“Aren’t you a cheerful fella?”Elmer asked.
“Yes.Usually.But right now, I want to cover our asses.”
“Fair,” the older man said.“Like I said, there are bolt holes.With strong enough magics to keep us hid.Not a lot of cover otherwise.The highway will get you out.There’s trails off road too, but no real roads or structures, manmade or otherwise.”
“Is there a map?”Card asked.
“Sure.We’ve got video set up on some of it.I’ll show you.”He and Card left the kitchen.I glanced at the wall clock.
“Three,” I said.“Dawn in what, two hours?”
Lu nodded.“It will take us about an hour to get there.You can catch an hour nap.”
“I’ll stay up.”I yawned hugely.“Help plan.”
She tipped her head to the side.The braid, which still had the wild asters twined in it, swung across her back.
“What’s to plan?”she asked.“You and I show up at the rest stop, or behind it in the hills.Headwaters comes.We kill Headwaters.”
“Contingency plan.Plan B.It’s not going to go easily or smoothly.It never does.We don’t know how to control that spell.We’ve never cast it.”
“We cast one of the lost god spells.We can cast this one.”
“No two of those gods are the same.I don’t believe it’s that easy.Releasing a beast, Lu?That’s a hell of a different thing from transforming water bottles into flowers.”
She frowned.I knew I wasn’t telling her anything she hadn’t already thought about.
“You can’t back out on this now, Brogan.”
“If you’re in this fight, I’m in this fight.You don’t walk into danger without me at your side.But,” I bent my head to catch her gaze, “this might be our end, our death.Headwaters tore out our souls and stitched them back together the way he wanted.He knows how we’re made.He knows how to unmake us.
“Maybe using the beast isn’t the best way to go.”
“What other choices do we have?Summon a black hole, which will swallow Earth?Turn the oxygen into diamonds, which will kill us all?Turn water bottles into flowers?We have Cupid’s favor, Raven’s help, Abbi, the hunters, and Card.Do you really think we can’t win?”
She leaned back too, her body more fluid than mine, tucking one leg up on the bench.
“I’m saying if I could drop a dime and call Death, I’d ask if he was going to escort us over the threshold this time.Just in case.Because I refuse to be half-alive and impossibly apart from you again.”
“You want to call Death?”Abbi asked, popping into the room.“I can call Death.”
“Sure,” I said.“You can call Death.”
“He gave me his number.Plus, it’s online.He has a web page!”
“Oh for…” I didn’t believe her.Was too tired to think it through, was too tired to be arguing with Lula on a subject I would never win.
“Fine,” I said.“Call Death and ask him if we die, if he’ll take us together or not at all.I handed her my mobile phone, which I hardly ever used.
Abbi took it and pressed the keypad, then held it to her ear.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
“It’s ringing!”Abbi said, excited.“Hello?Death?”She paused, waiting for an answer.
I shifted on the bench, suddenly more awake.She really was calling Death.On my phone.
“Oh,” she said.“Boo.It’s a voice mail.Okay, wait…Hi!Hi, Than.It’s Abbi moon rabbit, and Brogan and Lula, oh, they’re Brogan and Lula Gauge, I think you met them?You gave Brogan a kite?A dream kite?
