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Where are you taking me?

I didn’t answer.

I walked him to the front door, grabbing a jacket on the way out because that was what humans did. A black cab waited at the curb, exactly where Rowan had said it would be. The driver glanced up from his phone as I approached, but didn’t ask questions. Rowan had presumably already explained that a friend would join him.

Rowan sat on the far side of the back seat when I opened the rear door. His body tensed at the sight of Tyler, his hand tightening around something in his lap.

“Codeword,” he said.

“Vulcan.”

The tension left his shoulders. “Thank fuck.”

I climbed in and closed the door. Tyler’s reaction to Rowan’s presence was immediate, his consciousness slamming against mine with renewed vigor.

Rowan. Tell him to let me go.

I prevented the words from reaching his mouth.

Rowan waited until the cab had pulled away before he spoke again. “How did it go?”

“He fought.”

“I can tell. You’re twitching.”

I looked down. Tyler had managed to make the fingers of our left hand tremble against our thigh. I curled them into a fist.

“He’s still fighting,” I said.

The driver glanced at us in the mirror.

“Muscle spasms,” Rowan said quickly. “Stress related.”

The driver nodded as if that explained everything and returned his attention to the road.

Rowan opened his hand. His mother’s ring lay in his palm. Even in the dim light of the cab, the stones caught and reflected the passing streetlights. It hurt him to give it up so soon after getting it back, but he knew it was necessary.

A few seconds passed before he held it out to me.

I took the ring and slipped it into Tyler’s coat pocket. His mind recoiled from it as though the metal had burned him.

That isn’t mine.

It was in your belongings.

Rowan put it there. This is a setup.

Rowan watched Tyler’s face while the argument took place inside his head. “He knows you have it, doesn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Is he saying I planted it?”

“Yes.”

A humorless smile touched Rowan’s lips. “Predictable to the last.”

He turned toward the window after that, exhaustion showing on his face. One hand remained clenched in his lap, as if it hadn’t yet adjusted to the absence of the ring.