“Cherishes.”
“Like a stray cat it can’t get rid of.”
“Well, that seals it. It loves me because this place loves taking in stray magic.”
“True.” I reached into the Crossroads.He is a dryad. His tree isn’t here. You can’t just lock him away in one of your rooms and put him on a shelf.
I waited as those complex concepts rolled around through the bits and snips of things in the Crossroads that made up its brain.
Mine.
“Wow,” he said chuckling. “I felt that. Pretty sure I just got adopted by a house.”
“It just wants you for your magic.”
The house instantly agreed, but added more images of Card being happy, his ink connecting me to the Crossroads, his magic the one thing that had saved the house from turning into a ruin.
It wanted his magic, but it alsolikedhim.
“I don’t mind being one of the things it’s decided it can collect,” Card said. “In an emergency, the Crossroads could reach me, maybe even pull me here. But, Ricky, you need to decide if you want me connected to your home this way.” He held up his palm with the infinity sign.
That was such a big question, I just didn’t have it in me to sort logic from emotion. Plus, we still had to deal with Fate’s coins.
“I’ll sleep on it,” I said. “Right now, we need to find two more coins.”
“One coin,” Val said, as he appeared on the porch. “I found your dad. He’s in Joplin now. At a truck stop.”
I was tired. It had been a long day. I didn’t want to leave my house. Not so soon after it had been under attack. Not so soon after someone had tried to shut down its magic. Not so soon after I’d made choices that had changed everything.
Most of all, I didn’t want to see my dad again. In the flesh. He and I had too much history to hash out our grievances in a random truck stop in Joplin.
“My dad’s in Joplin,” I said. Card winced.
“So you know?” he asked.
“Yes. You gave him the coin.” I didn’t ask why he’d gone to my dad before coming to me for help, because I knew why. “I hope you have bail money because I do not like the odds of me facing my dad without it turning into a brawl.”
“I’ll go,” Card said. “Get the coin.”
“How are you going to get there? Magic?” I asked.
“Since I’m the one who got some sleep, I was hoping you’d let me borrow your truck.”
“On one condition.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Val goes with you.”
“Val?”
“He’s a ghost. A friend of mine.”
“So that’s who you’ve been talking to. Is he here right now?”
“Yes. He’ll go with you, and you will return with the coin immediately. Do not pass Go, do not collect any more magical enemies.”
He smiled. “All right. How will I know if Val is with me?”
