Salty wind blew her hair into her mouth. His hair was queued. “Have you heard or seen Master Fey?” she asked.
“Over there.” Embor pointed toward the dunes. The stars and moon washed the landscape in greys and blacks. The lights of buildings lay in the distance. Odd. Tali had told her humans overdeveloped their beaches as tightly as kernels of corn on a cob.
“Let me check your leg.” Unthinkingly, she reached for magic to enhance her vision but came up against blankness. It was always a jolt to be cut off from her power.
“I’ll wash it.” He approached the surf gingerly, his form dark against the waves that raced up the sand. Instead of wading in, he scooped water onto his calf.
He’d said the ring was close to Key West—this must be Florida. Vegas was the only human location she’d been authorized to visit. The information she’d been exposed to five years ago meant normal policies had been bent so she could visit Tali.
The wind was unceasing. She trapped her annoying hair under her collar. “How far from Key West are we?”
“Several hours by car.”
She needed to shake awake. Soaking in the ring might help. She could fill what Tali called her magic battery and carry a tiny cushion of power into humanspace. There was a weak hum somewhere in the dunes.
“Why aren’t we in the circle?” Her booties scuffed the sand.
“You overshot.” When he returned, his countenance was severe in the bluish radiance of the moon. The tide rolled without pause, a hypnotic thunder and hiss. “That’s dangerous. Some rings are precariously located.”
Ani opened her mouth to apologize and closed it just as quickly. Embor’s criticisms usually cowed her. For twenty years, he, more than anyone at Court, had hawked over her and Tali’s every move. Disappointing the Primary of the Realm had never been her goal when she’d pursued a Court career. Most of the censure had been due to her sister, but it still stung.
Even with Tali out of the picture, Ani couldn’t do anything to please this man, and she wasn’t sure why she wanted to. He didn’t seem to care she’d just jeopardized what was left of her career to help him or appreciate that she’d saved their lives. So she did something she rarely did with anyone besides Tali.
She defended herself.
“In case you didn’t notice,” she said, her voice rising above the wind, “I was in a rush. Gnomes were eating you. The agents were closing the ring. The cat was yelling. The ring markers were out of alignment.” She paused to catch her breath. He stood silent and still. “I hadn’t recovered after making energy globes and infusing you—twice.”
She didn’t mention how the magic she’d used disposing of the gnomes had disrupted her equilibrium. The black fury possessing her had been unpleasant but exhilarating, beckoning to be tried again. Good thing there was no magic here.
“I didn’t ask for help,” he said.
“You, ask for help?” Ani gave him her best healer’s lecture, with interest. “Apparently you’d rather become dependent on energy globes. For spirits’ sake, I’ve never seen anyone as jagged as you. Do you have any idea how stupid that is? It’s a form of separation sickness that can cause permanent damage. Why did Skythia let this happen?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Of course she didn’t or she’d have had you in rehab. You’re our Primaries. You can’t lead the Realm if you can’t function. You don’t get to be a stubborn mule who refuses to sleep and pops globes to hide it.”
“We should—” he began, but she wasn’t finished.
“We should stay in the Realm and face Warran and Ophelia.” Her frustration was for herself as well as for him, but it felt too cathartic to stop. She’d wanted to bellow at Embor Fiertag for twenty years. “How is chasing four agents who haven’t been seen in years more important than what the Elders did? You have to clear their influence from the Court. You have to win the election. If Warran and Ophelia win, what will become of…of everything?”
Embor’s posture shifted, outlined against the luminous moon. She thought he’d put his hands behind his back but couldn’t be sure.
“Hm.”
“That’s not a legitimate response,” she yelled.
“I need time to consider—”
“Time? They could transport here any minute. It won’t take long to triangulate on you if they have Skythia’s help.” She whirled, tripped on the booties and kicked sand at him. “Tali’s right. You have a stick up your rear end.”
He stiffened. “I what?”
