At my look, he had the good grace to give me a wry smile. “Beyond me being here now and holding this coin. But the Crossroads accepts him. His tree came from that land. I want to give you the coin, or give it to Card, although I’m not all that convinced he wouldn’t use it to pay off someone else.”
“He won’t,” I said. “I won’t let him. We’re handing the coins back to Fate.”
“She’s there? I thought I could reach you before... Well, it doesn’t matter. I have the coin. Tell me how you want me to get it to you, then you’ll have two of the coins. You said the other is still missing?”
“Card says he hid it, so if it’s still at that location, and we can get to it, we should be able to handle this in time.”
“Fate gave you a deadline?”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
He scowled but nodded. “How do you want me to get the coin to you?”
“Where are you?”
“Elwood.”
That was just over an hour away. Easy to get to him, easy to get back. But I didn’t want to leave Card here alone. And I didn’t want to send him to my dad either. Who knew what deal the two of them would try to make?
There was no way in hell I was inviting my father to my land, my home, either.
“You can send Card my way,” Dad suggested. And there was something behind it, a casualness that set off warning bells.
“You made a deal with Stel, didn’t you?”
His eyes widened. It was either actual shock on his face or a very good acting job. “No, I did not. How can you accuse me of that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. It’s not like there’s anything you’ve done in the past to make me suspect every word that falls out of your mouth.”
“Our past has nothing to do with this.”
“Like hell it doesn’t.”
He opened his mouth, ready to really get into it.
The earth shook. The room flickered. Items appeared and disappeared, magic zinged from wall to wall. Half-broken calls of bells and crystals rang out.
Something was wrong with the Crossroads. Something was very wrong.
“What the shit?” I jolted to my feet.
My dad popped out of existence. The ink that covered and flowed over my skin caught fire. I focused on the unbreakable connections between me and the house, the land.
The Crossroads was panicking, magic coming unhoused, unsorted, and flinging itself against the boundaries of the place as if it were trying to escape.
Or defend.
I kicked off my shoes and planted my bare feet on the wooden floor. I pressed both palms on the desktop and centered myself, grounded myself, spearing my will through the house and deep into the ground, holding all this space as my space.
The walls were my skin, the windows my eyes. And all the magic flowing, ragged and powerful, was my blood and will.
Show me, I commanded.
An ocean wave of images poured over me, upside down, sideways, none of them holding long enough for me to make any sense of them.
“Ricky?” Val appeared in the room, this room where not even ghosts were allowed. The door was open, though I hadn’t opened it.
Card swung up to the doorway, his hair a mess, panic brightening his eyes. He stopped just on the other side of the threshold. “What’s happening?”
