“What price? Where is he? Is he hurt? Angry? Do we need to brace for an attack?”
She chuckled. “Any chance to ignore your own feelings, you take it, don’t you? Not a single second admitting you’re worried for him. Instead you jump to the conclusion that you must protect Ordinary from him. Maybe I should have designed a pair of scissors to determine your worth.”
“Harsh.”
“It’s not Ordinary you’re trying to protect. It’s your heart.”
Here, in this dream, I didn’t have the energy to argue that truth.
“I am very curious as to which truth you will follow—love or fear.” She lifted her hand to get the waitress’s attention. “Humans are so easily misled by both.” She snapped her fingers.
I woke with a jerk. The old wooden beams of the library tea room came into focus at the same moment the scent of warm cookies reached me.
I was still on the couch, covered with the quilt. A little stiff, which meant I’d slept for hours. I wondered why Jean or Delaney hadn’t called, but remembered Delaney and I were taking the night and day off, and Jean wouldn’t bother us unless there was an emergency.
Harold still sat in the chair, reading a large leather-bound book. I had the feeling it was way past morning. My stomach rumbled.
“I warmed the cookies,” Harold said. “And brewed fresh tea.”
I sat, stretched, and rubbed my eyes. “Tea sounds great.”
He put the cup in my reach, the saucer holding two little chocolate-dipped raspberry sugar cookies. I’d picked them up from Hogan’s bakery the other day and stashed them here, partly to keep them out of Shoe’s reach, and partly because I liked a little cookie fortitude when I did research.
Harold knew how to use a mean microwave.
I ate the cookies and finished the tea, thinking over my dream which was not a dream.
“How much would you believe a demon who says she’s telling the truth?”
“That would depend on the demon, the subject, and the situation. Why do you ask?”
I went over my dream. He didn’t ask questions, but made encouraging sounds as I related everything I could remember.
“Would you believe her?” I asked.
“This is a bit beside the question, isn’t it? Let’s take it in steps. Do you believe her?”
“I shouldn’t.”
Hehmmmed.
“I think I do. But that could just be wanting to believe her. Wantingthislie out of all the others to be true.”
“We know he took the scissors from you and used them to free Delaney’s soul.”
“Yes.”
“We know that in doing so he closed the vortex to the Underworld.”
“Yes.” It would be hard for that to have been a trick. I’d been there, and even if my heart or mind wanted to misinterpret the events, I’d seen it with my own eyes.
“He is no longer in Ordinary.”
“Yes. Dragon pig confirmed. But is that enough to trust everything she said?”
“It wouldn’t seem so. Your father did meet with Bathin when he was alive.”
“That’s true?”
