Sam took her hand as they walked in—and then he reached, and took Alejo’s hand. “You said we’re family,” Sam said softly. “Even though I was bad.”
“I did,” Alejo said. “I meant it, too. Andyouare not bad. You did make a bad decision, but I think you’ve learned that whenever strange adults offer you something, or ask for your help instead of going to another adult, you can always just run away, right?”
Sam nodded vigorously. “Are you mad at me?”
“I’m mad atthem. Not you. And I don’t think we’re going to see them again. Come inside. I want to hear about your adventures. But let’s all wash up first, while I order the food. What is that smeared on your shirt, chocolate?”
“Yes,” Sam said. “I fell on an ice cream bar, and it was getting squishy.” He pattered inside, one finger pressing the broken glasses to his nose.
Wendy turned to Alejo. “Thank you,” she said, kissing him wildly. “Thank you for being there. For being you. For not screaming at Sam.”
“I think he’s learned that lesson pretty thoroughly.”
Wendy laughed a little raggedly, and headed for her bathroom. She turned on the water to get a shower—and all she got was a drip. Everyone else had beaten her to it, and the water pressure was nil. So she grabbed her phone to do a quick triage on her texts and e-mail, more out of habit than because she expected anything but a lot of spam.
Her eyes lit on twelve texts from her agent.
She plumped down onto the edge of her bare mattress—she remembered the sheets were still in the washer—and saw the words:We’ve got a live one. They want you up in town to talkabout your pilot.
TWENTY-FIVE
ALEJO
Alejo was reaching to turn on the water in the shower when his phone rang: Joey Hu. He grabbed his phone, and found that Joey Hu had included Mikhail Long in a three-way conversation.
Mikhail spoke first. “Dragons, even of other species, can often sense one another. When these people drove to the house that day, pretending to be city inspectors, I sensed the presence of a dragon. Even in his human form, if he’s at such close proximity, I can sense him. And I believe he sensed my presence. After that, he vanished, putting physical distance between us. I assumed he’d retreated once he realized the house was protected by mythic shifters, and I took a chance to do some research elsewhere.”
“I would have,” Alejo said. “If I knew the answer was out there somewhere.”
“I think we all would,” the professor agreed.
Mikhail Long’s tone eased slightly, and Alejo realized the austere, and utterly honest, silver dragon blamed himself for not foreseeing the events of earlier. Alejo said, “I ought to have suspected a decoy when I saw the damage to the house this morning. But I don’t think that bronze dragon knew of my presence. And I’m very sure that his associates had no idea there were shifters among us, much less mythic shifters, or their plot would have been far less flimsy.”
Joey Hu then spoke up. “Agreed. In my turn, I’ve been investigating Ms. Nobett’s Stella Porta Enterprises. They appear to be very aggressive developers, with some, ah, let’s say, some figures at the helm who have a very loose relationship with pesky laws. Especially environmental protection laws.”
“Or, as my dad would say, a passel o’ crooks?” Alejo asked.
“Perhaps.” Joey Hu chuckled. “Ms. Nobett herself is one of their agents, an entrepreneur who recently suffered some heavy monetary setbacks when she attempted to bribe an environmental agency through a third party. My guess is, to make up her losses, it seems she has been looking for partners who are definitely on the shady side of the law. The CEO at Stella Porta was told that there might be oil, or another such commodity that humans find valuable, beneath Godiva Hidalgo’s property, and Ms. Nobett took the job—even if oil isn’t discovered, beachfront property is a goldmine.”
Alejo snorted. “I spotted her below, driving away, when we left that compound.”
“Here’s what’s interesting,” Joey Hu said. “Thanks to your young simurgh’s discovering her powers, the two hirelings appear to believe they were suffering the effects of a ten-martini lunch, without having eaten the lunch.”
Mikhail Long said with deep satisfaction, “I followed those two, who are in the process of getting away from the area as fast as they can. The bronze dragon has effectively gone to ground. I do not expect a recurrence.”
Joey Hu added, “As for me, I just finished alerting the proper state agency to whatever is going on at that enclave on the hill. Which at the very least has been ducking property taxes. The executives at Stella Porta ought to be busy disengaging themselves from the entire affair by Monday. As for Ms. Nobett, whether or not she keeps her job will probably depend on how fast she can talk. At the very least, I suspect she will not be back here any time soon.”
“Thanks, the both of you,” Alejo said. “We should be rid of them now. But how does this relate to Godiva’s garden? More specifically, the hidden community? Like I said, my understanding was, the Oracle Stone that your father helped to search for, when he was here, is gone.”
Mikhail Long said, “My colleagues elsewhere believe that the community in your garden has been hiding, or guarding, a portal.”
“To?”
“Parallel worlds, for a start.”
“And the Oracle Stone was a part of it?” Alejo guessed.
“Perhaps,” Joey Hu said. “We won’t know unless that community trusts us enough to explain.”
