“Some doors need to be closed,” Rose said.
I grit my teeth, frustrated.
“Christ,” Alister said. “Let’s… not have you two talk to each other, okay? Make it a rule. Blake doesn’t want to make the oath. Fine. We’ll go with that.”
“We can’t cater-”
“We’ll go with it,” Alister said.
“Okay,” Rose answered. “Well go with it.”
“We’re standing at the center of an intricate spider web. One wrong step, and we hit a snarl,” Alister said. “Right at the center, right here, we’ve got people at each other’s throats. You two. My family against me. The demon, poised to get loose. More people, ready to go after Rose and me the moment the demon isn’t a concern.”
“The lawyers,” I said. I hesitated.
“I explained,” Rose said, answering the question I hadn’t yet asked.
I nodded. “The state of the house… we’re supposed to take care of it.”
“Okay. If that even counts as a problem at ‘home’,” Alister said.
I could remember my last interaction with Ms. Lewis. “I’m laying odds that the next time we see them, they’re going to be a problem.”
“Should we call them?” Alister asked. “Head off the problem at the gates?”
“No,” Rose and I said, in the same moment.
Alister frowned.
“They agree, for once,” Green Eyes commented.
“Which is either a very good sign or a bad one,” Alister said. “I’m not sure how to interpret it. Damn it. Okay. There’s still Sandra to deal with. The family is in shambles.”
He gave me a pointed look, as he said that.
I nodded. Leadership broken. Power base broken. We’d still have their help.
Shaking his head, he said, “And Johannes is… quite likely gearing up to respond to this problem. If he wants to throw muscle at it, we can hold out. If he wants to get creative, I might have to be ready to respond. More likely, he’s going to do both.”
“He’s not going to be able to tear down the time effect, you don’t think, but he might work around it, or pervert it to his ends?” I asked.
“I forgot for a moment that you were a practitioner, once,” Alister said. “You’ve grasped the problem.”
“It takes you out of the picture, Alister,” Rose said. “Me too, if I’m going to stick by you.”
“You’re not,” Alister said. “It just doesn’t make sense. We need to do what we can.”
“What, then?” Rose asked.
I could see the pained expression on his face. The fleeting eye contact with Green Eyes.
“Something to do with me,” I spoke my suspicions aloud. “Wait. You want us to team up?”
“No, not exactly that,” Alister said. He extended a hand, palm up, and Rose placed hers in his. He extended a hand to me.
I wasn’t comfortable with giving him my hand. not when he had that ring on his finger.
He plowed ahead, ignoring my reluctance, indicating me with his empty hand. “You’re close, though. Imagine, if you will, the scales. Blake on one side, Rose on the other. Stick Blake on the Rose side of the scale, things go full-tilt, stick Rose on the Blake side of the scale, same problem. Let one get too big, the other small, the scales tilt, and we get problems. More of a rift. Actions of the one hurting the other. We need to keep you on a level playing field.”
When he looked at us, he didn’t seem to have the response he’d wanted. He finished, “You two need to coordinate.”
“Shit,” Rose said, and Alister nodded in agreement.
I nodded my agreement, suddenly getting what Alister had been saying, about not being sure if agreement between us was a good thing or a bad thing.
■
The city was a frozen tableau, utterly silent. Clouds of snow had been stirred by the wind and frozen in the shape of claws and twists in the air.
In the midst of it all, Others lurked. A fleeting shadow here and there. The snow stirred in their wake, belatedly. Out of sync with reality.
The scrape and squeak of footsteps was incredibly loud. The periodic huff of breath surprising in its intensity.
Coordination. Balancing the scales.
Halves of wholes.
I had Tiff. Rose had Alexis.
I had Peter and Roxanne. Rose had Ellie and Kathryn.
Christoff was staying behind. At least, Alister wouldn’t be a worse role model than the rest of the Thorburns had been for Christoff already.
I had the Faceless Woman. Rose had the Revenant. I had the feathered Other, a brute of a man that might have been ogre or part ogre, and an Other in fine clothing, complete with a hood and a mask, no skin showing. Rose had three of the ones that remained. The leftovers stayed at Hillsglade.
I had Evan and Green Eyes. Because they were mine. Rose had the backing of the young Behaims, with Alister staying behind, staying in contact. Hers.
“Johannes makes his move soon,” I said. “Alister says it’s a big one. Be ready.”
“That’s not encouraging,” Tiff said, her voice small.
“We got you,” Green Eyes said, with a smile. “Got your back.”
Tiff turned, and offered Green Eyes a smile that was about as far from reassured as one could manage, while still being a smile.
The negotiation had been fast, swift, and fairly brutal. Ty had too big a tie to Evan, so him coming with me was a problem. Alexis and I were a problem on a number of levels. Too strong a tie, in my mind. Too much of a breach of trust, in my heart. I couldn’t look her in the eye, or coordinate with her.
Rose’s tie to Alexis was milder.
All down the line. We’d hammered it out. Taking the Faceless Woman had been a call I’d made with Green Eyes’ brief interaction with the woman. Rose could at least communicate with the Revenant.
The High Priest was waiting at the far side of the street, after we crossed the road at the base of the property.
“Well?” he asked. He reached out to touch a snowflake that was trapped in mid-air.
“Change of plans,” I said.
“That seems to be a trend when young Alister is involved,” he said.
“I need you to divvy up your minions. Give us some, but make it an even number. Half to me, half to Rose. The rest, yourself included, should go talk to Alister. He’s waiting at Hillsglade House, he knew you were waiting here, and he told me to tell you he promises no harm will be done to you.”
Jeremy the High Drunk gave me a level stare. Thoroughly unimpressed.
“You had a plan,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Break one family, then break the other. Pick up the pieces of each, go after Johannes. I give you the backing of my god, so our motley army can break through and reach the man himself.”
“Yes. The Behaims spent their power, doing this. The plan stands.”
“But?”
“But there’s someone pulling strings. The rumble earlier?”
“Multiple rumbles.”
“Yeah. The abyss is claiming the city, and it’s going to claim everything here with it. The real problem is that something or someone is helping it along.”