He seemed to remember his cooling coffee and lifted the mug for a swallow. “I’ve been looking for her since.”
“And you didn’t ask for my help? You didn’t come here so I could help you find your sister?”
“I screwed up. And was too much of a coward to reach out to clear the air.” His voice held a note of defeat I’d never heard before. “I thought you’d moved on. I wouldn’t have blamed you.”
He wasn’t lying, I could tell from his body language, and also through the thin connection between us.
“Until you stole from Fate.”
“Borrowed. Took advantage of the turn of luck that fell into my hands. I mean, it could have been a blessing in disguise, right? I was—still am—desperate for information, and suddenly Fate’s coins fall out of the sky.”
“Too good to be true. You know that,” I said.
“Yeah.” He toasted with his coffee. “Just a ploy by Stel to drag me back into the unwinnable wizard’s battle. To not being dead yet.”
I toasted with my water glass.
“I want to pay you for this,” he said. “Your kindness. There’s nothing I can do to make the years I left you without any contact right. But I want to do something for your help with the coins. The swamp siren. Stel. Your father. For saving my tree.”
“Is your tree safe from Stel?”
“I’ll know if she tries to do anything to it. If she so much as breathes in its direction, she’ll receive several nasty surprises.”
“So it’s doing okay?”
His smile was pure joy. “My tree is amazing. There’s a new family of crows who have decided to nest there. The squirrels are not happy about it, which means every nut and seed gets taken, hidden, stolen, re-hidden while everyone makes noise about it. The tree loves it. I think it drops nuts just to stir things up.”
I smiled. “Sounds like your tree likes causing trouble. No wonder you two fit.”
“Right? But that tree started here. It can’t be my bad influence that turned it into such a rabble rouser.”
“Don’t blame it on me. That’s all nurture and zero percent nature.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Maybe.”
“You done eating?” I asked. “There’s more in the kitchen.”
“I’d rather just go face the god. Get it done. Find out if I get to continue my streak of days still alive.”
“We need to deal with the whole tattoos thing you have too,” I said. “And the Crossroads adopting you.”
“We do,” he agreed. He didn’t add anything, letting me take the next step.
“After we deal with Fate,” I said.
“All right. Now?”
“Now’s good.” I stood and placed my fingers over the single copper coin in my pocket, just to reassure myself it was still there.
Card picked up the other two coins and held them tight in his palm. “Ready?”
“You should...” I mimicked brushing my hair.
“Oh.” He ran his free palm over his head. It only made things worse.
Not that it would matter to Fate what he looked like. Still.
“Here.” I moved over to him and combed his hair back with my fingers.
