“Two what?” Dessa asked.
I looked at Terric. Didn’t have to explain. “Allie said Sunny is running things since Davy is AWOL.”
“She’s looking for Davy,” he said. “I’ll call Dash.”
Terric got busy doing that, telling Dash that he needed to call off the Hounds. We’d done this just a few other times when we had first taken over the Authority. While I liked the eyes and ears of a Hound, there were times when we didn’t want even our closest allies knowing what we were doing.
Times like tonight.
So we’d set up an agreement with the Hounds. We’d only call them off if it was of utmost importance. The respite lasted exactly twenty-four hours, and we’d never hunt one of their own.
Yes, we had a list of who the Hounds considered part of the pack. Allie and Zay fell on that list. So did my mum, and ironically, both Terric and I.
Eli was nowhere on that list.
Terric hung up. I paced, waiting for the heartbeats to go away.
Took less than a minute. Both Hounds cleared out.
“Tell me why she’s with us, Shame,” Terric said. Not angry, no, not at all. He had become very precise, as if all his thoughts and movements were razor sharp, heartlessly cold, deadly. Man was in a killing mood.
“She knows where Eli is.”
“I think I know,” she corrected.
“And we’re lovers,” I added.
Dessa raised her eyebrows and stared at me. Terric took a moment to study her. She might not think it was important that Terric know what I felt for her, things I knew he was getting right now through our connection, but if she was going into a fight with us, I wanted Terric to know that she was important to me, and was to be protected.
“Understood,” he said. “Show me what you have in the duffel.”
Now she stared at him. “Why?”
“I’m not going to take anything. I just want you to have enough of the right things with you to make a difference. Sooner would be better. We need to be moving.”
She looked back at me.
“If we know what you have, we know how to cover you. Simple as that.”
She lifted the duffel, put it on top of his coffee table, and pulled it open.
Terric looked into the bag and so did I.
Quick inventory: two Glocks, a couple throwing knives, a hunting knife, the rifle, and a sawed-off shotgun.
“Looks like you’ve got it covered,” he said. “Might want to put the Void stone on, in case there’s magic.”
She reached in, pulled out a beaded necklace with a silver-dollar-sized Void stone hanging in the center of it, and drew it over her head.
“So, where is he?” I asked her.
“I said I might know,” she said. “There’s a warehouse down on Macadam.”
“Why do you think he’s there?” Terric asked.
“I got a tip from a friend.”
“Who?” Terric asked.
“A Hound. She can be trusted.”
“How long ago did you get this tip?”
“Yesterday morning.”
“It’s a start,” I said.
Terric nodded. “I found this in Victor’s hand.” He reached in his pocket and handed me an unused hypodermic needle. There was a label on it with a glyph for Clarity crossed out by a glyph for Chaos.
I held it up to the light. Looked like the liquid had flecks of dust in it. Whatever was in that needle was what had sent me barefoot across Portland, mindlessly destroying things. Victor had just put one of Eli’s weapons into our hands.
“Are we taking the time to analyze it now?” I asked.
“No,” Terric said. “But we will.”
I handed it back to him. “And not with the police?”
“We don’t need the police,” Terric said. Then, “I’m going to get into something clean. You two need anything?”
“We’re good,” I said.
He left the room and I turned to Dessa. “I’m suddenly wanting to talk you out of this. Any chance you’ll listen?”
She had pulled a footstool up to the coffee table and was going over her weapons.
“You know how you said Terric is like a brother to you?” she said.
I waited.
“Well, my brother was my brother. We were close. And I am going to kill Eli for him.”
“Right,” I said slowly. “Something I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why did you come back to me after you had the lead?”
“Because I knew you’d killed other powerful men.” She looked up at me, snapping the last piece of the rifle in place. “With magic.”
“So,” I said, “you knew you could kill him with bullets . . .”
“But I got nothing when it comes to magic. And people like you and Terric—”
“Breakers,” I said.
“—‘Breakers,’” she agreed, “can kill him with magic.”
“Was that the only reason you came back?”
She considered me a second. Then stood and kissed me. When she finally pulled away, she tipped her eyes up to meet my gaze. “No. Last night was real. Wasn’t a part of the rest of this. However this goes down, that stays the same.”
“People might get hurt,” I said. “I might be the one hurting them.”
“I know.”
Terric was out of his room, new jeans, new black T-shirt under a black peacoat. He handed me a gun. Had one of his own.
Dessa’s eyes widened up.
“Sometimes the direct kill is the best,” I said. I shrugged out of the sweater, leaving me in just a gray T-shirt. I didn’t need a coat. I had my hate to keep me warm.
Terric strode to the door and I followed him, Dessa at my side. Back to the car.
I’d barely noticed Eleanor, drifting with me, finally caught the glow of her out of the corner of my eyes. She looked like she’d been crying, though I’m not sure how that could be for a ghost. I didn’t think she had liquid in her.
Still, the way she moved, the bend of her head. Everything about her was sorrow.
She’d known Victor too. Had spent some time training in magic with my mum and him. “You see something I don’t,” I said to her. “Tell me.”
Eleanor noticed I was noticing her and nodded. She pressed her hand over her heart. I didn’t know if she was indicating her promise, or saying it was broken.
“I will,” Dessa said.
“I know,” I said to Eleanor.
Terric didn’t say anything. Didn’t have to. He knew who I was really talking to.
Here’s the thing. I’ve spent a good amount of time doing my best to put distance between Terric and me, for both our survival.
But right now that wasn’t my goaclass="underline" survival. My goal was to take Eli down. And if I knew exactly what Terric was doing, if not exactly what he was thinking, it made it easier to get things done. No hesitation. No slack. So the closer together he and I were right now, the better it was.
He drove. I sat in the passenger seat, Dessa behind us.
Terric didn’t break any speed limits getting to the warehouse, so as not to attract the cops, but he pushed a few lights. From the color of the sky, we still had about an hour before the sun rose.
Good. I did my best work in the dark.
“This it?” Terric asked.
The warehouse didn’t look abandoned. It was being retrofitted into offices or maybe apartments, construction equipment surrounding it.
“This is where she said he was,” Dessa said.
“Did you come by here and look for him earlier?” I asked. “Before you came to my place tonight?”
“No,” she said. “I wanted to talk you into coming with me. That didn’t go quite how I planned it.”
“Outcome was the same,” I said, opening the door.
“Outcome was better,” she said softly.
I could almost feel my heart again, captured in her voice.
Terric was through the gap in the chain-link fencing. Dessa and I caught up with him.
There was some logic in splitting up to cover all exits, but on a retrofit building, there would be more exits than we could cover.