“Hang on. Can you meet us? We’re on the way back to my place. I’m sending photos, and we have stories.”
“Sure, I guess,” Ori replied.
Ranth was peering into a green trash can like it was a treasure chest. I walked over and pulled him away. But my hand on his arm flashed the memory of his lips against mine—passionate but gentle. So easy to want more. What was I even thinking?
The bus turned the corner.
“I spent the afternoon doing research rather than the work I should have been doing, but it’s not due till Monday so…” Ori’s voice knocked me back to the moment.
“I owe ya. Okay, bus is here. See you soon.” Tentatively, I hooked Ranth’s arm and directed him to line up in front of the door. Holding on to him now was oddly good—like we fit together. His scent rose, and I let go.
“On my way in ten,” Ori replied.
Stuffing the phone in my pocket, I stepped onto the bus, and my foot slid out of the front of the boot, exposing my sock.
The driver looked down. “Shoes not optional.” She pointed to the sign.
I adjusted the boot and flashed my pass with a smile, then paid for Ranth. We took seats three rows from the back. Ranth squished in next to me on an empty row. The air reeked of something I didn’t want to try to name. I sniffed my own arm. I wasn’t exactly rose-fresh, and remnants of pink goo were still visible if you looked closely. A shower and a purification ritual would be essential if I was going to be presentable for the gig tonight. That the goo hadn’t dissipated from the plane was odd and disconcerting. Technically, I was wearing it, but it should never have existed in the real world. I scraped off a sample and tucked it away to study later.
Questions burned silently. Ranth and I hadn’t really talked since we’d left Harold’s building. We’d both seen each other in a new way, and I needed to figure out how to deal with that. “That thing you did, can you do it again?” I whispered.
“The kiss you mean?” Ranth grinned.
“No, the fighting thing.”
Ranth studied my lips, and my pulse tripped. I shifted, putting another inch between us. I was weakened by the battle, and a part of me was still not sure I could trust him, but my body apparently was ignoring that.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Good, because if thosevisitorscome back, we’re going to need to be ready for them.” His proximity jumped on me. I moved over again to put more space between us, but there wasn’t any place to go.
“I am ready.” He rubbed his arm where the burns had been.
Holy hellebore—they were gone.I was good but not that good. I traced my fingers over where they’d been. “How?”
“Training. It is important for all Ahknim to learn healing. But the Essiferswillbe back,” he said, locking eyes with me. My breath caught. “Because they didn’t get what they wanted. Yet.”
Halfway down the block of my house, I stopped. The house glowed with a lime-green haze that heralded a problem which the house couldn’t translate into a standard warning. That cottony feeling when you anticipate something going terribly exploded inside of me.
“What’s wrong?” Ranth asked, but his voice seemed far away.
“It’s the house. It’s green.” I was processing the best plan.
“And that means?”
“Light caution. If it’s red, it would be locked down, but it means something is off. It’s only been green a couple of times. Once when the power was out, and once when we’d had a minor quake tremor.” I held up a hand to Ranth. “You stay back. I’ll go first and make sure things are safe.”
“That’s not a good idea. I’m coming with you, Sorrel.”
“My house, my rules.” I rummaged in my messenger for my emergency stash. I pulled out a tin and took the top focus from its muslin bed.
“You should know you can’t give me orders like a dog.” His jaw locked tight.
“Fine. Sorry. I’m trying to keep you safe, so we both don’t die. I figured that was obvious. Hold this and stay out here until I call you.” I thrust a hand-sized statue of Lord Byron at him. Blood red ribbons flopped around as he examined the wax charm seals to which I’d bound the five corresponding herb powders of amaranth, cinnamon, cloves, chamomile, and rue. It would keep him invisible from planar creatures for a few minutes. Safe and out of my way.
Not waiting for the questions, I shoved the tin, a holy water tampon, and two white linen-wrapped pouches of edelweiss and amaranth in my pocket as I dashed to the front door. Slinking around the edges of the living room, I got halfway to the kitchen before ducking behind the dining-room door. Two imp-like Essifer demons were sitting on the counter, eating something from an open cupboard. Holy Crocus. They were inside the house. The wards had failed.
With shaking hands, I squeezed out the holy water tampon in droplets of a circle to shield me while I prepped. Flipping open one of the pouches on my belt, I threw back a vial of poppy-infused chicory water in one gulp. The stuff was painstaking to make, so I used it sparingly, but it would give me limited invisibility to the other plane. In this tight space, I’d need the extra time.
