The checkpoint turned out to be little more than a small building with a gate attached to it that was lowered over the road. It blazed with light. Carmine squinted at it from overher arms, but otherwise didn’t move. She barely breathed when Atticus pulled to a slow stop in front of the gate.
A moment later, a man with dark skin and a wide, gleaming smile strode out a door. He was adjusting something that looked a little bit like a cowboy hat on his head as he made his way to the driver’s side window. Dressed in a crisp gray uniform and shiny badge, he looked perfectly at ease when he knocked on the window with a knuckle.
“That you, Caldwell?”
Nodding, Atticus replied, “Hey, John. You get my message?”
“Yup.”
“Everything good?”
“Business as usual, ‘cept we’ve got a supervisor in town,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “Gotta make sure we earn those Sovereign-given benefits, I guess.”
“Is that gonna be an issue for us?”
“Nah. You’re a citizen. You can cross over.” Carmine couldn’t see much, but when she caught a glimpse of the brim of his hat, she thought he might be peering around Atticus to peek at her. “Who’s that with you?”
Atticus shook his head. His tone changed, but Carmine had no idea what it meant. “A friend.”
There was a pause. She desperately wished she could have seen Atticus’s expression when John drawled, “Ah, I see how it is. Well?—”
“Garcia.”
Carmine looked up to find a tall figure standing in the doorway of the building. It took her a second to figure out what she was looking at, mostly because she’d never seen a being like them in person before.
Their skin was forest green, their ears pointed, and their hair shorn close to the scalp. The collar of their uniform was higher than John’s. Or maybe it was just buttoned all the way up. Eitherway, it covered their entire throat. When they began to stride over, Carmine was amazed by the liquid grace they moved with.
That’s an elf.
She knew they were headed to elvish territory, but for some reason she never considered that she’d see one of them.
John cleared his throat and stepped back from Atticus’s window. “Captain,” he muttered. “I was just giving these folks the all clear. The driver’s a citizen.”
“I see.” The elf stopped by the front wheel. Carmine sat up a little so she could watch them through the windshield. Quick, dark eyes assessed the RV before locking onto Atticus. A brow arched. “Camping?”
“A road trip to pick up a friend,” he answered, smooth as could be. “She’s moving.”
The elf’s eyes didn’t waver from Atticus. “What’s in the trailer?”
“Just some boxes with her stuff.”
“I scanned your RV. Is there a reason your vehicle is registered to the Neutral Zone if you’re from the EVP?”
“I flew over there to pick her up,” he answered with a casual flick of his fingers. “Seemed easier to rent an RV and trailer when I got there than lug them across the continent.”
“Mind if I look inside the trailer?”
“Be my guest. You’re gonna think I’m an idiot, though. I overestimated how much shit she’d have, so it’s mostly empty.” A wry note entered his voice. If she didn’t know the truth, Carmine would have believed him without hesitation. “She just left temple life, so I guess I should have known, but I’ve got a sister, so…” He shrugged.
The elf’s expression didn’t get any friendlier. They gestured for Atticus to get out of the vehicle.
Something in Carmine’s chest went unbearably tight as she watched him unbuckle his seatbelt and open the door.
She must have made some kind of noise, because Atticus’s head swiveled around to look at her. “Hey,” he murmured, “it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere, okay? This is routine stuff.”
Carmine had no way of knowing if that was true or not, and she hated seeing him hop out of the RV. She hated watching him disappear, the elf and a tense John trotting behind him.
There was some noise, the sound of voices, and then they reappeared. It couldn’t have taken longer than two minutes, but it felt like an eternity. She watched Atticus’s face like a hawk as he climbed back inside. He looked totally unbothered.
