Page 11 of Out of Sight

Regis sighed. “Ira. Really? Whose side are you on?”

“The djinn and mages are a little crazy. It’s kinda fun, Mom.”

Ted grinned. “See? We are fun. Neener.”

Sabin snorted, and Nora grinned. Aurora walked over to her father and pulled on his trousers. Sabin—formerly Sabin the bloody—picked up his little girl and smiled. “Sleepy, baby?”

Aurora nodded. “Home. Sleepy.”

Ted was still standing near Nemia, and the little girl held out her hand, imperiously opening and closing it. “Ted. Come home.”

Ted walked over and kissed the little hand. “I will come to visit soon, Aurora. Promise.”

“Ted, come!” She frowned.

She leaned forward. “Aurora, I have to go home and do some things. I have to visit my mom and my dad. I will come soon.”

Sabin looked sad. “He’s gotten worse, Ted.”

“I know. That is why it is important now.” She looked at Sabin.

“You have been visiting him.”

“He thinks my name is Theodora. Doesn’t remember he had a daughter at all.” She shrugged. “I know he’s my father, and so I sit and read with him, play checkers and occasionally poker. Never play poker with dementia patients; it never ends the way you think.” She smiled. “One time, it turned into Candy Land.”

Sabin smiled softly. “You are way more composed than I would be if I had burst into a glittering mage.”

“If you had done it, it would have been astonishing, and Nora would have sold tickets to the family.”

Nora chuckled. “Have any family members contacted you?”

“About half a dozen.” She checked her phone. “Wait. Thirty-five. Maybe I can disappear again.”

Nora laughed and gasped. “Don’t you dare.”

Sabin nodded and rocked his daughter. “What she said.”

Avor smiled. “I have called our car service. They can get you home.”

“Thank you.” He chuckled. “I completely forgot you got us here.”

“It has been an eventful few hours.”

Sabin blinked. “Hours? Oh, shit. Aurora needs her nap.”

Ted cleared her throat. “Sabin, Nora, can you call Aunt Olyna and some of the others and explain? It will take some of the heat off me.”

Sabin paused. “I will call a meeting.”

“Good. They are a lot, and I have been fighting so long that it has been like I was pushing against the wall, and then the wall was gone, and now I am stumbling.”

Sabin hugged her with his free arm. “I will explain as much as I can.”

Mik smiled. “I will send you the video of what happened. It’s spectacular. Too bad we didn’t do it at night. She would have lit up half the city.”

Ted blinked. “You took a video?”

“Eh, sort of. There was a speck of energy watching everything to make a three-dimensional projection. It will emerge from Sabin’s phone and be all creepy-like.”