“Austin told me. I haven’t heard any rumors—that’s Patty’s department, and she hasn’t said anything.”
“You never mentioned knowing.”
I shrugged. “Why would I?”
“Because I killed people and buried them in an unmarked grave. That’s alarming behavior.”
I grimaced this time. “I did those things, too. It was in self-defense, but still. You’re in a precarious position with your ancestry, Nelson is an ass, and you’re not worried about taking the moral high ground. I figured you didn’t much care, and given Niamh would do worse…” I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, fine. I see the absurdity in my argument about stealing. It’s just that…the hacker’s a Dick. They have different rules. Their society isn’t loose about stuff like that. He knew it was wrong, and he stole from people anyway.”
“Firstly, you’re back to thinking like a Jane. In our world, his transgressions are so incredibly mild, they aren’t worth thinking about. Stealing? Gargoyles steal all the time and destroy production cairns so they can get ahead. We have a whole set of rules that make stealing and destroying okay. Shifters are saints where that stuff is concerned, but then they’ll kill you if you flirt with their woman. That’s extreme behavior in a different way.”
We pushed through the trees as the fire raged on. I wasn’t sure if Ivy House was intentionally trying to make me sweat or if Cyra was having an effect on those gnome nests. I hoped it was the latter, even though currently, it was the former. My muumuu was uncomfortably damp.
“Second, he steals from large corporations with insurance, the kind of conglomerations that come by their money on thebacks of their underpaid workers. And then he distributes more than half of those funds to charities and people in need. Sure, he’s getting rich as well, but he’s taking all the risk and only hurting organizations. He isn’t hurting Mom and Pop trying to make a living. Even in the Dick world, that doesn’t seem so bad.”
No, it didn’t.
“It’s a big salary,” I said, my last holdout.
We stopped in a small clearing. We’d rise into the sky here and practice summoning everyone for training. They obviously knew it was time, but we needed to work on all facets of battle, not just flight.
“Five hundred grand a year is definitely a lot of money,” Tristan concurred. “We’d also have to harbor a fugitive, though I’m assuming we can alter his identity and make him disappear. Not like N-Nelson would,” he hastily added, “but the guy needs to disappear from the Dick and Jane world, you know. Just, like…change his records so the cops can’t trace him, I mean.” He cleared his throat.
I’d never heard him stammer like that. Maybe hehadn’tbeen so morally ambiguous about some of the stuff he’d done, which made me hate Nelson even more.
“I want to rub Nelson’s face in it,” I said through my teeth as I pulled off the muumuu. “Make an utter fool of him. I want him to regret how he treated me and how he’s currently treating you. With the rumors, I mean. I want to shut him up. If he’s good for that cairn and the people he rules, fine, but I want to knock him down several pegs and then…taunt him. I don’t know. Give him a smug look orsomething.”
Tristan huffed out a laugh. “I hear you. I’ll figure it out. And about the salary… I mean, Jessie, you have a closet full of gold bars and an attic full of precious gems so big, they should probably be in a museum or something. Assuming they weren’t stolen and…well, who knows with this house.” He bentto be on my eye level, his gaze dulled and solemn. “How much is too much when someone can help us save our friends from themselves?”
He was right. I’d pay anything to drag Nessa and Sebastian off the dark road they seemed to be traveling. The two thought they were an island, but they weren’t—not anymore. Sooner or later, Momar was going to figure out they were the ones helping me. If he was good enough to plan that incredible attack on Kingsley, one we’d almost succumbed to, then he’d figure out my secret partner. There could only be a handful of mages powerful enough, and Momar held most of them within his employ. He could also check on those mages in the Guild. If he was half as good as he seemed, he’d piece it together. Maybe he already had and was looking for Nessa and Sebastian now.
I didn’t need to pull away from them, but rather to find them and force them to see reason.
Told you so,Ivy House said smugly, and the fire extinguished.
I said “see reason,” not chain them up and starve them until they help me.
I fail to see the difference…
I rolled my eyes and resumed my focus on Tristan. “Tell Niamh to invite her hacker in. I want a sit-down with him before I invite him into our world. If he’s safe, then we can create some bonus-based incentives to ensure we get the best work out of him. We need to bring our people home.”
I shifted and took to the sky, probably a little late but nearly on time. Probably.
Crap, I was starting to sound like Edgar.
Tristan
He cut through the air on autopilot, his interactions with Jessie during the last hour swirling within his mind. It was no surprise to anyone that he wasn’t filling Nathanial’s role. Everyone thought he was too self-centered, too headstrong, and too used to doing things his own way to be the wingman Jessie desperately needed. But he wanted to surprise them, damn it. He wanted people here to know that he was more than what he seemed—much more. He also wanted to repay Jessie’s faith in him by being her shield, being her power and endurance when she needed it. He didn’t want to shine—he wanted to helphershine.
And he didn’t freaking know how!
At every turn, she surprised him. She went left when he assumed she’d go right. She balked when he talked about financially hurting a cairn, but then wanted the leader tossed out on his ass. She was fine with him killing people because his leader told him to but not okay with a guy stealing. It didn’t make any sense.
Whatdidmake sense was how he felt when he’d stepped in to help her earlier that morning.
Tristan had heard the voices when he was walking down the hall and realized what was going on pretty quickly, but it wasn’t until he noticed Jessie’s tightened frame that he’d intervened without thinking. Sending Ivy House people on their way was child’s play. Dealing with guardians had been so much harder.
His goal had been to afford Jessie some breathing room. He hadn’t expected to be handed control of her schedule,and certainly not her professional well-being. Was Tristan now Jessie’s work-life Mr. Tom? Was this the point at which he needed to randomly create a new name for himself? Call him Weatherby. Mr. Weatherby, if you please.
