Willard must have heard because she said, “An erudite one. Be careful, Thorvald. It could be someone smarter than you.”
“I’ve stolen books, too, you know,” I said, though that was perhaps not the best thing to admit with my daughter standing by. It had been during my wayward youth when Mom hadn’t had enough money to give me an allowance, and I’d been too young to get a job.
“Your mom’s Jackie Collins collection when you were a kid doesn’t count,” Willard said.
Amber snickered.
I shook my head. “You said there were other chapters on other things? Anything in it about weapons smithing? I thought the thief might be researching my sword.”
“She’ll be disappointed if that’s why she grabbed it. Freysha didn’t find anything in that book or any of the others she translated that referenced dragon blades. I know because I specifically asked her to look for that. It’s one of the reasons I wanted her to translate the dwarven books we’ve got.”
“I didn’t know you cared about the history of my sword.”
“I thought someone should know how it works. Hold on.” Willard stopped speaking while someone in the background reported to her. It sounded like Captain Brisco. “They found the van parked downtown near Occidental Square,” Willard told me. “The police have checked it out, but it’s empty with no sign of the thief.”
“Occidental Square?” Unease settled into my gut for a new reason. “That’s where Nin’s food truck is.”
“There’s no reason a thief from another country should be aware of her.”
“No? She’s aware of me. Since she failed with the box, she might think kidnapping one of my friends is a way to force me to give my sword to her.”
“Well, go check. I was going to ask you and Zavryd to try to find her anyway. I’m positive the police won’t have any luck capturing anyone sneaky enough to have gotten into our office and past the magical alarms.”
“I’ll get down there as soon as I can.” I cared more about making sure Nin was all right than finding the thief, but I had a feeling I’d have to confront this woman sooner or later.
I turned toward the exit and almost smacked into Amber. Ugh, I had to drive her home first, and Thad’s house was in the opposite direction.
“Zav? Will you do me a favor and fly down to Nin’s food truck and make sure she’s okay? There’s someone new trying to get my sword, and we know she parked her stolen van in that area.”
“I have only just returned to this world, and you wish me to leave you? Darkness has fallen outside. I assumed we would go to your abode, consume food, and enjoy carnal pleasures.”
“Ew,” Amber said.
“We will,” I promised. “Just make sure nobody bothers Nin until I can get there, please. Traffic willing, I’ll be there in an hour.”
My phone buzzed with a text from Thad.
Are you almost here?
Almost. We stopped for teriyaki takeout, and they messed up our order.
“Make it an hour and a half, Zav. I have to get dinner along the way.” And hope they got the order wrong so I wouldn’t be a liar.
I don’t think you understand how grounding works, Val, Thad replied.
You can explain it to me when we get there.
“You are acquiring food?” Zav asked.
“Yes. Watch over Nin, and I’ll bring you skewers of meat.”
“That is acceptable.”
As I led Amber to the Jeep, I told myself that Zav would protect Nin and that she wouldn’t be endangered—again—simply because she knew me. I hoped I was right.
6
“I’m missing my pot stickers,” Amber said, rummaging through our bag of takeout as I drove her north toward Edmonds.
“Good. That means I didn’t lie to your father.”
It was too dark to see the eye roll, but I knew it was there.
“I’d rather have my pot stickers than you have a clear conscience.”
“Pot stickers are ephemeral. A conscience is forever.”
She snorted. “Nice vocabulary word.”
“It was on one of Nin’s word-of-the-day apps.” I eyed her. “Why’d you punch the kid in school? Do you need me to show up and grow roots around his ankles?”
“I knew you did that.”
“Old dog learning new tricks.”
“Uh huh. Please don’t show up at my school. It was bad enough that Dad had to come. At least he doesn’t dress like Rambo’s girlfriend.”
“You’d have bigger problems than my lack of fashion sense if he did.”
“That’s the truth.” She noshed on an eggroll and didn’t answer my question.
Since I hadn’t really been her mother for more than ten years, I didn’t feel I had the right to advise her or order her to be a good girl, but I worried that she would get into more trouble. I also worried that this boy had been harassing her and would continue to do so. The idiots from the skate park popped into my mind, and I clenched my jaw, furious anew that twenty-something guys had been hitting on her.
“Did they get all of Zav’s chicken and beef skewers?” It wasn’t the question I wanted to ask, but if I kept the conversation going, maybe what I wanted to know would slip out of her.
“I didn’t count them all.”
“I thought you liked math.”
“Counting isn’t math. I can’t believe you ordered twenty of them and spent over a hundred dollars. Who spends a hundred dollars at a teriyaki place?”
“Someone dating a dragon.”
“Does he turn into a dragon to eat?”
“No.”
“Then where does it all go? It’s not possible for a human stomach to hold twenty chicken skewers.”
“Magic is a powerful thing.”
Amber hunched lower in her seat. “Wish I knew some. Then I could make roots come up out of the ground and pin dumbasses to their lockers. And rip their pants off.”
“You’re radiating hostility.” I kept my tone casual, hoping she wouldn’t see this as prying. “Any dumbass in particular?”
“The soccer team.”
“The whole team?” I turned off Highway 99 and drove as slowly as I reasonably could, not wanting to reach the house before getting to the bottom of this.
“All except two. The guys I know from debate are okay. The rest are pigs. One of them has made me his special project. They’ve probably got bets going, like in all those stupid teen movies.”
“You should watch science fiction. The plots are more stimulating.”
“Like where Princess Leia is in a bikini and chained to Jabba the Hutt?”
I knew Thad had made her watch Star Wars. “That’s more futuristic fantasy than sci-fi. Try 2001, the Matrix, or Gattaca. Your dad would be beside himself with adoration if you said you wanted to watch them with him.”
“Dad’s not talking to me.”
“Did you tell him why you punched the kid?”
“It’s not like he can do anything. He won’t let me go to a private school.”
“They have soccer teams at private schools too.”