He nodded.
“Anything?”
He shook his head. “No. Nothing. No echoes of her at all.”
I gave him a few moments before pressing. “And the second coin?”
“That, I gave to a contact of mine. He has fingers in a lot of pies. In case he had heard anything.”
“Had he?”
“No.”
“Did the woman you ripped off, the one you were supposed to deliver the coins to, put a bounty on your head?”
“Not yet, but...” He sort of toasted his mug toward the window. “I’ve had to work to stay ahead of Fate.”
“Why are you running from Fate?”
“You’re a clever woman, Ricky. I’m gonna give you one guess who those three coins, threepowerfulcoins, belonged to.”
“Well, crap,” Valentine said.
I wasn’t slow, but it had been a bit of a roller coaster morning, and I’d only just had a cup of coffee. That was my only excuse for not putting two and two together more quickly.
“You stole coins fromFate?” I didn’t mean to shout, but really, how stupid could he be? “How stupid can you be?”
“Stupid or duped?” he countered.
“Stupid! You should have felt the god power rolling off that envelope from a mile away.Tenmiles away.”
“I did. And...I didn’t care.”
I groaned. “Okay, you knew it was god power, and you took it anyway.” I stood. “Out. I don’t need this mess. Not after... Not now. I’m busy. I have a shop to build.”
He looked up at me, the morning light soft and pink as rose petals. It bathed him in an otherworldly beauty.
In this light, it was easy to see the supernatural in him. The magic of his gaze, the charm of his smile. But there were too many shadows clinging to him.
Looking at him—really looking at him—I realized the cut of his cheeks was too sharp, and his eyes were smudged with dark circles of exhaustion. He had been on the run and living hard.
But then, he was almost always on the move, and living hard wasn’t all that difficult for a creature connected to the earth, to the soil, to their home tree that fed them strength and vitality.
Not to mention he was also a wizard with magic to sustain him.
“She found her,” he said, desperation tightening his words. “Fate. She found my tree.”
There wasn’t much that could shock me anymore. I lived in a place that literally called old, strange magic to my doorstep.
I’d dined with werewolves, hunters, monsters, gods, and demigods. I’d counseled banshees, befriended ghosts. I’d fought the Hush, that old evil that writhed in the dank and dark of Missouri’s caverns.
The fear and sorrow in Card’s voice was new, though. He was desperate. He was drowning. And he had come here hoping I’d throw him a lifeline.
Like the one he’d once thrown me.
I closed my eyes and breathed. My bare feet were solid on the wood floor, my fingertips rested on the old scarred table top where friends and family and strangers had gathered.
The Crossroads hummed around me, all those magics warring for a moment, responding to my pain, my anger, my worry.
