Of course she is. Esmara laughed. What did you expect? Klaus is a cat. But Xi…she’s more.
With that, I headed back to the living room.
Louise had settled herself in the guest room. She promised she was fine, but I suspected she just didn’t want to interrupt me. I made sure she had everything she needed and headed back downstairs to find Killian putting on his boots.
“Hey, I’m going to see if I can make it downtown in the SUV. Do you want to go? We can check on your car.”
I thought about it for a moment. “Maybe if the roads are plowed, I can get my car home. If it starts.”
“I doubt that will be the case, but we might as well take a look.”
I let Louise know where we were going, and then shrugged into a heavy jacket and boots. I wasn’t going to be caught unawares by the cold this time. I found a pair of gloves and a handful of handwarmers, then made sure I had several granola bars and candy bars in my purse.
“Ready to go,” I said, slinging my purse over my shoulder. “We’ll be back later. I have your number, in case we get stuck somewhere and I need you to feed the cats.”
“Be safe on the roads,” Louise said, who had come downstairs as we got ready to leave. “They look dangerous.”
“You can say that again,” I said, waving.
We were easing our way down Arnica Avenue, trying to avoid skidding on the layer of ice beneath the snow, when Killian finally spoke.
“This was a stupid idea of mine, but we can’t very well turn around here.”
“We might as well go into town,” I said. “We’ve come this far.”
He nodded. “What are you going to do about the Spit & Whistle?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “We have to find an exorcist. I’m not at all sure what to do if we find out the room actually contains a portal.” But something in the back of my mind whispered, You know it does. And you know what to do about it.
No, I don’t.
Yes, you do. Think hard.
I frowned. It wasn’t Esmara talking to me, so I assumed I was arguing with myself. I thought about the portal. Opening a portal wasn’t easy, but closing one? Sometimes harder. But this was a portal that opened into chaos. And to counter chaos, it took order.
All right, I thought. Order…what brought order? Not fire—fire was chaotic, and so was water. Both churned and roiled in their own fashion. Air could be unstable too. But earth…that was considered a solid. Earth was a foundational energy, and so maybe conjure up the powers of earth to fight chaos?
I shook my head, impatient. That wasn’t the answer at all. No, there had to be a way to close it up. Maybe I could find a book on chaos magic at the library. Or I could just call Clarence van Nostram and get it over with. Frustrated, it occurred to me that it really didn’t matter if I called him, since it was public knowledge what had happened. He shouldn’t be too surprised to get a call about it.
“If you go around opening portals to strange realms, don’t be surprised if somebody ends up knocking on the door,” I muttered.
“What’s that?” Killian looked at me, perplexed.
I shook my head. “Nothing in particular. Just thinking about that portal. I wish I could just take some day organizer and throw it into the room and have that negate the energy. Order negates chaos.”
“No, it doesn’t negate it.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, turning to look at him, puzzled.
“It doesn’t negate it, it balances it out. You have too much chaos and you introduce order and it balances the scales.” Killian suddenly yelled and I grabbed for the handhold over my door to steady myself as we went into a massive skid. The tail end of the SUV swung wide, turning us in a 180 as we bounced up against the curb. Thank the gods, there was a sidewalk and a chain-link fence between the car and a dropoff into a ravine.
Killian clutched the steering wheel as we started to slide backward, down the hill, and then he managed to very cautiously turn us around so we were facing downhill again. He started off at a crawl, and we managed to make it all the way down to the bottom. As we paused at a red light, he glanced at me.
“Are you okay?” he asked, sounding more frightened than I had ever heard him.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “A little scared, but no harm done. But damn, that hill will be hell to go up again.”
“I think it will be a little easier than going down—I have snow tires on and I put on chains this morning.” He let out a slow breath. “Well, this is one thing I never had to deal with in SoCal. But we had fire, and I’m more afraid of fire than I am of snow.”
I nodded. “Snow we can work around. Fire is another matter.”
We eased our way into town. There were a few people out and about, but the traffic was almost nonexistent. As we came to the Spit & Whistle, I saw my car sitting there, covered with snow. We parked in front of it, as best as we could, given the snowdrifts that had blanketed the streets, and I shook my head.
“There’s no way I can drive home. I don’t think my car can make it up the hill. And even if I do get it started again, I don’t trust that it will last till then. I need to have it towed to a garage.”
“Oh, I know that. We’re not here for you to get your car—” He paused as a tow truck pulled in ahead of us. “Oh good, he’s here. I called a client of mine who owns a garage and made arrangements for him to meet us here. By the time the streets are clear, your car will be ready to drive again. But if you want my opinion, you need to buy a new car.”
I stared at him. “You are so thoughtful, you know that? I was worried about leaving it parked on the street, although in a snowstorm it’s not likely somebody would try to strip it for parts.”
“Toby—the garage owner—agreed to fix your car for credit at my clinic, so it won’t cost you anything. Unless it ends up being over a thousand dollars.”
I turned to Killian, trying to process what he was saying. “But you can’t give up that much revenue—”
“I told you, when a member of my clan chooses his woman, until—unless they break up, he looks out for her. Not because she’s not capable of doing so herself, but because it’s the right thing to do.” He shrugged, flashing me a smile. “Come on, let’s get Toby your keys so he can take Cookie in for an overhaul.”
Speechless, I nodded and stepped out of the car, giving the Spit & Whistle Pub a nervous look. But Toby—a big old bear of a man, who I suspected was actually a bear shifter—sauntered up. He was wearing a parka and a pair of earmuffs.
“Howdy, ma’am,” he said, nodding.
I held out my hand and he shook it. “Thank you for braving the snow,” I said.
“Not a problem. Is this the car?” He looked over my Subaru.
I nodded. “She’s got more problems than I like to think, but her previous owner worked her like a horse, so there’s no surprise there. No car lives forever. Killian’s right, I should just buy a new one. Let me know if the repairs are going to be more than a thousand or so, and I’ll decide what to do at that point.” I gave him my number and he gave me his card.