“You got it. So you’ll be back tomorrow?”
“Absolutely,” I said, relieved. Maybe eight hours to get home including layovers, another four to prep to talk to Constance, because I wasn’t going to let Pike go until he agreed to arrange a meeting with her. Sleep somewhere in there. “I’m trying to get in tonight, but it will likely be a red-eye into Dayton. Sunrise, maybe?”
“Good, because the city is hunkering down as if they expect squids to start crawling from their toilets,” Jenks said dryly.
Finally the officers on the skiff handed everyone’s ID back. There was a toot-toot of an air horn, and the spotlight flicked off. “Thanks for handling everything,” I said. “I have to go. I’ll text you when I know my flight info.”
“Trent’s there, huh?” Jenks said with a chuckle, and I smiled.
“Bye, Jenks.” I closed my phone down and dropped it in my grocery bag with my damp clothes. It was easier to see now with only the natural light. Trent was standing at the bow, and I grinned like a fool as he moved to the boat’s off ramp, not yet extended as the large tourist boat eased to the dock. He looked different in a thick coat and wool hat, probably purchased for this single trip onto the bay.
“Wow,” Pike said as he left the warden and eased up even with me. “You really got a thing for knights on white horses, huh?”
I gave him a sidelong glance, my gaze lingering on the blood- and salt-stained jacket visible behind his raincoat. “He’s not rescuing me. He’s getting me to the airport so I can get home before Constance digs her claws in any deeper,” I said, not caring if he knew how much I loved Trent. It wasn’t a secret—which made it more than a potential liability.
My stomach rumbled as the two boats approached the dock. I was starving, but it was a good feeling. I’d managed to bully my way into a real sit-down conversation in the lunchroom with Mary and Ralph after my shower, and I had given them everything out of the vending machine. Mary was still avoiding eating anything from the cafeteria, and Ralph just liked chocolate. Mary had a few years left to go, but Charles had gotten out and was apparently working at an animal rescue clinic in San Diego. The frightened cats and dogs didn’t care that he couldn’t do magic anymore.
Ralph was doing okay, clearly glad to see me though he couldn’t verbalize it, and as I felt the little carving of a rabbit he’d given me, laced on a bit of twine he’d stolen from the shop, I couldn’t help but wonder who he’d been before they had lobotomized him. Probably someone amazing since they only cut inmates who tried, and failed, to escape. I was the only one who’d succeeded since the coven had taken control of the island. And that was only because something I had thought was a liability—subject to being summoned against my will—had been turned to an asset.
But that was beginning to feel as if it was ages ago, and I touched my hair, smiling at Trent’s eager lurch up onto the dock even before they finished tying up.
“Hasn’t anyone told you falling in love is too expensive in this business?” Pike said.
Peeved, I glanced at his bitter confidence, his coat open and his thumbs in his pants pockets as the warden went to talk to the boat captain. “I told you I wouldn’t kill her, but if Constance touches him or his girls, she won’t survive the night,” I said, all the while smiling at Trent. “The ever-after is an up-and-coming neighborhood, and best of all, there’s no extradition from it.”
“I can see why you like him,” Pike continued, as if I hadn’t said anything. “Great body. Money. Powerful magic on both sides of his bloodline. I bet he’s good with kids, too.”
I broke eye contact with Trent to frown at Pike. The guards were checking their IDs again, and Trent waited impatiently as they ran a spell checker over him and shone a light in his face. Finally they let him pass, and he bounded up the last of the stairs.
“Rachel,” he said as we came together, followed by an earnest kiss. But it was the hug that I was waiting for, and I could feel his strength even through his thick coat as his arms wrapped around me. My eyes closed, and I breathed him in, thinking the scent of salt water on him made him different even as he was the same. Cinnamon and wine joined it as I reached up and touched his hair, feeling its silkiness in my cold fingers. I felt complete, and it was hard to pull back.
“I’m so glad to see you,” I whispered, and he nodded, his attention flicking to the warden.
“Me too. Look,” he said as he took my hand in his and lifted it to show that both our rings were again white. “I was hoping that would happen.”
I beamed, and when Pike sighed, I remembered we weren’t alone.
Not at all embarrassed, Trent gave me another sideways hug and a kiss. I wasn’t surprised when my slight headache eased. Trent had tapped one of the lines running through San Francisco through Tulpa, who was not only his horse, but his familiar. Bis wasn’t my familiar, but I could tap a ley line through him when I was over water or too far belowground. At least until his soul had been separated from his body.
Blinking fast, I gripped Trent’s hand tighter, appreciating the soft energy flow restoring my internal balance. It would end when our hands parted, but for now, it was more than nice. It was home.
“Thank you for letting me bring a boat across,” Trent said as he turned to the warden. “I know you must be bending the rules.”
“Not at all,” the warden said sourly. “Frankly, the sooner Ms. Morgan is off my rock, the better I’ll feel.” The warden looked up from handing Pike his knife and pistol, and I wondered if the vampire would give me any trouble as he tucked everything where it belonged.
Trent, too, eyed Pike with a new suspicion, but I wasn’t worried. Much. He didn’t know it yet, but he needed me to get back to Constance alive. I was looking forward to seeing him realize it. Small bite, my ass.
“Trent, I don’t think you’ve met Pike,” I said, and Trent’s hand went out. “He’s Constance’s scion, and he’s going to try to kill me at some point.”
The warden’s eye twitched, but Trent’s reach never flinched as Pike grinned to show his small, sharp canines and shook Trent’s hand.
“Not until I get back to Cincy,” Pike said, but it wasn’t very reassuring. “Since I’ve met with Rachel, I’ve had burgers at an ever-after strip joint, then a late dinner at Alcatraz. Is shifting realities, jumping time zones, and prison food normal, or am I just lucky?”
“It depends on who’s currently trying to kill her,” Trent said, and I frowned as they laughed. They thought it was funny. It was not funny.
“Ms. Morgan,” the warden said, his face shadowy in the buzzing hum of the dock light flickering on. “I’d appreciate it if you don’t come back.”