He took a deep breath she recognized as one meant to calm himself. The mark of a leader trying to keep his head. “The difference is, Keko, you were protecting your people against a clear threat. Someone tries to kill you or your family, take your home, you fight back. I get that. But that secretary in Toronto who walked in on her boss as he was using Mendacia, just as the illusionary magic was kicking in? That completely innocent woman who opened the door at the one wrong second out of the entire day? She deserved to die because of that?”

Keko sat there, transfixed, listening to this from an entirely new perspective, one she hadn’t ever considered because her training had never allowed her to think that way.

“The Chairman sent me after her,” Griffin went on bitterly, his face nearly unrecognizable, “and I went because I fucking had to. I had a clean kill planned out, but I must have made a noise she didn’t recognize because she turned and saw me. Saw a strange man coming after her in her own house. I saw her fear. I saw her awful confusion. She had absolutely no idea who I was or why I was there. Only that I was there to kill her.”

He popped to his feet and she had to tilt her head back to look at him. The muscle in his jaw did that clenching thing again, the thing that made him look mean even as his eyes softened. “When the Son of Earth came after you and I knew you were having trouble accessing your fire, that you were probably seconds away from dying, I went after him. I attacked and went for the kill even though I knew it would trigger the nightmare. I just have to deal with what I’ve done.” He bent down, snatched his vest from the ground, stuffed the knife into the back holder, and zipped the thing over his chest.

She got the signal. He was done talking and they were moving out. She rose, a little unsteady from the shock.

“You know what?”

It was his tender tone, completely flipped around from what she’d just heard, that stopped her, made her look up. “What?”

“Fuck the nightmare. If the Son of Earth comes after you, I’ll do it all over again.”

 • • •

Another couple hours’ hiking to get out of the green tangle and across the main highway, and then they turned down a long, winding road high above the ocean. It was right at the line when day started to curve toward dusk, and the light had a golden quality to it.

A row of modest one-story homes with overflowing garages and rusting cars in their driveways stretched up ahead, their front doors opening to one hell of a view of sparkling blue water. A hand-painted sign out on Route 19 pointed to a B and B and Griffin steered them toward it. Keko had tried to protest—she’d refused to hitch a ride, too—but they both needed food and a good rest. And he needed a phone.

Even in their dirty states, they didn’t stand out. The island was crawling with people walking along the roadsides, thumbs jutting out, their whole lives contained in their backpacks. He didn’t worry about being noticed as they trudged down the road—not from Primaries who puttered around their front yards and not from the Children of Earth. If their theory was correct, they’d left the Children’s territory the moment they’d left the wild.

The B and B was a Victorian-era house with a wraparound front porch, moist from the humidity. The owners lived in the mid-twentieth-century home set farther back on the slope, and they accepted cash from Griffin, no ID required.

Griffin and Keko were the only guests, but he only booked one room.

Key in hand, he unlocked the heavy wooden door and let it swing inward. The room was clean but basic, done in faux bamboo furniture and draped in tropical prints. He stepped inside, noting the single queen bed, and didn’t hear Keko’s footsteps following. When he turned around, she’d backed up against the porch railing, her face slightly pale as she peered into the room. It had started to rain. Again.

“I’m hungry,” she said. “Are you? I’ll find us some food.”

He didn’t know what she’d brought with her when she’d set out from the valley. “Need money?”

She patted her pack awkwardly. “I’ve got a little.” She backed down the porch, avoiding his eyes. Before bounding down the steps, she added, “I’ll be back.”

Something in her eyes told him she wasn’t even sure that was true. Two things kept him from going after her right then and there: One, she didn’t know how to read the star map; and two, he was finally alone.

Propping open the door with his boot, he snatched the phone sitting on the table by the bed, dialed quickly, and stretched the curling, tangled cord toward the porch. Standing in the open doorway, watching Keko walk barefoot in the rain toward a dense row of connected shops done in the same old Victorian style, he listened impatiently to the ringing on the other end of the line.

A man picked up, sounding skeptical. “Yes?”

“This is Griffin Aames. Get me the premier.” The Air’s hesitation pissed him off. “Don’t even think about giving me the runaround. If he’s there and alive, I need to speak with him.”

“One moment.” There was shuffling, and muffled voices.

Keko disappeared from view, taking the awareness of her signature with it. He tried not to let it worry or bother him, but he found himself mumbling into the receiver, “Come on. Come on.”

Night descended, the steadily falling rain making the evening grayer and drearier. Minutes passed. He paced in the doorway, the phone cord stretched to its maximum as he went out onto the porch, trying to see if Keko had gone through one of the doors in that line of shops, or if she’d just kept walking.

A fumbling of the phone on the other end, then a familiar voice, resigned and tired. “Griffin.”

With the time change, it would be after midnight at the air elemental compound in Canada. Griffin didn’t care.

“What the fuck.” To hell with propriety and diplomacy. “We had a deal, Premier. I come after Keko alone. The Children agreed to this. Keko is theirs only if she gets to the Source.”

“Whoa, whoa.” The premier sniffed and sounded like he took a drink of something. “Slow down. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Really.” Griffin gripped the slick porch railing, holding back a biting laugh and a shout of rage-induced frustration. “A Son of Earth attacked us and you’re telling me you had no clue.”

“Us?”

Griffin bowed his head, letting the rain hit his neck and run through his hair. “I found Keko. I’m with her. And this fucking earth elemental turns into a tree or possesses one or something, and almost kills us both.”

The premier sucked in a breath. “Is the Source safe?”

“Heard of any natural disasters lately?”

“So our deal is still on.” It wasn’t a question.

Griffin squeezed his eyes shut. “Look, I’m upholding my end. You sure as fuck better honor yours.”

The premier inhaled as though he had a cigarette between his lips. “I sanctioned no attack, authorized no breach of the deal. I gave you my word. Aya gave hers, too. I’ll bring this up with her immediately.”

“Tell her to leave us the hell alone. If you want the Source safe, I need more time.”

“If all I wanted was for the Source to be safe”—another smoke-filled inhale—“I would just let Aya and the Children do their thing. Let them take care of it themselves. This is about giving you your chance.”

A sick feeling twisted Griffin’s gut, like he’d finally gotten a bite after nearly starving and the food had gone rancid. He stalked back into the room. “I’m handling this,” he snarled, and slammed down the receiver. It felt good to do that. You didn’t get to do that with cell phones anymore.

He stared at the phone for a long time, wondering exactly what he’d just done. By warning off the Children of Earth, he’d bought himself much-needed time with Keko—time to find out what secret she was protecting and what she was going to do with the map that was in his head. More time just to be with her.