Page 82 of Crown of Tides and Fury

“Joinin’ us?” Urban grinned. “Who wouldnae wish to join this charmin’ lot? A wee bit of blood and guts, but thus far, we’ve had a good showin’. Lennon came to us with no meat on her bones, and she’s filled out smartly. And she’s still alive ta boot.” He sat on the steps with his face to the sun, like me. But there was a darkness about the man that no amount of sunshine could chase away. And I wondered if it had something to do with the life he led back in the 18thcentury.

“I agree with Kitch,” I said. “If I had to bet money, I’d say Felicity’s not going to play ball. You remember that building named after her? She’s got a decent-sized empire back home, built with the very powers we want to take from her. Who willingly gives up an empire?”

Everly lowered herself onto the step above her husband, her plate brimming with fruit, and fed him a grape. “I don’t know. Maybe it doesn’t take much to get your name on a building.”

“You’re right. I could be wrong. But I didn’t sleep much, wondering…”

“Wondering what?”

I hated to say it out loud. “Do you think Wickham will, you know, force it out of her?”

Urban closed one eye and gave me a dark look. “To save the world and his family from Orion? Ye bet he will. But dinnae fash. If it plays out that way, she willnae remember.”

Everly smacked his arm with the back of her hand. “Don’t be so sure. He once intended to erase my memory of you, if you remember. But he gave me the choice to keep it. If he can, he’ll make it as easy as possible on them both.”

“It might be,” Flann said quietly, “it would have been kinder to slip into their homes at night and steal their powers while they slept. They’d just wake up without it—”

“That would devastate me,” Persi said, loud and clear. “Just so you know. If such a thing were ever discussed about me, tell him I’d rather die. When your powers come in, it’s like the worst days of a teenager’s life, times ten—confusion, fear, not understanding what is happening to you. I can’t imagine anything worse than going through that again.

“Besides, it would be like losing a limb. Something you rely on, daily, is suddenly missing, and you just wake up to it? No thank you. Just say it to my face. Tell me I have no choice. Walk me through it. Eventually, I’ll adjust.”

“Hopefully, that willnae be necessary,” Wickham said. He leaned against the corner of the house like he’d been standing there a while, listening. “And once Rinky and Felicity heard the whole story, including what happened in Muirsglen, they were…amenable.”

Flann put his notebook back in his pocket and scowled at Wickham. “Sure but ye havenae done it already?”

“No, no. I’ll give them time to acclimate to the idea.”

I couldn’t believe it. “Felicity agreed to stay?”

“Aye, once she understood that Orion’s dogs might be waiting for her. I doubt they would just leave her be if she explained that she no longer had her powers. She cannae go back until this is over.”

Urban shook his head. “Orion let Soni be when she said she’d given her power to another.”

Everly looked doubtful. “But if she’d been on her own, if there hadn’t been nearly a hundred Highlanders ready to fight for her, do we really know what he would have done? A man who orders the slaughter of an entire town has to get some sort of satisfaction from the killing.”

“I’m certain he does,” Wickham said. “But today, what we must get sorted is how Orion learned about theThirds, and how he learned about the UCLA professor specifically.” He heaped breakfast food onto a tray and headed back inside. “For Ivy,” he said innocently, then smirked. “We’ll brainstorm at, say, eleven, here.”

* * *

When we gathered again,the bright egg yolk in the sky was well hidden above a ceiling of thick clouds. The stone all around us was chilled to the point we decided to move our meeting inside, so we all didn’t have to add another layer of clothing.

Felicity and Rinky joined us in the spacious, redecorated parlor. The former scanned the room like an appraiser, appreciating the new Billy Austin watercolors and the quality of the furnishings, all without saying a word. Her fingers drummed on the arm of her chair while the rest of us got down to business. I got the impression she was itching to move the furniture around.

“Let’s remember Occam’s razor,” Brian suggested. “The simplest explanation is usually the right one.”

“So what’s the simplest explanation,” I asked, “that the Grandfather made two lists and gave one to the enemy?”

Wickham perched on the ample arm of a blue sofa, facing the rest of us. “Not simple at all. So let’s assume he didnae.”

“All right then. What is the simplest?”

“That there is a spy in the house,” Kitch said. His words fell like an anvil, the impact of which made everyone jump.

“A spy?” “In this house?” “Not possible.” “You’ve got to be joking!”

But when the denials had all been voiced, I looked around the room, examined faces, remembered a hundred conversations—all proving that none of these people were capable of turning on the rest of us.

I shook my head and laughed. “Next theory?”

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