The next morning, everything felt even farther away. Parker was still eyeing him as though he thought Nick was going to run screaming into the hills, but Nick only shook his head. “I’m fine.”
“Right,” Parker said, scooping up some cereal and eating it without looking at it. He was eyeing Nick as though he thought he was going to explode.
“I’m really alright. It was just a nightmare.” Nick raised an eyebrow. “I am not the only one in this relationship who wakes up in the middle of the night.”
“Okay, but all of my nightmares recently have been about the bureaucracy of running my court these days. Doyouknow how long it takes to get your father to stop trying to do-si-do with the fae monarchs? Also, the other day we got stuck on the absolute quagmire that was Prince Talon trying to gift King Hawthorn a dog? Like, there was a whole thing about whether it was aslight against the other courts? None of them evenwanteda dog and then your dad chimes in saying that the human realm already has a dog—Prometheus. So by the way, your dog is now a statement of political alliance between the human realm and the Dark Realm. Just… you know, putting that out there. Maybe we can write off his food as tax deductible since he’s a political necessity?”
Parker was watching and when Nick started to laugh, his whole face relaxed. He kept going for another minute or so, listing all the other things he wanted to write off his taxes, including the Tylenol he had to take and the emotional strain of keeping the whole world on his back.
By the time Laurel got to their apartment, Nick felt almost back to himself. Laurel narrowed her eyes at them, before saying, “Both of you didn’t do any world saving magic last night, did you?”
“Just sleep.” Parker held up three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
Laurel shook her head. “You seem alright. But if this starts to go sideways, I know you want to save everyone, but I am calling it. Okay? Neither one of you two has the final call here.”
“Hey!” Parker said. “Again, we have done this alotand been fine almost all of the times. I think we’re grown-ups here.”
“I used to think Nick was,” Laurel said, glancing at him and shaking her head in disappointment. “Then he showed up yesterday looking in shock and halfway into Santa Muerte’s territory.”
“In his defense,” Parker said. “We’ve been doing someFreaky Fridaynonsense and I’m just as unhappy as you about it.”
“What?” Laurel looked at Nick but he shrugged, grabbing his keys off the hall table.
“Should we get going?” He glanced at Parker. “You’re sure about the location?”
Parker held up the map, folded so the dot they thought was the next location was in the center. “I remember him going here.”
The dot on the map turned out to be an intersection with a park, a library, and a gas station, all on opposite corners.
“The park.” Parker frowned at the foliage. “What if they’re gone?”
“I don’t think they are,” Nick said. “Everyone else has been exactly on the line of the spiral. Even when they got infected elsewhere, like the CSI tech and Gile.”
“Like they were drawn there?” Parker looked around, murmuring silently to himself. “Okay.”
As they walked into the tree line entrance, Parker leaned over, brushing a hand over a tree trunk.
“We’re looking for someone who isn’t acting like a normal person in the park. Maybe someone who has been here for a while.” As the tree responded, Parker’s face relaxed, curving into a smile.
Laurel leaned over. “What’s up? You’ve been quiet all morning, and I don’t think that Parker has stopped talking since I got to your place.”
Nick looked up ahead at where Parker was still talking with the local flora. “I had a weird dream last night. It brought up some stuff for us.”
“Like… Sugar stuff or like trauma stuff?” Laurel asked, trying to make it a joke, even as she searched his face.
“You know what the parasite called me when we first met it?” Nick looked away, because he didn’t want to see Laurel’s face. “God killer. Because I killed Darkness.”
Laurel blew out a breath. “Wow. That’s just a complete misreading of what happened in that situation, you know? No one who was there would say you killed Darkness.”
“I did, though,” Nick said. “A creature older than time is dead because of me.”
“Santa Muerte will be the first one to tell you that the gods had all died and come back more than any living creature should. It was their time. Or at least it was Darkness’s and the Sun god’s time.” Laurel reached out, grabbing Nick’s forearm. “Yousavedthe thousand realms. Just like we’re going to save these people.”
Nick managed a tight smile. Ahead of them, Parker was striding forward with purpose and Nick jerked his chin toward him. Laurel didn’t press again, and the two of them caught up with Parker.
Before he and Laurel could say anything else, Parker was moving. “The trees said someone hasn’t moved from a bench in days.”
As Parker walked, they trailed behind, and Nick tried to see if anyone else was around. They couldn’t afford to have anyone get caught by the parasite, not now that they might finally have a solution.