“You heard me.” She was shouting loud enough for humans a mile away to hear her. “Don’t pretend you didn’t because you don’t like what I said.”
“Is this a panic attack?”
Energy fizzed through her in a way that felt like magic. Her arms wanted to flail, and her fists to hit. The compulsion astonished her.
“No, you donkey, I’m attacking you. You’re overbearing. You dunked me in the mineral springs. You ordered me around. You torched my room. You dragged me all over the Realm. You won’t tell me what’s going on. Then I find out you’re a globe addict with no reserves.” She stooped by the water and scrubbed the bite on her hand with wet sand. “After all of this, you dare criticize my transporting skills?”
His shoulders hunched. “I’ll deal with it later. I don’t need magic here.”
He’d almost died right before her eyes. If he’d died, she’d… Goodness. She didn’t even know.
“Embor,” she said in a quieter voice, “if I hadn’t gotten us out of there, you’d have lost more than your magic.”
“But I didn’t.”
The moon’s rays glistened on the water and sand of the long, empty beach. Two of her favorite things in the world, shared beneath thousands of stars with Embor Fiertag, Primary of the Realm and Critic of All Things Serendipity.
“You do realize you’re going to have withdrawals, don’t you? That’s not going to help matters.” She threw up her hands. “I can’t believe you did this to yourself.”
“Withdrawals? I resorted to a few energy globes to—”
She cut him off. “I know what I saw.”
He grimaced. “Then I’ll manage.”
“Like you’ve been managing?”
He ducked his head. “I’ve heard caffeine helps.”
“What you need is sleep, pain relief and magical supersaturation.” She licked salty lips, suddenly reminded he’d kissed her during the infusion. “I can heal someone in the Realm, but I’m not sure I can treat it here. Which you’d best not criticize me for.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” He cleared his throat and said, somewhat tentatively, “My other criticism was poorly timed.”
“Or poor in general,” she corrected, the urge to attack him gone. She’d screeched at the Primary of the Realm like a harpy and he’d allowed it. Warmth bubbled inside her. One of the reasons she never spoke her mind to anyone but Tali was fear of the aftermath.
He half-turned, his profile etched against the whitecaps. “Upon reflection, the fact we didn’t land in the ring works in our favor.”
His stilted admission squeezed her heart even more than the bumpy apology. From wanting to hit him, now she wanted to hug him. She’d taken two steps forward before she realized what she was doing.
“How so?” she asked. Her impulse had nothing to do with feelings. It had nothing to do with that kiss. She was insecure. She needed to know her harangue was forgiven.
“When the agents get permission to transport here, they’ll have difficulty tracing us.” He gestured up the beach. “We should leave this area regardless.”
“Not without the cat.” She inspected the dunes. The mysterious heaps near the hillocks could be anything. She walked toward them, wind whipping tiny grains into her skin. “Master Fey, where are you?”
A large black lump Ani assumed was a rock suddenly heaved.
The cat ambled around the lump. “Mrow.”
Starlight glinted on the lump’s leathery shell as flippers propelled
the ungainly body across the sand. Ani kept a respectful distance.
“Master Fey, you’ve found a sea turtle.”
The cat trotted to her side. Could he communicate in humanspace?
“This is a nesting beach for several species of turtle. They’re attracted to rings.” Embor strapped on the backpack, grimacing slightly. “Well, cat, we’re here. Do we travel to Key West tonight?”
“Shouldn’t we go to a deadspace so they can’t locate us?”
“Key West will suffice.”
She hoped he was right. When the withdrawals worsened, he wouldn’t be in any condition to run from Skythia or pursue the Torvals.
The cat trotted down the beach. Embor and Ani followed. After a hundred yards, the cat swerved into the dunes, along a faint path through the sea grass. They soon reached a wooden boardwalk between two human habitations.
As soon as they were out of the wind, the heat of the night smacked Ani like a wave. She hoped the cat didn’t intend for them to walk to Key West.
