”

“If I can,” I said, and hung up. I turned to look at Connor.

“I’m not leaving you, so don’t ask,” he said quietly.

I smiled. “I wasn’t going to. Let me make one more call, and then we’re out of here.” I started to raise the phone again, and stopped as the half-forgotten shell in my jacket pocket began to vibrate. I pulled it out, looking at it in bemusement for a moment before lifting it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Come get me,” said the Luidaeg.

I blinked. “So what, you call me now? This is new.”

“I thought you might appreciate skipping the headache.”

“That’s uncommonly considerate.”

“I have my moments.” The Luidaeg sounded tired. “You’re going to want me for what happens next.”

“Luidaeg, what are you—”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t start keeping tabs on you after the night-haunts came and complained to me about you summoning them again? I heard everything that happened in that apartment, and I’m telling you to come and get me. Now.”

The Luidaeg had neglected to mention her shell could be used as a two-way listening device. Oh, what fun it is, to live in a world where “full disclosure” is something that only happens to other people. “I thought you couldn’t be directly involved.”

“In stopping the war, no. In bringing those kids home . . . yeah. Now stop screwing around and get over here. Don’t worry about the traffic. I’m taking care of it.”

That simple statement was enough to raise a hundred horrific images, some of which wouldn’t have been out of place in a movie about a giant rubber monster rising out of the San Francisco Bay and starting to lay waste to everything in sight. “Luidaeg . . .”

“Not like that. What do you take me for?”

“The sea witch.”

It was her turn to pause, before allowing, “Fair enough. I’ll be outside when you get here. Make it fast.” With that, she was gone. I scowled at the shell before shoving it back into my pocket.

“Looks like we’re making a pickup,” I snarled, and started the car.

“Oh, what fun,” said Connor, deadpan. “Adding the sea witch to today’s field trip is probably the only thing that could make it even better.”

I scowled at him. He shrugged, expression so innocent that I couldn’t help laughing. “Jerk,” I said.

“I have to do something to make you keep me around when this is over.”

I was still laughing when Quentin stuck his head into the front seat, tapping my shoulder to get my attention. “Toby?”

“Yeah?” I glanced his way.

“What you did back there—have you done that before?”

I’d been hoping to put this conversation off for a while. Say, maybe, forever? Forever would have been nice. “Yes,” I said. “Why?”