Page 53 of Crown of Tides and Fury

She waved her hand impatiently. “Yeah, yeah. Lovely vacation. What was the real reason?”

“I needed ye safe, where I needn’t worry about ye…whilst I hunt for Orion.”

“Orion. The guy from Soni’s wedding. The man with the monsters.”

“The same.”

“I thought we weren’t going to worry about him unless he…” Her eyes widened. “He came back?”

Wickham shook his head, wished he could reach her, to reassure her. “Not to the ranch, no. But he has been busy, hunting…and killing…Muir witches.” He explained about the eight powers, about the contract, about Lennon. That led to the explanation about the Edinburgh house, resisting the need to go to Oxford, then the realization that he’d had no choice.

An hour later, he finally had to get up and get a drink of water from the kitchen. As he brought back a second glass for his wife, he noticed the distinct shadows of three butts beneath the doorway. The lads had been listening.

Ivy followed his glance and shook her head. “Don’t you touch their memories either. Never again. They have enough nightmares now. Learning that monsters are real might be a relief for them. They’re resilient. They know you have powers. If they can handle that, they can handle the rest.” She took a sip, then set her glass aside. “So. The truth. How long have we really been here?”

Wickham sucked a breath deep into his lungs and hoped for a miraculous dose of forgiveness. “Ye’ve been here ten days, love. If I weren’t such a weak man, it could have been fewer. Time only passes here when I am with ye.”

“And? How much time has passed for you?”

“It’s mid-August.”

She counted on her fingers, her mouth silently forming the months of the year. “Nine months? We’ve been here nine months?”

“Only the ten days, love. The rest of the world has aged—”

She rose to her feet, moved forward, and loomed over him. “While you were out fighting more monsters and hunting that…”

“Fae”

“Fae. Right. We’ve been like what? Dolls sitting on a shelf, waiting for you to come play with us again?”

He grimaced at the idea, but she was technically right, and he admitted it.

She shook her head and went back to her chair, her hands reaching out blindly, like she thought she might fall over before she reached it. Rather than risk her ire, he stayed put.

“I know I shouldn’t ask…” She took a deep breath herself. “But I have to. Just what would have happened to us if…something would have happened to you? All spells stop? We’d be stuck on this island until someone found us? It’s not like we’ve had supplies delivered, right? You just step into the trees and come back carrying bags. No one knows where we are, right?”

He had to take back control of the conversation. He could still tell her the truth, but…

“Ivy, listen to me. The point is, Orion doesnae ken where ye are.”

She shook her head, that lovely white hair mesmerizing in the evening sunshine coming through the windows. “You didn’t answer my question. What would have happened to us?”

“I wasnae thinkin’ of that when—”

“The truth!”

He shrugged, let his shoulders drop, forced himself to look her in the eye, so she would know he told the truth. “Ye would have ceased to be.”

He could tell by the look in her eyes she’d already worked out that little detail for herself. But she held her tongue for a long while, until the little butts outside the door began to shift uneasily.

“So…you were willing to let us…cease to be…if you ceased to be. Right?”

His head shook vigorously. “Not so lightly as ye think!” After a moment, though, he ceased resisting the truth of it. “Aye. I suppose I was.”

“Good.” Ivy got to her feet and clapped her hands. The lads came through the door like three felons, awaiting some final verdict. “Pack whatever you want to take with you. We’re going home.”

The three of them whooped and cheered and hugged each other, then ran off in different directions.

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