Maddy flopped into a chair and groaned. “It’s Abi. She’s refusing to go anywhere with Sebastian.”
“Are you kidding me?” I could feel the familiar irritation building again. “I thought this was all settled. Donatello could call any minute saying he’s ready.”
“I know. She told me she really wanted to grin and bear it, but she can’t. It’s too much for her.”
“Damn it. What other choice does she have? I guess I could try and sneak her out and get her to the airport.”
“Nico, it was probably too dangerous for Sebastian, but I know it’s too dangerous for you. The airport is thirty miles away. That’s a lot of ground to cover. I’ll be honest. I don’t know that it would have been safe in the first place. I want to talk to Sinthy about it.”
I waved my hands in dismissal. “No. We can’t ask more of her. She’s already burning herself out with everything. Plus, if she teleports away, the wards will fall.”
“Maybe she can think of something else. Look what she did today. Surely she can do something to get Abi to the airport safely. After everything we’ve seen her do, that should be an easy ask,” Maddy said. She sounded more hopeful than assured.
“We’ll talk to her,” I said pointedly. “But if Sinthy has any hesitation at all, we call it off. I’m not letting that poor girl kill herself because Abi can’t get her shit together. Deal?”
“Deal. I don’t want Sinthy hurting herself, either.”
When we peeked into Sinthy’s room, she was eating a massive king-sized candy bar. She shrugged when we saw it. “Need carbs. Big spells are super draining. What’s up?”
I sighed and took a seat. “Speaking of big spells?— ”
She brightened. “The other alphas want me to do the whole virtual reality thing?”
I was glad she looked excited about helping. “Umm, I think so. Tiago is going to get in touch with them all. That’s… shit… that’s not exactly what I came to you for today.”
Sinthy looked from me to Maddy and raised an eyebrow. “Something I should know?”
“It’s Abi. We need to find a way to get her to the airport. Donatello is going to hide her because she doesn’t want to be here anymore, and that was the safest thing I could think of.”
Sinthy rolled her eyes. “That guy. So slick and smooth. Nice dude, but not my type. How can I help?”
“We’re trying to figure out how to get her there without having to go through miles of anti-shifters. Do you have any thoughts? Like… I don’t know—can you make her face look different or something?”
Sinthy took another bite of her candy bar and shrugged. “I can just teleport her.”
I frowned. “No, that won’t work. You said if you left the pack lands, your wards would fall.”
She gave Nico an incredulous smile. “Well, duh, but I don’t have to go with her to teleport her.”
I looked at Maddy, and she stared back in wide-eyed surprise. When I looked back at Sinthy’s face, it was obvious she was confused as to why we were confused.
“Wait, did you guys think I had to be present at the arrival and departure points? I don’t. I can send her. It’s even more exhausting that way, but it’s easy enough.”
“Well… damn. I guess we should have asked earlier. Can…” My words trailed off as a thought occurred to me.
Sinthy, reading my mind, shook her head. “Nope. I know what you’re thinking. Won’t work.”
“What was I?— ”
“You want me to teleport Viola here.”
It was like I’d been smacked. The woman was eerie. That was exactly what I’d been thinking. If she could send Abi to the airport, why couldn’t she bring Viola here?
“Umm, why wouldn’t it work?”
Sinthy sighed and set her candy aside. “Teleportation is something that can be used as a weapon. It’s sort of like hypnosis. You have towantto do it. It would be super easy to bring her here and deal with things once and for all. But nothingin life is that easy. Like I can’t teleport us to her until I know where she is.”
“Well, I guess it was a good thought, at least,” I said. “Sinthy, I really don’t want you doing this if it’ll be too much for you. You’ve done so much already.”
