Page 64 of Eagle Eye
Sometimes small towns are not as much fun as they're cracked up to be.
And then—imminent town destruction or not—I curled up on the couch with my cat and closed my eyes. My skull felt like somebody was pounding on it with an axe, and I couldn't take one more minute of it.
I didn't wake until my phone rang a few hours later.
"Hey, Susan."
"Tess? Are you okay? You sound terrible."
"Thanks. Nice to talk to you, too." I rolled my eyes and struggled to sit up, still groggy, but at least the headache had calmed down to just a dull ache.
"Listen, the mayor and I are developing evacuation plans, but I have to tell you that at least half the town has called me to say they're not going anywhere, and 'that Fae queen is going to have the fight of her immortal lifetime,' so I'm hoping we can figure something out, because I don't want Dead End to be a smoking ruin at the end of this thing. Any lead on that dagger?"
I checked my texts, but there was nothing from Jack.
"I just scrolled through a bunch of the same kind of messages, plus at least a dozen headache cures, but there's nothing from Jack. I know he's reaching out to his friends from the war and also talking to Atlantis, but—"
Susan laughed. "How crazy is that, that your boyfriend can just casually call up the king of Atlantis?"
I had to agree. It was kind of wild. "Usually, it's the high prince, because they're good friends, but I did meet the king," I admitted.
"I know, and I want to hear all about it, and maybe you can take me along the next time you go, but let's focus. Let me know the minute you hear. Your Uncle Mike went out for sandwiches, and we're going to work through the night here, so call me anytime, no matter how late."
"Will do."
She clicked off, and I blew out a breath, thinking how glad I was that I didn't have her job. Then I got my butt off the couch, poured a giant, restorative glass of sweet tea, and started filling a box with "must have with me if evacuating" stuff.
Lou's vet records, my important papers like the deeds to the house and store, insurance, etc., plus photographs and a few small mementoes I couldn't bear to lose. The rest of it would break my heart if it vanished, but in the end it was all just stuff, and my family and friends would be safe.
Anyway, I didn't want to think like that. Wewouldfind that dagger.
We had to find it.
Stupid Fae.
A knock at the door surprised me out of my melancholic musings, and I turned to see Jack and Jed.
Jed had begun to age again, and now looked more like he could be Jack's dad than his brother, but still wasn't to granddad age. He was carrying pizza and smiling, but his eyes looked tired and distant—like he'd seen too much for far too long. Or maybe I was reading too much into the facial expressions of a man I'd just met.
Maybe. But I doubted it.
"I had a slice of this pizza on the way, and it is truly a marvel. I prefer the Meat Lover's to the other."
Jack laughed. "Sure. Tiger."
Jed nodded. "Tiger."
I just shook my head. "Come on and put it in the kitchen. I'll get you something to drink."
Three pizzas, a pitcher of lemonade, and two beers (them, not me) later, the tigers in my kitchen finally decided they'd had enough to eat, and we got down to business.
"Ven says they're in treaty negotiations with the Fae Summer Court, and it would be difficult to reach out to Autumn right now, because the two queens are feuding over something that happened six hundred years ago." Jack shook his head. "Typical Fae stupidity."
"To them, six hundred years is last month," Jed put in. "They live so long that ordinary slights get built up into blood feuds. It's a dangerous way to live, but I honestly think some of it is sheer boredom. What else do you have to do if you live forever? There's only so much dancing in the moonlight you can bear. So they immerse themselves in Court politics and create and maintain these complicated relationships and feuds to keep themselves entertained."
Jack pinned his granddad with a measuring glance. "Sounds like you know an awful lot about Fae politics for someone who spent three hundred years inside a statue."
Jed drained his beer and sent me a hopeful glance. "Is there more of this ale? Tis weak but strangely refreshing."
