She laughed at his dry humor, knowing better what it was now.Also that gave her an idea.“Hey Goldilocks—you know Santa’s Village?”
“You want a shortcut to it?”
“Please and thank you.”
The ley line shifted, careening abruptly to the right, and she followed it, Katu bouncing over the magical equivalent of potholes in the hastily constructed ley line.The ground beneath, salted to prevent exactly this kind of thing, resisted Dy’s sorcery in fits and starts, sending Katu flying into the air to jounce down again.“I hate your world,” Azul gritted out.
“Technically this is your world, not mine,” Cha replied, though privately she agreed with the major level of suckage at the moment.It was too jolting to even be exciting.
“Obsidian is no more my world than yours,” Azul said with a sneer she didn’t need to see.
The tourist village rushed toward them, in all its fanciful gingerbreading and tinkling music, the narrow, rainbow-cobblestoned streets thronged with tourists.“This will be a treat,” Cha noted.
Dy’s ley line threaded them straight for the main street, the law-hounds doing their best to crawl up Katu’s ass, shouting orders and sending up sparkly flares.Fortunately, the show alerted the people—human families and fae shopkeepers and performers alike—of their high-speed arrival.The music squealed up to a glass-shattering pitch of alarm, then cut off, replaced by the screams of scattering people.Katu shot past colorful stalls selling ribbons, horns, wings and assorted other souvenirs.“Need anything—new wings, maybe?”she asked Azul, sparing him a sly sideways grin.
“Cute,” he answered huffily.“My own are much better.”
“I’ll say.”
Behind them, the fae law-hounds slowed—not because they cared about not hitting the people, but because the ley line was breaking up—and one skidded sideways abruptly as one end of the carriage hit a null spot while the other had a hold of a bit of ley line still.The carriage careened into a stall full of false wings, sending up a cloud of rainbow glitter along with an Obsidian fae rider, then abruptly popped into lion form.The lion shook herself, roared her displeasure, and promptly took off chasing a screaming human.
“Oops,” Cha said to the rear-view.Couldn’t be helped though.Katu was mostly going on momentum at this point, Cha basically bouncing him from one point of ley magic to the next, like a rock skipping over a pond.She aimed for the shortest cut through to the parking ley, hoping they could make it.“Once we’re past the crowd, drop the cloak,” she told Azul.
“Got it.”
“Here we go.”Urging Katu into a last skip through the decaying ley line, Cha pushed him up and over a magic slide in the kiddie playland, taking advantage of the extra boost to send him flying through the air to land with a bang on the parking ley.Slow black is slow, but at least it was steady, unlike the patchy shit that was all that remained of Dy’s impromptu ley line.With any luck, Dy had made it around the depot and even now cruised down the Black Thirteen to the border.
Navigating the molasses-slow parking ley, Cha kept one eye out for kids popping out from behind parked cars—something that happened with unnerving frequency—and popped on their private Amethyst channel.“Shook the tail in fantasyland,” she reported.“You clear?”
“Free and clear, sailing down the noir one-three to the BX,” Dy replied.“I’ve got some extra juice so I’m leaving some white behind.Quite the party here.”
“Excellent.Catching up.”
“Translation, please?”Azul inquired on a drawl.
“Dy is adding Moonstone white to the Black Thirteen ley line to speed things up.Other ley riders are jumping on the free speed boost.That’s a good thing,” she added with a glance at him.So pretty, with his hair disarrayed by the ruffling breeze, golden late morning light dancing over him.“If everyone is exceeding the standard ley speed, then it makes it harder for the law hounds to pick out any one violator.”
“Then we’re on the ideal side of the equation?”
“Not quite yet, but getting there.”
As she tore her gaze away, Cha contemplated that “ideal” was the last word she’d use to describe how this had all played out.Translation: shitty situation normal for her.
~42~
All Fucked Up and Nowhere to Go
Dy’s white gotthem across the border lickety-split.In no time, it seemed, Cha was veering off to the side ley that led to Lenorae’s family manor, promising to meet Dy at the fence Phinny had arranged.
“Remember that invitation, Prince Charming,” Dy said via the path-box.“You’re welcome to visit any time, as long as you don’t mind children.Dirty ones, I should warn you.”
“I’ll remember that,” Azul replied, a bemused half smile ghosting over his lips.
“I would say the thing, but I know I can’t say it,” Dy added.“Just know it means everything to me that you pulled Bandit out.”
“It does to me, too.”Azul tapped the box off.
“We’re coming up on where I picked you up,” Cha noted, trying to sound casual and not at all emotional about that conversation, or the prospect of saying goodbye to Azul forever.“Remember that you’re directing me.”
