Page 54 of Crown of Tides and Fury

Wickham looked again to Ivy and wondered how he was going to tell her the ranch was gone. But there was no time for gentling the news.

“Ivy, love, we cannae return home to Inverness so long as Orion walks the earth.”

The woman actually shrugged. “Home is wherever you are, my love. And if we’re going to die when you die, we might as well be with you when it happens, right?” She nodded toward the door, where Alexander had disappeared. “We can at least give our boys a fighting chance.”

21

Back To The Fritos

“Ivy!” Persi scooted to the edge of the bed and propelled herself toward the door. Luckily, the blond was sturdy enough to take the body blow. “Oh, Ivy! I’m so glad to see your face!”

Ivy laughed. “My face is pretty glad to be seen, actually. I saw the note on the door. Yanks Only?”

“Of course. We’re not going to waste Fritos on people who can’t appreciate them, right?”

The blond shook her head. “I don’t know. Are they even edible now?”

Persi offered her own plate. “Are you crazy? Don’t knock my Mole Fritos until you’ve tried them.”

Her friend made a face but stuck a defiled chip in her mouth. Her eyes popped with surprise. “That’s not mole sauce.”

“Melted Toblerones.” Persi ate one herself and beamed with pride.

“Missing something.” Ivy went to the door, stuck her head out, and shouted, “Wickham Muir! Bag of mini marshmallows! From the States! Stat!” She closed the door and giggled. “Use him if you’ve got ‘im, right?”

I quickly suggested Tootsie Pops be added to the grocery list, which it was.

I wrapped a throw around my hips and tried to keep my arms half folded as I was introduced to Ivy, the woman I had once seen suspended in time, on an island somewhere, while her boys slept on the floor beside her. I felt like I was standing on my patio again, in the buff, receiving visitors.

“Excuse my outfit,” I said, and shook her hand. “I was…making a statement.”

Persi snorted. “Yeah. And if I remember the words correctly—”

I knocked her off balance with my hip and sent her flying onto the bed. The Fritos were saved due to her quick reflexes. “Don’t listen to her,” I said. “Her memory is crap.”

Ivy made a face. “I’ve been half naked on a beach for…for a very long time, apparently. I won’t judge.”

The four of us had settled around the room when someone knocked on the door. Wickham marched in bearing two bags of Stay Puffed mini marshmallows and a bag of Tootsie Pops, followed by Urban, who carried a charcuterie platter covered in fruit and pretzels. Alwyn was next, with a fondue pot filled with melted Toblerone and four long forks. Kitch was the caboose, delivering two bottles of wine in his hands and another bottle under each arm.

All but Wickham took a rather close look at my sheer blouse, blushed, then hurried out again.

Persi hurried to the door and shouted after them. “You tell Meral and Reem they’re welcome to join us if they’d like! They’re not Brits!”

We heard giggling, then “No ‘tank you, miss!”

It didn’t take long to discover that Ivy knew the basics of everything we’d been through the last couple of months. When Griffon’s name was mentioned, though, she claimed to have been left out of that particular loop.

To my horror, I was forced to tell her everything, from the day I met the professor to the last time we’d seen him, plucking Fallon off the tower rock in the middle of a rebelling ocean.

“And don’t forget the library…”

I had hoped, in vain, they’d all forgotten about that, so it could be my own private memory. Silly me.

Ivy’s sympathy seemed genuine. “But you know, these otherworldly creatures don’t make the best mates, don’t you?” She took a long drink of her wine, drained it, then held up the glass for Everly to fill again. “Wickham might be in tune with all kinds of things, but he forgets about us far too often. Thinks he has to save the world, right? So we can’t possibly compare to that.”

She bit her lips together as if she’d just noticed the bitter edge of her words, then forced a smile and pointed a Frito at me.

“You know, if I were you, and I had to pick someone from the household, I’d take a close look at Dominic Kitchens. He’s handsome, fit, intelligent—he’d do the job credibly.” She’d said the last with a snobby, British accent.

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