“Do we have money?” she asked. Murky houses rose on stilts, vehicles parked underneath. Along the road, street lamps and porch lights blazed. Sword-leaved plants and gravel decorated the tiny yards.
“Yes.” Embor paused on the sidewalk while she caught up. The cat batted a palmetto bug.
It was late enough that few cars traveled the thoroughfare. This area appeared to be family dwellings, but several blocks away she saw neon banners and other indicators of a commercial district.
The bug destroyed, the cat sauntered in that direction. Ani paced beside Embor, her head bowed. She began to sweat beneath the layers of fabric that had been insufficient in Cragen. What would the humans think of she and Embor? Blood dotted his shirt, and an angry scratch sliced his neck. His trousers were ripped and grisly. As for herself, she wore men’s clothing four sizes too large and had tooth marks on her hand. She’d visited Tali enough to know humans judged appearances on a routine basis.
“We need to clean up before we… What are we doing?”
With the street lamps and porch lights, she could see Embor better. Not that it helped. His expression was as impassive as ever. “Following the cat.”
“What if they search for us?”
“They’ll assume we used transport globes to leave the area.”
Disappearing did seem wise. “One of us could use our escape tooth and transport us to Key West.”
“Mine is gone. Yours should be preserved,” he said.
“This is kind of an emergency, don’t you think?” She licked the tooth in question, a back molar. Her tongue couldn’t distinguish it as different. “It’s not as if they’re difficult to replace.”
“No,” he repeated.
“Master Fey,” Ani begged, “were are we going?” The farther they trudged in this muggy heat, the more she wanted to strip to her gown. Human females often wore dresses that resembled sleepwear. Hers was dirty, but it would be better than drowning in sweat.
The cat pirruped, like a mother cat at a kitten. He clearly wanted them to follow.
“This is your plan? To follow the cat?” she asked Embor. She yanked her itchy hair out of her collar where it stuck to her damp neck.
“I, for one, don’t want to trap him again. So we follow.” He had to be as hot as she was. His bites and scratches needed tending, and his withdrawals could vary from a twelve-hour migraine to days of misery. “I presume the cat is leading us to… Cat, come back here.”
The cat galloped across a parking lot to the front door of The Conch Shell Inn. The walkways outside the rooms were bordered by iron railings, but the two-story building was otherwise undistinguished. “Clean rooms!”, “Outdoor pool!” and “Vacancy!” blinked on the neon sign near the road. The sign was missing a letter so it read Conch hell Inn.
It was, Ani reflected, a bad sign in several ways.
Embor glared at the motel, flanked by an ice cream shop and a massive inn that towered above the smaller establishments. “Cat, this is unacceptable. It’s close to the ring. It’s ramshackle.”
The cat hunkered beside the doors and stared at them.
“Maybe he knows something we don’t. Could there be a cache of globes?” Tali and Jake kept supplies in several locations, but none in Florida.
“Not likely.”
“Clues about the Torvals?”
“The only clue we need is the fact they’re in Key West.”
“The cat must have reason to believe we should go inside.” She wished Master Fey would enlighten her. She wished Embor would enlighten her.
“I suppose no one attempting a getaway would voluntarily stay here,” Embor conceded. “As you pointed out, they’d head for the closest deadspace. North Florida, I believe.”
The cat pawed at the door.
“How long would it take Skythia to make enough globes to locate you?” Ani asked Embor. Locations in humanspace required tailored globes.
“Half a day.” He frowned. “Or more. She’s not that fast at globing.”
“So we go in?”
The cat did seem insistent. He wouldn’t have brought them here just to lose them to pursuers a few hours later.
“I suppose we need sleep.” Embor headed onto the property, stopping in the breezeway to withdraw a wallet from the rucksack. “Beachfront?”
Ani, who’d been right behind him, bumbled into the large backpack. “What?”
He eyed the building as if he could transform it into a more acceptable location with the strength of his gaze. As far as she knew, that couldn’t even happen in the Realm. “Do you desire a beachfront room?”
