Fen sat beside Carter as they took the boat out of the swamp. After all that agony, both physical and emotional, it was wonderful to see him so lighthearted. It was as if a weight he’d been carrying the entire time she’d known him had been lifted off his back. As they recounted the story of their adventures in the swamp, his hazel eyes sparkled, he teased his teammates, and he joked with Fen.
Though Balin and Eunice’s threats still hung over their heads, they now seemed distant and unlikely. Making someone switch from human to animal or keeping someone stuck in a single form seemed quite different from making a person slowly transform into a monster. Fen agreed with Carter: that had to be a scare tactic to make him show up at the end of the month, in case he didn’t care enough about Norris to do so for Norris’s sake. Considering how upset he’d been about revealing his shift form, she was relieved that he wasn’t taking the threat too seriously.
“So how did you find us?” Fen asked.
“Ransom, I assume,” said Carter. “That’s his power—he knows things.”
“It’s not that simple,” said Ransom. “Some things just come to me, but others I have to look for.”
Natalie jumped in. “It can be difficult and painful for him to look. He’d have to have a reason, and we had no idea you were even missing.”
“That’s what happens when you’re not on the team and have a habit of vanishing for months on end,” Pete put in.
“All right, all right,” said Carter. “So howdidyou find us, then?”
Merlin leaned over and petted Precious, who rubbed her gleaming head against his hand. “This little cutie here showed up at our office and dropped a pawpaw on the carpet.”
“What, really?” Carter said.
Merlin nodded. “Splat.”
Carter rolled his eyes at Precious, who trilled proudly. “I gave you a note!”
Roland took up the story. “We had no idea what she was doing there. I thought at first… Never mind.”
Fen realized that Roland was the only Defender who had never mentioned having a magical pet. Carter had said the magical animals chose their owners, and she wondered if Roland had briefly thought Precious was his. No wonder he’d sounded so regretful.
“Then she flew off,” Roland went on. “I called our west coast branch, but they didn’t know anything about her. So I asked Ransom if he could figure out what was up with her.”
“And I got a glimpse of you, Carter, and a location,” said Ransom. “That was it. But it was enough.”
Pete gave Carter a sardonic glance that made Fen bristle. “We knew there was no way you’d be in a swamp voluntarily.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Carter nudged her. “I’ve almost gotten to like it here. The food’s a bit monotonous, though.”
“And that was that,” said Roland, spreading his big hands.
That was that,thought Fen. Carter hadn’t even officially been a member of their team, but they’d dropped everything to come rescue him, even when they didn’t have any idea of what sort of danger they might be walking into.
The motorboat pulled up at a wooden dock, and they all climbed out. Finally, they were out of the swamp. Fen felt a huge wave of relief. They could eat food they hadn’t foraged themselves. They couldshower.
They could have hot shower sex.
They could have hot shower sex followed by hot bath sex.
They could…
“I can’t tell you how much I hate to say this,” Carter said. “But I think the police will take us more seriously if we show up as we are.”
Fen looked ruefully down at her own mud-covered body, then at Carter in his swamp-stained clothes and hair that was still covered in mud and paint, and gave a reluctant nod. “I guess.”
The Defenders had flown in, then rented a van. They drove it into the city and to the police station, where they parked it.
“I’ll keep Precious and Sugar for you,” Merlin volunteered.
Fen extracted the little sugar glider from her cleavage. It took some doing, as he hung on with his tiny sharp claws, chittering and squeaking in protest. She finally unpicked the last claw and handed him to Merlin. “Be good, Sugar. I’ll be back soon.”
Sugar squeaked again, then dove into Merlin’s cupped hands. Carter whistled and pointed, and Precious flew to Merlin’s shoulder.
