Page 115 of Almost Midnight

“None at all,” he assured the other man. “It’s a relief, honestly. I wouldn’t feel right leaving you here.” He paused. “Do you have anyone? Anyone else you’d like to bring with us, I mean?”

A flicker of surprise touched the hybrid’s eyes, then his gaze sharpened. “Maybe. In England. You don’t mind that, either?”

“Of course not. Not in the slightest. We have to go there first anyway, right?”

From the driver’s seat, James gave them each a brief glance, then snorted.

“I see you’ve started talking in code to this one, too,” the gray-haired detective scoffed, motioning at Walker. “I guess that means he’s one of us now.”

Nick glanced at Wynter then, and saw a softer emotion in her eyes. She looked touched, or maybe relievedandtouched, that Nick and her ex-husband were finally connecting.

Still holding her gaze, Nick nodded belatedly to Morley’s words.

“Yeah,” he said, matter of fact. “I suppose it does mean he’s one of us now.”

A smile quirked Wynter’s mouth, even as she mockingly raised an eyebrow.

“Oh?” she said teasingly. “Well, isn’tthatinteresting?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Nick scoffed.

Still, he looked at her carefully where she slumped against the van wall.

She looked exhausted.

Despite her smile, which looked genuine, she looked on the verge of collapse.

It hit Nick that none of the humans or seers in the van right now had really slept that he’d seen, not apart from a few short naps that afternoon, right before the op, when they were still in the monk’s caverns below that church in the Cauldron.

Nick doubted Wynter had slept even then.

For that matter, he had no idea how much any of them had slept for the past week. He’d been unconscious in that meditation cell for at least a few days, but he still wasn’t sure exactly howmanydays, and he had his doubts Wynter had been sleeping through every night during that period, either.

He still had a lot of questions.

He realized, in some surprise, he also might have some answers.

Maybe now was as good a time as any to start telling someone besides himself what he knew. This seemed to be the group now.

This was all that were left of them.

This was the family of theirs who’d survived.

Anyway, they had time to kill.

He’d already told them, briefly anyway, as they were driving away from the burning Archangel building, that Brick had strongly implied another portal still existed.

Now, Nick cleared his throat.

He began to speak, loudly enough that all of them would hear him, but notsoloudly it would call attention to any passing drones. Something about his tone must have made them realize he had information to convey, because they immediately turned to listen, adjusting their seats so they could watch him while he spoke.

Walker, who still sat across from James in the shotgun seat, shifted sideways and delicately adjusted his leg. Morley moved his back closer to the dashboard, so he could see Nick without having to turn his head. Wynter moved her back to the base of Morley’s chair. Kit did the same on Walker’s side, and so did Charlie, who sat by the van’s wall, a few feet out of range of Jordan. Nothing could be done about Jordan himself, of course.

Nick would have to talk to him later.

For now, he at least needed to tell the rest of them.

They all seemed to know that, whatever this was, it would take some time.

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