ChapterFive
I tooka deep breath and held it, willing the tumble of emotions to settle down. Card stirred things in me I thought I’d left behind years ago.
But there was no going back, no changing the fact that he had left me.
This, him showing up, was just a blip in the tick and tock of my long, long life.
I reminded myself that he was only here because he was desperate. He was only here for his tree. He was only here because he knew I had rules that included helping people.
He also knew, or at least suspected, that I had enough decency to not throw him to the wolves.
Years ago, he had saved my life, put his own on the line to do so. I had liked him. Then I had loved him. For his patience, his persistence, for his spark of unexpected trickery that somehow both excited me and made me feel safe.
I followed rules.
He broke them.
We pretty much covered the bases of any situation. I loved his impulsiveness, his wild schemes.
I’d thought he had loved my steady reason, my logic, my predictability.
But maybe that had all been illusion and I’d been a fool. A man who lies to Fate’s face isn’t someone to trust.
“You want me to keep an eye on him?” Val asked as he drifted out of the shadows, his ghost wolf padding along with him. “Or do you want me to watch Fate?”
“I’m not worried about Fate yet,” I said. “Please watch Card.”
He hesitated. “Are you okay, Ricky?”
“Yeah. No.” I gave him a smile, hoping it wasn’t too pathetic. “Old history is a bitch sometimes. But it is what it is.”
“If you need someone to talk to, you know I got nothing but time on my hands. Or, if you’d like, I could go practice my poltergeist tricks. Maybe hit him in the head with a can of tuna.”
I grinned and this time it felt real. “Thanks for the offer, but no tuna concussions. I need his brain intact for the next twenty-four hours or so. Ask me again after noon tomorrow.”
“Anything else I can do to help?”
“Not unless you know someone who can make the coins appear.”
He looked up and to one side, going through his memories. “I mean, not really. Cupid, I guess, but getting another god involved in this might be bad.”
“Totally bad. No gods.”
“I’ll think it over.”
“Good. I’ll be down soon. Don’t let him steal anything.”
“On it.”
He winked out of existence.
I pressed my palm to the door, letting the house know I needed to step into this private space.
A lick of lavender light bloomed along the edges of invisible symbols embedded in the door. Leaf and tree, stream and stone, star and sun. It was a rough map of the land and boundaries of this Crossroad. Thin fuchsia lines spider-webbed out to connect with the other Crossroads across America and the world.
I pushed the door and stepped into the notion room.
When the Crossroads had belonged to my dad, the room had been dark polished wood, shelves of books, and rich velvet and leather furnishings.