How kind of him to ask. “Yes, please.”
Embor dusted futilely at the stains on his clothing, straightened his shoulders and opened the glass door. The cat skittered into the lobby.
Tali had taken Ani to a number of human hotels, but none had been anything like The Conch hell Inn. The dank reception area overflowed with half-dead ferns and plants, many dangling from rusty chains. Embor ducked under a bush hanging in the center of the room. A stand of brochures separated two doors marked “Restroom” and “Employees Only”. Sand lined the tiles on the floor, and the temperature wasn’t much cooler than it had been outside. A clock on the wall read three a.m.
Instead of a gleaming welcome desk with uniformed employees, the narrow check-in had been constructed with a transparent barrier between customer and clerk. A hole at the bottom allowed an exchange of a key for money. A fan swiveled beside the somnolent clerk, fluttering the man’s lank hair.
Food stained his shirt. The scents of grease and fish did nothing to enhance the atmosphere. Perhaps he wouldn’t notice their disheveled state, all things considered.
“By the hour or for the night?” he asked, staring at Ani. She dodged behind a plant and feigned interest in its crumbling leaves.
Embor inspected the lobby, and the employee, with distaste. The cat wandered to a dead fern and sniffed it.
“The night.” He slid a gold card through the hole. “Beachfront.”
Dead leaves fluttered to the floor when Ani bumped the basket.
“No pets,” the man said.
Embor lowered his chin. “Double your rate. The cat remains with us.”
She snatched her hand back before she denuded the poor plant. Embor had only requested one room, which surprised her. He seemed like the kind of person who’d want his solitude.
“Yes, sir.” The man inspected the card. “Anything else, sir?”
Embor looked at her a moment before returning his attention to the clerk. “Two beds.”
Ani ducked her head. It wasn’t as if she wanted to share. They weren’t by any means courting. Why crowd themselves if they didn’t have to? Yet his pointed request for separate beds felt like a preemptive rebuff. Was he concerned she might have certain expectations after their various encounters?
Good gravy, after everything they’d been through, did he think she’d try to seduce him for political reasons?
“We have a room with two queens on the second floor.” The clerk tapped at his computer and slid Embor a receipt. “What type of car do you have?”
“How is that any of your business?” Embor asked, his voice frosty.
The man shrank in his seat. “Our lot is for guests only. If I could just get the make and model—”
“We parked elsewhere.”
“No problem, then.” He poked a key card through the hole. “Checkout is at ten.”
“Checkout is whenever we leave,” Embor corrected.
“Yes, sir,” the man repeated. “Go out the back to the stairs. Your room’s on the left. No lights along the beach because of the turtles, so keep your curtains drawn. Have a good night.”
“Doubtful,” Embor muttered. Ani followed him through the lobby, and the cat followed her. When they exited, red ground lights edged the walkways enough to see. The dunes weren’t as pronounced as they had been near the ring, and the sea breeze ruffled her hair. Their room was at the end.
Embor unlocked the door but blocked her before she could enter. “Wait.”
He left the door open as he searched, inspecting the television, phone, beds, restroom, curtains, locks, air conditioner, sink and dresser. The cat slid past her and hopped onto the first bed.
“What are you looking for?” she asked Embor.
He placed the backpack on the dresser. “Incongruities. You may enter.”
She leaned against the jamb and hugged herself. “Wouldn’t you prefer your own room?”
“Why do you ask?” He unbuckled the largest compartment on the backpack and pulled out a silver bag.
She bit her fingernail, wondering how to phrase her concern. “So you can have some privacy. We’ve been stuck together for a while now.”
His grey eyes flickered with some emotion she didn’t recognize. It was tricky to read people without her abilities. “Is that your preference?”
Tali was always encouraging her to speak her mind, and she’d certainly done so on the beach. Should she reassure Embor she had no intention of propositioning him?
One Thousand Kisses Page 16
